News — University of Bonn

Gerd Faltings to Receive the 2026 Abel Prize

For the first time ever, the Abel Prize has gone to a German—and this one is based at the University of Bonn! Mathematician Professor Gerd Faltings will receive the award in a ceremony in Oslo on May 26, 2026. The accolade has been presented every year since 2003 by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters in the presence of the country’s king Harald V. Professor Faltings is a Professor Emeritus of the University of Bonn and a former director of the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics (MPIM) in the city.

Bonn Most Successful University in Excellence Strategy

The Excellence Commission, made up of the Committee of Experts and the science ministers at federal and state level, announced earlier today that the University of Bonn has been awarded funding from the federal and state governments for a further seven years (2027–2033). With its eight Clusters of Excellence, the University of Bonn will thus retain its crown as the most successful University of Excellence in the contest as it enters the new funding period. The University will now take additional strategic steps to establish itself in the leading pack of the world’s best universities over the long term, says Rector Professor Michael Hoch.

Understanding How Genes Interact

How do our genes determine our appearance and our susceptibility to disease? This question is central to biomedical research, and today we can sequence thousands of human genomes to identify these genes. However, genes work in complex networks. In a major transdisciplinary collaboration, an international team of geneticists and bioinformaticians set out to create a so-called genetic interaction (GI) map of a human cell. With significant contributions from the Canadian Donnelly Centre, the University of Minnesota, the Hospital for Sick Children in Canada, the University Hospital Bonn, and the University of Bonn, a first draft has now been published in the journal Cell. This draft currently covers about 2.5 percent of all possible gene pairs.

Why CEOs are getting older

In a new discussion paper, a team of researchers from the Universities of Bonn and Princeton demonstrates that executives in the US are now reaching top positions later than they did two decades ago. This trend towards higher CEO age at appointment is particularly pronounced outside the largest listed firms. The researchers attribute this development to the fact that firms increasingly demand broad knowledge and diverse skills from their CEOs.

Less hunger, more environmental problems?

In sub-Saharan Africa, many people are undernourished or malnourished. A new study by the Universities of Bonn and Ghana shows how rising incomes and urbanization are influencing dietary patterns of local populations. According to this, the wealthier segments in African countries are increasingly eating like people in Western industrialized countries. Although this improves their supply of important nutrients, it also has a greater negative impact on the environment. The study also looks at how this environmental damage can be minimized. It has been published in the journal ‘Sustainable Production and Consumption.’

What AI Actually Does in Diffusion Models

In the search for new drugs, artificial intelligence in the form of diffusion models is being used in drug design. What exactly does AI do in this context? Dr. Andrea Mastropietro and Prof. Dr. Jürgen Bajorath from Life Science Informatics at the University of Bonn and the Lamarr Institute for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence have investigated this.