Although manual small incision cataract surgery (SICS) is widely practiced in countries of the global South, there is no publicly available surgical video dataset for this operation, leaving a critical gap in cataract surgery research. Therefore, an international research team at Sankara Eye Foundation India led by the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) and the University of Bonn has developed the first automated phase detection using AI in SICS. The results of the study have now been published in the renowned journal "Scientific Reports". In parallel, the international research team is now launching a global AI competition at the MICCAI 2025 conference in Daejeon (South Korea), in which AI algorithms for surgical phase detection will compete against each other. The submission deadline is 15th of August 2025.

Prof. Dr. Matin Qaim has received the Tilo Freiherr von Wilmowsky Honorary Award from the “Verbindungsstelle Landwirtschaft-Industrie” (VLI). Since 2012, the association has presented the award annually to individuals who have rendered outstanding services to German agribusiness. The prize has now been awarded at the VLI spring conference in Frankfurt. 

Photovoltaic systems are increasingly being installed not only on roofs but also on open land. This does not always meet with citizens’ approval. What is known as agrivoltaics (Agri-PV), however, is viewed more favorably, as researchers at the University of Bonn have now been able to show. In this case, the solar cells are installed in spaces used for agriculture – such as on pastures or as a canopy over grapevines. According to a survey of almost 2,000 people, this form enjoys much higher acceptance than normal solar parks. The study has been published in the journal “Land Use Policy.”

They are very tiny, but they are a key source of information when it comes to the earth’s evolutionary history: pollen grains are usually no larger than 20 micrometres, or 0.02 millimetres. Using these tiny particles, a research team at Leibniz University Hannover (LUH) and the University of Bonn has managed to pinpoint the earliest emergence of flowering plants, so-called angiosperms, much more precisely. Eudicotyledonous flowering plants, the eudicots, appeared at least two million years earlier than previously known.

The University of Bonn invites you to “Forever Uni Bonn”—the special 20th anniversary of the Universitätsfest. The anniversary party will be held on the Hofgarten lawn on Saturday, July 5, 2025, immediately after this year’s graduation ceremony, aka the Universitätsfest, starting at 4 pm (doors open at 3:30 pm). Special guest: the Cologne pop band Cat Ballou. Admission is free and everyone is welcome to attend!

For a two day visit at the University Hospital Bonn (UKB), the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Bonn welcomed 14 medical students accompanied by the deputy director of the teaching office of the Shanghai East International Medical Centre and a research associate from Tongji University in Shanghai. During a varied program, the guests from China were given an insight into studies and research at the Faculty of Medicine Bonn. The aim of the visit was to discuss specialist topics and future exchange opportunities.

How do insects perceive mechanical stress? This is a question of interest in many different fields including comparative morphology, neurobiology and robotics. A team led by Dr. Brian Saltin of the Bonn Institute of Organismic Biology has developed a computer model to study the fruit fly Drosophila, focusing on the creature’s tiny sensory organs for perceiving mechanical stress located near its leg joints. Using this newly developed model, the researchers have been able to study how the position, orientation and material properties of these sensors influence their function. Simulations run have shown how in normal forward walking these sensory organs appear not to be activated solely through the force of footfall. The findings have now been published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.

The North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts has welcomed 12 high-caliber researchers and artists into its ranks in 2025, including Professor Frank Bradke from the University of Bonn and the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE).