University of Bonn Magazine Winter 2021 Sustainable & connected Digital cooperation and teaching After the flood came the helpfulness Current construction projects

Editorial t r e n n a L r e k l o V : o t o h P Dear Readers, We are coming to the end of another year dominated by the coronavirus – with nobody knowing how it will play out. The pandemic was already featured in our University magazine this time last year. Back then, a photograph on our cover encapsulated how the pandemic had also intruded into University life, just as it had into virtually all other areas of our lives. This image has now scooped first place at the Germany-wide PR Bild Award 2021 (in the “Lifestyle” category, which is telling). Explaining their choice, the jury said: “The picture captures the life of students during COVID-19 measures extremely authentically. It’s easy to feel empathy for their situation – in the literal sense of the word.” This is a fantastic accolade for photographer Volker Lannert, who took the photo for us, and our picture editor Gregor Hübl. Many congratulations to both of them! 2021 was not just about the coronavirus. While we at the University were required to keep our physical distance due to the pandemic, we also grew closer together: the flooding in July affected many of the University’s staff, students and members and cost a fair few of them all their worldly possessions. The University community stood up to be counted on when it mattered, with helping hands on the ground, with material and equipment donations, with special leave and around €60,000 in funds raised. You can read more about these dramatic days and the help that followed in their wake from page 4 of this issue. Networking was not just confined to flood relief. However, cooperation has been right at the top of the agenda in research, teaching and healthcare. We have put together a few examples: digital field trips, collaboration on the Maya language project and an encounter between students and star journalist Dunja Hayali. Networking also plays a role in sustainability at the University of Bonn, where the new “Team N” (N stands for Nachhaltigkeit - the German word for sustainability) has brought together all active campaig- ners from across the University in recent months. Finally, we congratulate Mieke Kröger, the University of Bonn student who rounded off a fantastic season with a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics. This issue marks the start of a new, more digital and more sustainable era for forsch. you will be receiving the issue as a newsletter and can find additional content at uni-bonn.de/forsch, where staff can also subscribe to the printed version if they would still like it delivered to their office. In addition, you will continue to find hard copies at the many stands in and around the University. We hope you very much enjoy reading this issue and wish you a peaceful Christmas and a healthy and happy New Year 2022. Your forsch editorial team forsch 2/2021 UNIVERSITY OF BONN 1

H D C B : o t o h P 17 29 t r e n n a L r e k l o V : o t o h P 32 44 a b a S n n a h o J : o t o h P n n a m m o r F a r a b r a B : o t o h P 50 Compact 50 Imprint 52 Last but not least Pierre-Carl Link used Corona for a digital master‘s degree in Bonn. Now he is a professor of special-needs teacher education in Zurich. 42 43 Compact from the clusters of excellence t r e n n a L r e k l o V : o t o h P 44 Mieke Kröger cycles to Olympic gold Olympic champion Mieke Kröger talks about her studies, cycling in the Siebengebirge mountains and what’s been happening since Tokyo 46 Working Together for Sustainability The University is home to a great many key players, all coming together in the service of sustaina- bility 48 Successful in two languages Annette Poetsch and Maximilian Boßeler are translating for the University 49 Exhibitions news Achaeology in Honduras, sparkling Minerals, 100 Years institute for historical and cultural studies of the Rhineland and News about the Academic Art Museum – all information in one place. 38 800 Years King Alfonso X He was a shining light of culture with a shady side, wrote laws and wanted to become emperor 40 Schlegel, Hertz and Argelander provide new stimuli Five outstanding researchers have been recruited for new professors- hips of excellence forsch 2/2021 UNIVERSITY OF BONN 3

After the Flood, the Army of Helpers The University of Bonn supports flood victims from its own ranks Heavy rain triggered catastrophic flooding in large swathes of Rhineland- Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia in mid-July, claiming lives and causing massive damage to property. At the University of Bonn, it soon became clear that members of the University were also in mortal danger and had lost their homes and possessions. Through the “WIR helfen” (“WE help”) campaign, the University management collected donations and provided relief with a minimal red tape. 5Massive damage occurred throughout the Ahr Valley. 3We visited Dieter Knieps in September. He guided us through Ahrweiler. t r e n n a L r e k l o V : o t o h P forsch 2/2021 UNIVERSITY OF BONN 7

the way!” People in Ahrweiler have seen this before – back in 2016, the wa- ter level rose especially high. Dieter Knieps and his wife Simona think about how their neighbors will get their cars safe. A small, brown rivulet is flowing along the curb. Just a short time later, it has grown into a raging torrent. Then the power goes out. Knieps parks his car at the other end of town – high enough up, as it later turns out. On the way back, his wife finds herself trapped by water along a parallel street. Knieps says: “The father of a Kurdish family rescued my wife from the floods and brought her to safe- ty on the third floor.” He himself seeks refuge at a friend’s house, because his route home is blocked by the sheer vol- ume of water. They use their cell phones to stay in touch with his 17-year-old daughter Ida, who has stayed at home with their dog Lotta. She tells a dramatic tale: the base- ment of their small house in front of Ahr- weiler’s town walls is already full of wa- ter, which is now surging through the first floor. The water is still rising. “Those were a terrible few hours,” Knieps says. He has to force himself to relive the events of that night. 3We visited Dieter Knieps in September. He guided us through Ahrweiler. With us was his dog Lotta. t r e n n a L r e k l o V : o t o h P t r e n n a L r e k l o V : o t o h P forsch 2/2021 UNIVERSITY OF BONN 9

5“We“ is written on the orange University of Bonn bus. Suddenly, more familiar faces appear in the doorway: Employees of the University administration have set out with fresh water and cleaning equipment to help. (left) The steel remains of the previous bridge still lie bent like straws on the shore (right). 3The mud has to go: In the afternoon also pathways are cleaned. i s p e n K r e t e D i : o t o h P while the THW is building a temporary car bridge next door. Every few minutes, Knieps bumps into people he knows. They say hello and exchange a few words. “The community has grown even closer since the flood,” Knieps says. “We look out for each other and help one an- other wherever we can.” And, without question: “People’s readiness to help and their compassion, especially among those from the University, have been completely overwhelming!” A slice of the “new normal” has also returned to the Knieps household: the family have now made themselves com- fortable on their undamaged second floor. The power and water are back on (“Hot showers again – fantastic!”). Al- though the first floor is still very much sporting a bare brickwork look, it al- ready has a makeshift floor for storing things on. And there is even a heater, which can be powered by gas cylinders on a temporary basis. The father, his wife and his daughter gather on their bal- cony every evening to eat together, Knieps says. “Then we listen to music – sometimes ours, sometimes my daugh- ter’s.” And, just for a moment, they for- get about the catastrophe has left behind all around them. ANDREAS ARCHUT the challenges that Dieter Knieps is among those who respond to the Rectorate’s call. “Dear Mr. Gottschalk,” he writes to the Provost a few days after the disaster. “Unfortu- nately, I’m at my wits’ end. Here at my house in Ahrweiler, everything is de- stroyed.” First of all, he needs some time to repair the worst of the flood damage. Eventually, administrators tell him (as they do all staff hit hard by the flood) that he will receive 20 days’ special leave – on full pay, of course. And Knieps has not been left on his own: more and more helping hands find their way to his half-destroyed house. “First there were two helpers, then four, and in the end I had nearly 40 volunteers lending a hand,” Knieps recalls. They included University colleagues and some of his daughter’s schoolmates. The helpers form a chain of buckets to clear the base- ment of thick mud and then carry the Knieps’s ruined belongings outside onto the street. And suddenly some more familiar faces appear in the doorframe. Staff from central administration have come to assist, carrying fresh water and clean- ing equipment. Among them is Thomas Bongart, who is in charge of removals in Section 4.1. “For me, it was immediately clear that I had to help. With the blessing of our managers, we then got right to it,” he says. Their first stop was the mud-en- crusted yard of an elementary school in Sinzig. “Armed with a street sweeper and pressure washers, we made the schoolyard usable again.” A day later, Bongart and his colleagues are outside Dieter Knieps’s house in Ahrweiler bearing nearly 800 gallons (3,000 liters) of water for cleaning. Bongart explains: “We simply worked our way up the River Ahr, from colleague to colleague.” At the same time, more teams of University i s p e n K r e t e D i : o t o h P staff have been released from their duties and are on their way to help other col- leagues. Some weeks have passed since these days of intense drama. Dieter Knieps is back at work, dividing his days between Bonn and working from home in Ahr- weiler. The most visible traces of the flood are gradually being removed. The mountain of rubble has disappeared from the garden, and the street is now passable once again. And yet Knieps still sees a lot of destruction on his walks round the block with Lotta the poodle. The pair stomp through ruined houses to the near riverbank, where the impact of the flood is still unmistakable. The Tech- nisches Hilfswerk (THW) civil protec- tion organization has built a makeshift pedestrian bridge over the river, which Knieps’s daughter uses every day to get to school. The steel remains of the old bridge still lie on the opposite bank, bent like blades of straw. At the Ahrtor gate, mounds of debris are still being removed, i s p e n K r e t e D i : o t o h P forsch 2/2021 UNIVERSITY OF BONN 11

Provost Holger Gottschalk elected for another six years n n a m m o r F a r a b r a B : o t o h P The Electoral Assembly of the Uni- versity of Bonn has re-elected Provost Holger Gottschalk for a further six-year term. “Holger Gottschalk was and still is a lucky find for our University,” said Rec- tor Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Michael Hoch. “Both in my capacity as Rector and on a very personal level, I’m delighted with his re-election, as we’ll have continuity on the Rectorate team for the next few years and will be able to guide the Uni- versity into the future together.” Among many others, the major projects that Gottschalk has taken on for his new term include leading the University administration’s contribution to defending its “title” in the 2025/2026 Excellence contest. One of his aims is to press on with digitalization across all administrative processes and services: “I want a strong administration that’s on a very firm footing in terms of its personnel and its structures and that, proactively and in the spirit of partnership, provides the best possible support to the University of Bonn’s bodies and members as they tackle their considerable tasks going forward.” What has been achieved to date has been very much a team effort, he says: “What we’ve managed to do over the past five years is in itself ex- traordinary. I’d like to thank my col- leagues for their support and the Uni- versity bodies for the trust they continue to place in me.” Holger Gottschalk took up his post at the University of Bonn at the start of 2017. His second term starts on January 1, 2023. He was born in Kelkheim/Taunus in 1970 and studied economics in Frankfurt. Gottschalk held various senior roles at Goethe Universi- ty Frankfurt from 2004 onward, includ- ing serving as its Provost from July 2012 to December 2016. During the summer, Gottschalk had been invited to stand again by the Uni- versity’s Electoral Assembly, which is made up of an equal number of mem- bers of the Senate and the University Council. Prof. Hüttemann, who chairs the University’s Electoral Assembly, congratulated him on his re-election: “As head of the central administration with its almost 700 staff and the person responsible for the University’s nearly €700 million budget, he has had a big hand in his alma mater’s success.” Prof. Dr. Dieter Engels, chair of the University Council, added: “Holger Gottschalk has a clear vision for the next few years. His administration has already been reor- ganized in many areas and is thus laying the groundwork for delivering the Ex- cellence Strategy successfully.” l b ü H r o g e r G : o t o h P UNIVERSITY OF BONN FOUNDATION PASSES THE BATON TO THE NEXT GENE- RATION After 12 years of hard work and dedica- tion in his role as founding Chair of the Executive Committee of the University of Bonn Foundation, Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Löwer handed over the reins to his suc- cessor, Prof. Dr. Rainer Hüttemann, in June. Prof. Dr. Dagmar Wachten has also joined as a new member of the commit- tee. The University of Bonn Foundation serves as an umbrella organization for various endowment funds, foundation trusts and collections and, in this capa- city, funds academic research and tea- ching at the University of Bonn. Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Löwer was involved in setting up the Foundation right from the start. Marking the handover to the next gene- ration, the new Chair of the Board Prof. Dr. Rainer Hüttemann reaffirmed the Foundation’s basic philosophy: “I’d like to invite anyone who is interested to get involved with the University of Bonn via the Foundation, such as through scholarships for students or a donation to support early-career researchers.” 5The chairman of the University electoral assembly, Prof. Dr. Rainer Hüttemann, Provost Holger Gottschalk, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Michael Hoch, the Rector of the University, and the Chairman of the University Council, Prof. Dr. Dieter Engels in the auditorium (left to right) 3All board members together (from left to right): Provost Holger Gottschalk, new chairman Prof. Dr. Rainer Hüttemann, former chairman Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Löwer, new board member Prof. Dr. Dagmar Wachten, Rector Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Michael Hoch. T C A P M O C forsch 2/2021 UNIVERSITY OF BONN 13

C1 Main building C3 Viktoriakarree/ “Forum des Wissens“ t r e n n a L r e k l o V : o t o h P Start, completion: unknown, 2030 Estimated total costs (in € million): over €1 billion Purpose: the main building will be out of service for several years. The work will focus mainly on fire protection, wiring and water pipes, some of which date back to the 1950s. Lecture halls, communication areas and offices will be brought up to date. Before the renovation can start, some of the framework conditions still need to be clarified and alternative space found for 10,000 students and 1,000 members of staff.Who will be working here: after BLB has finished the renovation work, the Electoral Palace will once again be used as the University’s central building—this time with modernized rooms. Central Bonn Campus The central University campus plays host to the main building with the Faculty of the Arts and the Department of Law located at the Juridicum. The renovation of the main building in particular poses major challenges for the university. C2 C Interim main building: Rabinstraße 8 (the former Zurich Insurance building) and Deutscher Herold, Poppelsdorfer Allee/Bonner Talweg t r e n n a L r e k l o V : o t o h P l b ü H r o g e r G : o t o h P Start, completion, costs: both buildings have now been leased. Purpose: to provide replacement bases while the main building is being renovated. Who will be working here: The Humanities departments, which will need alternative premises during the main-building renovation, will be accommodated in Rabinstraße. The administrative staff from the main building are set to be housed in the former Deutscher Herold headquar- ters in Poppelsdorfer Allee. The move will also take account of the impact of people’s experiences of remote working on the need for space. Both buildings have library areas, seminar rooms and meeting rooms. t r e n n a L r e k l o V : o t o h P Start, completion: unknown, 2031 Estimated total costs (in € million): 128.0 Purpose: extending the main building following refurbishment. Who will be working here: besides new library space, a place for people to come together and commu- nicate will be created on a site spanning several tens of thousands of square feet, which will be open to members of the University and city residents. The University is also planning spaces for students to learn and work, smaller areas for shops and catering and ample bike parking. C4 Academic Museum of Art Start, completion: 2022–2025 Estimated total costs (in € million): 48.0 Purpose: the building houses the oldest museum in the city of Bonn and contains the world-famous collection of plaster casts, featuring 2,700 castings and 25,000 original finds. Who will be working here: when BLB has finished its work, the famous collection will move back into the building designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel. It will also be able to accom- modate the library, the offices and the lecture hall for Classical Archaeology, including providing access for teaching purposes to as many of the items in the collection as possible. forsch 2/2021 UNIVERSITY OF BONN 15

finally getting the opportunity to re- turn to normal university life.” He add- ed that the legal situation during the pandemic, which had been constantly changing and sometimes unclear, had also made studying much more diffi- cult and that the pandemic had high- lighted social inequalities. In his opin- ion, therefore, the BAföG needs to be reformed and digital infrastructure has to remain a priority. Keeping a close eye on the Excel- lence Strategy Looking ahead to the future, Rector Michael Hoch thanked the students, teachers, deans and faculties for all the incredible things that they had achieved during the pandemic. It was now a ques- tion of keeping a close eye on the Excel- lence Strategy too, he said. “Our goal of retaining all six Clusters of Excellence is, of course, highly ambitious.” The Clus- ters and TRAs had all been making very good progress and there was an incredi- ble sense of dynamism, he added. “By recruiting the best thinkers at all stages of their careers, including students, we want to help talented individuals to develop and make our own contribution toward the changes under way in the world in our role as a University of Excellence,” Hoch said. NILS SÖNKSEN 3Homing in on climate change and disaster management. From left to right: Rector Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Michael Hoch, UNU Vice-Rector Prof. Dr. Xiaomeng Shen, Technisches Hilfswerk President Gerd Friedmann, moderator Maike Krebber, Vice Rector Prof. Dr. Annette Scheersoi and moderator Florian Barnikel. 6Around 450 people took part in person, with roughly the same number watching events unfold on their screens via livestream. n n a m m o r F a r a b r a B : s o t o h P also playing a key part in these efforts. Peter Scholze highlighted the new possi- bilities that digitalization offers for test- ing mathematical proofs, even though he himself still mainly works with paper, pen and a blackboard. The second panel looked at climate change and disaster management. During the discussion, Prof. Dr. Xiao- meng Shen, the United Nations Universi- ty’s vice-rector in Europe, reported on the research being done into climate change and explained: “Every country and every individual counts in a climate crisis such as this.” As well as technolo- gies, she said, we also need a new way of thinking. Gerd Friedmann, president of the Technisches Hilfswerk civil protec- tion organization, spoke about the de- struction caused by the flooding along the River Ahr and emphasized that Ger- many was in a strong position even if the number of call-outs increases in the fu- ture. Responsibility for sustainability On the subject of sustainability, Prof. Dr. Annette Scheersoi, vice rector for sustainability, explained that the Uni- versity’s status as a University of Ex- cellence gave it particular responsibili- ty for driving forward sustainable thinking. In her view, it is about using resources responsibly and making so- ciety future-proof. “We want to fulfill our responsibilities by embedding sus- tainability really systematically in all areas of the University.” This was not only true for research and teaching, she said, but also for general opera- tions. The students’ view was presented by Jonathan Andraczek, president of the General Students’ Committee (AStA) of the University of Bonn, who summed up the current situation thus: “With more and more events being held in person once again, students are forsch 2/2021 UNIVERSITY OF BONN 17

ital documentation of the study sites. Projects involving other archaeological objects are planned for the future. Creating virtual facsimiles of these historical spaces and objects that can later be explored and experienced is a complex process involving many steps. Laser beams are used to scan the spaces to create a three-dimensional model whose dimensions are accurate to a few millimeters. At the same time high-res- olution photographs are taken so that the 3D models can be colored correctly. To enable the resulting models to be explored at the right scale and in high definition using a VR headset, a soft- ware framework known as a game en- gine is used to create the virtual worlds. In this particular case, the Unreal En- gine was used, which is the game en- gine behind such well-known games as Fortnite. Immersion – Diving into a virtual world One of the key concepts in this field is that of immersion. How can one make experiencing archaeologi- cal excavations and ruins as vivid as possible? And how can one integrate personal feelings and impressions into the simulation – or should one even try? According to Lang, ques- 5In addition to creating virtual interior spaces, virtual copies of archaeological findings can be generated and placed in context. tions like “What does a necropolis in Egypt smell like?” or “What would I hear if I was at an excavation site?” are typical of this type of approach. “This is why it is so important that the impact of the virtual world is careful- ly correlated with the impressions gained at the original site. This means that the person responsible for model- ing the virtual world must know the real location being modeled so that his or her own personal, subjective im- pressions can be incorporated into the model, thus making it as vivid and re- alistic as possible.” Digital teaching The project has a strong didactic component. Questions of interest in this regard are: What form of presentation works well in a simulation? Which ele- ments and methods can be used to com- municate key curricular content? “Expe- rience has shown us that the spoken language is particularly well suited to explaining relationships within the mod- el, while written texts are often found to be difficult to read and are often per- ceived as foreign elements that disrupt the users sense of immersion in the vir- 3The models allow users to adopt wholly new perspectives when viewing a site, which can make it easier to grasp certain spatial relationships. forsch 2/2021 UNIVERSITY OF BONN 19

Learning German Over Coffee and Cookies Improving their German skills so they can study in Bonn: refugees, international program participants and students all come to chat at the Lerncafé. Mehmet Boz spends an hour and a half traveling from Düren to Poppelsdorfer Allee. Nearly every Wednesday. He’s happy to sacrifice the time, because he has a clear goal in sight: he wants to study nutrition science and then go on to work in sport. To obtain a language certificate at the level he needs, he’s taking part in the “Academic Integration for Refugees” (FdIS) program – and is also visiting the voluntary weekly Lerncafé organized by the International Office at the same time. time of it last year, when the coronavi- rus was at its worst,” Kohl notes. For a long language courses were only held online. It was not until the summer that the Lerncafé was able to resume in person, organiz- ing picnics on Poppelsdorfer Allee. time, meet-ups and Unless he passes the “German Lan- guage Proficiency Test for Admission to Higher Education” (DSH2), however, he won’t be allowed to study in Bonn. Next to him on the bench sits Yas- min Moslem from Aleppo, who crossed the Mediterranean with her daughter in 2015. Turkey, Greece, Munich, then Bonn. “Bonn is a nice, pretty city, not as big as Munich,” she says. Back in Syria, she had begun to study agricultural sci- ences, and the subject had gripped her from the start. The 36-year-old can’t al- ways make it to the Lerncafé as her family takes up a lot of her time. Her wish, however, is to get a good job and maybe become a lecturer at the Univer- sity of Bonn. The language course is her first step toward getting a degree. Marina Kohl from the International Office knows why the DSH exam is so important. She is in charge of the proj- ect that prepares refugees for embark- ing on a degree program. “Most Univer- sity events are held in German, and most students are native speakers,” she observes. “Plus people tend to speak fast and use highly academic language, without really thinking about it. Getting students ready for that is what makes our language course different from gen- l e b ü H . G : o t o h P eral language courses or those that gear you up for a particular job.” Around 40 to 50 people take part in the German courses every year, with between 12 and 18 on the FdIS pro- gram. Many of them also spend time in the Lerncafé, which is open to all inter- national program participants. “The Lerncafé gives the participants the op- portunity to talk with one another in an informal setting and get an idea of what studying at the University of Bonn is like,” Marina Kohl explains. “And they can also expand their vocabulary at the same time.” In addition, they can get advice on social questions and matters of residency law, finding accommoda- tion, opportunities for getting involved, sports clubs, from the four mentors, a full-time member of staff and the Ger- man teachers. The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) has been supporting language teaching since 2016 with its “Integra” and “NRWege ins Studium” (“NRWays into Study- ing”) projects. There was a time during the pan- demic when the all-important face-to- face dialogue was difficult at best. “The current course mem- bers had a harder Making the transition to the Ger- man academic system is not always easy. “We also get them ready to enter the German university system,” says Kohl. “Studying in other countries of- ten involves different requirements and environments. Although many partici- pants will have started a degree pro- gram or completed subjects in their home countries and can build on this in some cases, it won’t always be compati- ble – such as a law degree in Iran.” To mark the end of the semester, some people have brought along local dishes, such as a Persian rice pudding known as Sholeh Zard. Participants talk attentively and animatedly about their daily routines and the exams they have just done. And they ask the students present about their own day-to-day lives. Mehmet is a fan of the concept: “The language course by itself isn’t a whole lot of fun, but, combined with the Lerncafé, it’s fantastic. I think it’s a very good opportunity. It’s really helped me, such as with colloquial language. You often hear the word ‘Alter,’ or ‘mate,’ when you’re among friends. Here at the Lerncafé I found out that you shouldn’t use it in more formal dis- SEBASTIAN ECKERT course.” 6Visitors to the language café chat with the organizers. From left to right: Palina Arlova, Marina Kohl (coordina- tor), Franziska Scharle, Sima Beheshti, Yasmin Moslem, Leo Brandt, Mehmet Boz. forsch 2/2021 UNIVERSITY OF BONN 21

With a script that has two dozen pictures for a single pronoun, it is no surprise that generations of academics have tried and failed to crack the Maya’s writing system. For Maya script is high- ly complex: besides logograms, which are more or less a pictorial representa- tion of the word they stand for, there are also syllabograms, which are put to- gether to form the spoken word. And all of this comes in many dif- ferent variations, because “the ‘artists,’ as the Maya scribes called themselves, were afraid of repetition,” as Dr. Chris- tian Prager explains. He is the coordina- tor of the “Text Database and Dictio- nary of Classic Maya” project, which is led by Professor Nikolai Grube from Bonn. “If they’d already used a particu- lar syllabogram or logogram in a text, they’d make the same word in a new way using different elements.” This fear of repetition means that there are now at least 20 known variants of the personal pronoun “u.” “With such a wide scope, nobody noticed – quite understandably – when the same word was being used,” Prager says. A fascination born in childhood Prager has been fascinated by an- cient scripts, particularly that of the Maya, ever since he was 11. Focusing first on Ancient Greek writing systems, he then moved on to Egyptian hiero- glyphics. “I then came across a book that talked about the Maya script and the fact that nobody had deciphered it yet. And the fascination has never left me since.” Prager, who is German but was born in Switzerland, would visit the University of Basel’s library while at school, borrow books on the subject and get in touch with researchers at an early age. What began as a hobby now had him in its grip forever: he packed in his office job, retook his Abitur and moved to Bonn to study. “This was the only place that taught Maya script. I’m fasci- nated by the thoughts of the past that people have written down.” Digital decoding tools EIt is a fascination shared by many in the eight-strong team led by Prof. Ni- kolai Grube from the Department for the Anthropology of the Americas at the University of Bonn. To make it easier to crack the code behind the hieroglyphics, they have been working on their online Maya dictionary since 2014. “Back then, we began by re-inventing the wheel so we could document, analyze and publish inscriptions,” Prager explains. The proj- ect is being funded by the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Scienc- es, Humanities and the Arts and the Union of the German Academies of Sci- ences and Humanities. At its inception, it was one of the first Digital Humanities projects in Bonn. Working with the University of Göt- tingen, the researchers from Bonn creat- ed the digital infrastructure for a virtual research platform. They completed their task last year and, since then, have been using it to record the characters they found, together with historical record data from older catalogs. The number of characters in the catalog currently stands at some 832, around half of which have been confidently deciphered. “At the end, it’ll be around 1,400 characters,” Prager estimates. The project is being supplemented by an open-access image database con- taining 40,000 photos of archaeological sites, digs, buildings, stelae and other monuments as well as vases and small finds. Many of them feature hieroglyphs. The photos show over half of the known Maya inscriptions. 3Top down: „PAKAL“ = shield, „CHOK“ = spread, „IXIK“ = woman, „XIB“ = man, „SIH“ = be born. forsch 2/2021 UNIVERSITY OF BONN 23

Seeing better by looking away When we fixate an object, its image does not appear at the place where our pho- toreceptors are packed most densely. In- stead, its position is shifted slightly toward the nose and upwards from the cellular peak. This is shown in a recent study by Dr. Wolf Harmening and his team in the De- partment of Ophthalmology at the Univer- sity Hospital Bonn which was conducted at the University of Bonn and is published in the journal Current Biology. The research- ers observed such offsets in both eyes of 20 healthy subjects, and speculate that the underlying fixation behavior improves overall vision.“ When we look at horizon- tal surfaces, such as the floor, objects above fixation are farther away,“ Reiniger explains. “This is true for most parts of our natural surroundings. Objects located higher appear a little smaller. Shifting our gaze in that way might enlarge the area of the visual field that is seen sharply.“ The researchers speculate that this behavior is an adaptation to seeing with two eyes. t r e n n a L r e k l o V : o t o h P wise; otherwise to the left. At the same time, it straightens up – so it is no longer parallel with the ground but instead stands upright in the air like a rotating wheel. In this position, the mat has a backspin – if it were to actually stand up like a wheel on the ground, it would thus travel back to its starting point. While in flight, it quickly loses height and falls to the ground. This process is characteristic of all flat, round objects. Video: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=a2iCosVA8AU s r e t e P r a n u G : o t o h P WHY BEER MATS DO NOT FLY IN A STRAIGHT LINE Anyone who has ever failed to throw a beer mat into a hat should take note: physicists at the University of Bonn have discovered why this task is so diffi- cult. Physicists at the Helmholtz Insti- tute of Radiation and Nuclear Physics and the Argelander Institute for Astron- omy at the University of Bonn have now investigated this question. According to them, the behavior of the beer mat is inevitable, at least when employing the usual throwing technique: it unavoid- ably begins to drift off after 0.45 sec- onds at most. Playing cards go awry af- ter just 0.24 seconds, CDs after 0.8 seconds. The reason for this is the interaction be- tween gravity, lift, and the conservation of angular momentum: the mat tips backwards shortly after being thrown due to gravity. This gives it an angle of attack, similar to a landing aircraft. This angle creates lift in the airflow. “Howev- er, the lifting force is not applied in the center of the mat, but rather in the front third,” explains PhD student Jo- hann Ostmeyer, who came up with the idea for the study. This would normally soon make the round cardboard flip over. And it actual- ly does – but only if it is thrown in a rather unconventional manner. “A beer mat is usually rotated when thrown, similar to a frisbee,” says Ostmeyer’s colleague Christoph Schürmann from the Argelander Institute for Astronomy at the University of Bonn. “This turns it into a kind of spinning top.” This rota- tion stabilizes the flight and prevents flipping over. Instead, the lifting force causes the mat to drift off to the side – to the right, if it is rotated counterclock- LACK OF TRUST EXACERBATES THE LONELINESS SPIRAL Loneliness is a painful feeling. If it lasts, it can lead to mental illnesses such as de- pression or anxiety disorders. Research- ers from the Universities of Bonn, Haifa (Israel) and Oldenburg have now discov- ered how loneliness is associated with reduced trust. This is reflected in chang- es in the activity and cooperation of var- ious brain structures, especially the insu- lar cortex. „An important function of the insular cortex is to perceive and inter- pret one‘s own bodily signals, such as the heartbeat,“ says Jana Lieberz from the team of Dr. Dirk Scheele of Medical Psychology at the University Hospital Bonn. “It also helps to correctly interpret other people‘s reactions, such as facial expressions or mood - or trustworthi- ness.“ 5Jenny L. Reiniger during the measure- ment at a laser ophthalmoscope. 3Tracking the trajectory of beer coasters: the physics team Christoph Schürmann, Johann Ostmeyer and Prof. Dr. Carsten Urbach (from left) T C A P M O C forsch 2/2021 UNIVERSITY OF BONN 25

“Stick at it” Visiting lecturer Dunja Hayali has been connecting students and media makers Thirty-four fascinated students, a wealth of media expertise and Wilma the dog on board too: at the four-day block seminar entitled “Mächte, Medien, Mythen” (“Powers, Media, Myths”), Dunja Hayali talked about agenda-set- ting, honed participants’ media literacy and got them excited about journalism in all its flavors. The face of Stefan Niggemeier, a critic of the Bild newspaper, has not quite finished flickering on the wall of lecture hall XVII. Niggemeier is a media jour- nalist who runs the “Übermedien” watchblog about failings in the media. Shortly after that, Hayali welcomes Paul Ronzheimer, deputy editor-in-chief of Bild, who has only just got back from Af- ghanistan. He reports on the handling of experiences in a crisis zone and on free- dom of the press. During the seminar, he parries allegations made against him and chats openly with the participants. The block seminar is a platform for confidential discussions with well- known journalists of all persuasions, covering the ethos of the profession, rules of conduct, the treatment of sourc- es, the difference between opinion and stance, and much more besides. Four days, six hours a day: a packed program. “It was a rollicking ride,” says Hayali, look- ing back. Her aim: “I wanted to share my own personal perspective on the media and media literacy. So I talked about my ex- perience, my beliefs and my craft,” Hay- ali explains – specifically, through dia- logue and exercises. She is being aided in her endeavors by federal politicians and media figures such as Jochen Wegener (ZEIT ONLINE) and Katharina Ham- berger from Deutschlandradio, who join via video link. Wilma the dog is a constant companion. “Wilma did brilliantly. She wasn’t as much of a distraction as I’d feared, either – for a brief time, I was worried that everyone would be jumping around the dog.” forsch 2/2021 UNIVERSITY OF BONN 27

A Safe Anchor in Tempestuous Seas Patient support workers help cancer sufferers on their harrowing journey through cancer therapy went surgery at the ENT clinic at the University Hospital Bonn. The biopsy revealed cancer with an unknown pri- mary tumor, or CUP syndrome for short. Immediately after being referred to Medical Clinic III for Oncology and Hematology, which was now six years ago, the new cancer patient met the pa- tient support worker Christine Luppus. “The diagnosis hit me like a sledgeham- mer, because I wasn’t prepared for it,” Petra G. recounts. “But I wanted to fight.” “However, I was still all shaken up from the talk I had with the physi- Shock, desperation, grief or even anger: a cancer diagnosis turns someone’s life upside down in a heartbeat. The flood of information that follows throws up some urgent questions about the illness and its treatment. There is often a lot of uncertainty about what exactly will happen over the course of therapy. At the Center for Integrated Oncology (CIO) at the University Hospital Bonn, experienced patient support workers are on hand to help cancer sufferers cope with all the challenges that “hospital” can throw at them. They ensure tailored management of patients’ treatment and follow-up care and are there to hear their worries and needs. Today, six years after her cancer di- agnosis, she has now been given the “all clear.” Before she can begin to feel hap- py about the news, Petra G. had to let it sink in in peace and quiet. “I felt like I was living in a bell jar, and cancer leaves its mark,” says the now 60-year- old, who wanted to stay at the Universi- ty Hospital Bonn for her entire course of treatment: “Because everything’s very well organized on the Venusberg Campus despite it being so big.” Welcomed with open arms in exceptional circumstances For Petra G., the fact that her story has a happy ending is thanks in no small part to the hard work done by the patient support workers at the Center for Inte- grated Oncology (CIO) Bonn, which is based on the campus. “We support and look after patients throughout their treatment, adapting what we do to their individual needs,” says Christine Lup- pus. Although her job title in German contains the word “Lotse,” or “pilot,” she doesn’t feel that it really reflects what she does. “We’re more than just a guide through the hospital. We take some of the burden off the patients, who also feel that they get emotional support from us. In this way, we do our bit to make their therapy a success.” The 56-year-old and her 46-year-old col- league Geraldine Leven are both quali- fied nurses. The pair are there to help cancer sufferers facing an existential crisis, and the tools of their trade are an inkling of human nature and a whole lot of empathy. Swollen lymph nodes following a heavy cold: time and again, Petra G. would be given the same, rather innocu- ous diagnosis, right up until she under- B K U / a b a S n n a h o J : s o t o h P 5Patient support workers at the CIO provide reassurance in exceptional circumstances: Geraldine Leven (left) and Christine Luppus (right) have been supporting cancer patient Petra G. through her therapy and follow-up care for six years. 3The patient support workers’ “nerve center” in the foyer of the CIO building: Right from their very first meeting, Geraldine Leven (left) and Christine Luppus (center) have been looking after cancer patient Petra G. (right) during her treatment at the University Hospital Bonn. (from left to right) forsch 2/2021 UNIVERSITY OF BONN 29

Imparting a feeling of security “Everyone’s got our phone number and can talk to us at any time,” says Lup- pus. This was what Petra G. did when she experienced drastic weight loss while at home. Luppus told her: “You need to come in right away.” The cancer patient was then admitted to hospital for parenteral nutrition (PN) via intravenous infusion and was looked after until she had regained a few pounds: “Without the patient support workers, I’d have felt very lonely over the past six years. They know what they’re talking about and what they’re doing. They’re irreplace- able.” The patient support workers make use of the supervision that they are of- fered in order to reflect on what they have experienced in their day-to-day work. They also try and strike a healthy work/life balance by getting out into the countryside, but their job still leaves its mark on them. The fate of their patients often accompanies them back home. “We see day in, day out how people han- dle a cancer diagnosis,” Leven says. “It’s often a matter of life or death. We can’t simply peel off what we’ve experienced and leave it at the hospital, because we’re committed. But if we weren’t, then it wouldn’t be the right job for us, would INKA VÄTH it?” The Center for Integrated Oncology – CIO Bonn The CIO Bonn is the interdisciplinary cancer center of the University Hospital Bonn. It brings together all the clinics and institutes on the Venusberg Campus that deal with diagnosing, treating and researching all malignant diseases. The CIO Bonn is a member of German Cancer Aid’s nationwide network of selected oncology centers of excellence. In 2018, the “Center for Integrated Oncology – CIO Aachen Bonn Cologne Düssel- dorf” was created out of the CIO Cologne Bonn, which had been in existence since 2007, plus the university cancer centers in Aachen, Cologne and Düsseldorf. Together, this group manages cancer medicine for some 11 million people. It aims to enable cancer sufferers to receive the best possible therapy by giving them access to first-class diagnostic methods and cancer treatments. 5The CIO’s patient support workers are more than just a guide through the hospital: Geraldine Leven (left) and Christine Luppus (right) accompanied Petra G. to her first chemotherapy session and packed some hints and tips in her bag before handing her over to the team at the day patients clinic. 3A safe anchor all the way through cancer treatment: Even after her cancer treatment had finished, the two patient support workers Geraldine Leven (left) and Christine Luppus (center) will be there if needed for Petra G. (right), who has now been given the “all clear” from cancer. B K U / a b a S n n a h o J : s o t o h P forsch 2/2021 UNIVERSITY OF BONN 31

Digital assistants in the field PhenoRob Cluster of Excellence using robots to grow crops sustainably Food, feed, fibers and fuel: with demand growing, agriculture has a key role to play in the future of humanity and our planet. At the same time, the increasing scarcity of arable land and the impact of climate change are bringing problems such as drought, heat and other extreme weather events. In the PhenoRob Cluster of Excellence, therefore, researchers from different disciplines are working toward a common goal: unlocking more sustainable crop production with limited resources and thus shrinking the environmental footprint caused by cultivating plants. To this end, they are harnessing innovative digital technologies, including some from the world of robotics and artificial intelligence. We visited some of the early-career researchers from the Cluster of Excellence out in the field. t r e n n a L r e k l o V : o t o h P forsch 2/2021 UNIVERSITY OF BONN 33

What impact can changes have on plant growth? This is one of the questions that the researchers at Germany’s only cluster of excellence for agricultural science want to answer. From left to right: Marcel Moll, Martin Greve, Charlotte Hubert and Felix Esser, all early-career researchers who have also been gripped with enthusiasm for the research field. The researchers are studying their plants from both the ground and the air in order to gain key insights into more sustainable production. Doctoral student Ansgar Dreier from the Institute of Geodesy and Geoinformation flies a drone on the Klein-Altendorf Campus. The importance of digitalization in agricultural science will continue to increase rapidly in the future, and drones are a key tool for supplying information on the state and condition of plants and of their environment. How to make best use of them is one of the questions being explored by the research groups in the Cluster of Excellence. t r e n n a L r e k l o V : s o t o h P Man and machine working as a team: doctoral student Alireza Ahmadi from the “Agricultural Robotics & Engineering” working group flies his favorite piece of equipment. forsch 2/2021 UNIVERSITY OF BONN 35

behavior in war. Although executions in Athens could be extremely cruel and de- grading, they didn’t involve any blood- shed. One such method was the blood- less crucifixion, where offenders were tied to a board and left to wait out their demise – a punishment that was also meted out in war. What’s the major difference between pre-modern and modern violence in a war context? The main difference is that, in An- cient Greece, wartime violence was literally manual labor practiced by the individual soldiers. War and violence were part and parcel of everyday life back then. There was a consistently strong sense of mobilization: men were readied for it from childhood with the aid of rituals and symbolism. Everyone had to expect to sooner or later go to war, kill their enemies and be killed themselves. This all changed with the invention and continuous improvement of automatic weapons in the modern age. You could say that the First World War changed people’s attitude to war- fare in the Western world. Violence has shifted again since the First World War. Nowadays, drones fire rockets by having someone sat miles away press a button and watch events unfold on a screen. What social norms are behind this? The onward march of technology is making “killing” a more and more dis- tant concept in people’s minds. Drone warfare is transforming the ethos of what it means to be a soldier and render- ing traditional notions of courage and bravery obsolete. Automation is also throwing up new, as-yet unanswered questions about the legitimacy of killing in wartime. Your funding from the Daimler and Benz Foundation’s scholarship program is enabling you to expand your research to cover other eras and cultures. While we’re staying in the pre-mod- ern period, we are looking at more societ- ies: the Roman Republic, Feudal Japan, Central Asia in the Late Middle Ages, the Inca Empire and medieval Central Europe. The aim is to understand the interactions between wartime violence and society in these cultures too and then compare our findings: How did people view lawful and unlawful violence? What violence was permitted in war, what was allowed within society? We want to delve more deeply into these questions at an international conference, which we’re planning for September 2022. In other words, violence and culture go hand in hand in human society? Definitely. That’s why it’s important to explore the emotional and psycholog- ical mechanisms of escalating violence and violent excesses and to understand the phenomena in their respective cul- tural context. Today’s Western societies see themselves as being free of violence, leading them to turn their attention chiefly toward violence in interperson- al relationships and institutions, such as physical domestic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic. But we also see images from the civil wars in Syr- ia, Libya and other countries. Unlike in antiquity, however, the focus in modern Europe is not on the political victors but primarily on the victims of violence in war. Yet we see wartime violence as something “foreign” that doesn’t have any bearing on our lives. At the same time, the fact that the media are always full of pictures of suffering people from far-off countries causes a certain desen- sitization in us. FORSCH Dr. Lennart Gilhaus is a non-tenured lecturer in the Department of Ancient History at the University of Bonn and is working on his postdoctoral qualification (Habilitation) entitled “Die Brutalität des Krieges und die Grenzen der Gewalt im archaischen und klassischen Griechenland” (“The Brutality of War and the Boundaries of Violence in Ancient and Classical Greece”). He became a member of the Junges Kolleg at the North Rhine-Westpha- lian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts in 2018. He has been funded by the Daimler and Benz Foundation’s scholarship program for postdoctoral research- ers and assistant professors since the beginning of the year. T his project sets out to explore these dynamics of violence and compare them across various pre-modern cultures. Dr. Lennart Gilhaus’s research project is receiving €40,000 in funding over two years. Further Information: http://www.daimler-benz-stiftung.de 5A vessel, known as Nestoris, depicting the murder of an ancient king, 380–370 BC, currently in Bonn. d r a a g r e t s e O / g n u ft ti S z n e B d n u r e m a D i l : s o t o h P 5Dr. Lennart Gilhaus between books in an Ancient History seminar forsch 2/2021 UNIVERSITY OF BONN 37

laws they introduced and the multicultur- al, Christo-Muslim context, you can defi- nitely compare Alfonso X with Frederick II and his rule on Sicily. Even while Alfonso X was still crown prince, for instance, he commissioned the translation of an anthology of Arabic fa- bles that has just as intricate a structure as the tales from One Thousand and One Nights: this is Kalila and Dimna, a work that is still popular as a children’s book in the Islamic world, featuring parables about the lion king, the scheming jackal and the earnest ox. It served as a “mir- ror for princes,” a work that, through its didactic elements, set out to describe the ideal ruler and school heirs to the throne – a role that it fulfilled until well into the early modern period. And then, of course, there’s his Siete Partidas, his code of laws, which broke new ground in how it approached the ideas of ruling and exercising power. How significant was the Siete Parti- das for Castile and Europe? Throughout Europe, the 13th century saw numerous attempts to standardize laws, such as with the Magna Carta, the Sach- senspiegel or the Constitutions of Mel- fi promulgated by Emperor Frederick II. In Castile, meanwhile, King Alfonso X ordered the compilation of the Siete Partidas, which are based on Visigothic traditions, Iberian common law and – thanks to the early legal scholars from the University of Bologna – academi- cally codified Roman law. As the name suggests, this code of laws was made up of seven parts. It played a critical role in modeling and codifying the rule of a monarch and is regarded as one of the most important contributions ever made to legal history. It continued to leave its mark even right up to the constitutions of the countries of Latin America following their independence from Spain in the ear- ly 19th century. The compilation governs the basic foundations of the Castilian monarchy, from the king’s divine right to rule all the way through to how society should live together day to day. This was also one of the areas we focused on in our research, which is reflected in our latest volume Alfonso the Wise and the Jurid- ical Conceptualization of Monarchy in the ‘Siete Partidas’. Here, we provide detailed analysis of legal, socio-politi- cal, transcultural and art history aspects of the concept of power and rule in the Castilian monarchy at the time of Alfonso the Wise. Light usually goes hand in hand with shade: Has Alfonso X also come in for criticism? Yes, absolutely, mainly because of his im- perial ambitions. Alfonso X was the son of Beatrice of Swabia and the grandson of the German king Philip of Swabia. In 1256, he claimed the imperial crown of the Holy Roman Empire and became the anti-king to Richard of Cornwall in the interregnum that lasted from 1257 to 1273. His scheme ultimately came to naught, however, with fatal consequences for both himself and Castile. This was because he invested a lot of time and money in his plan in order to get influ- ential players on his side. To this end, he increased taxes in his kingdom, debased its coinage and neglected various social problems and power struggles, which triggered uprisings among the nobility and the cities. He also failed to make a binding decision on his succession fol- lowing the sudden death of his first-born son Fernando de la Cerda (1255–1275). This sparked a conflict that was won by his younger son Sancho (1258–1295). King Alfonso died in Seville in 1284. On the one hand, Alfonso X was a shin- ing light of culture. On the other, he forfeited what power he did possess as a result of his illusory political plotting to become Holy Roman Emperor and make Castile a great power in Europe. INTERVIEW: SEBASTIAN ECKERT Info about the celebration of the 800th anniversary in Toledo: https://toledoguiaturisticaycultural. com/programacion-viii-centenario- de-alfonso-x-el-sabio/ 6(From left) Lena Ringen M.A., Dr. Ulrike Becker and Prof. Dr. Mechthild Albert have been looking closely at Alfonso X of Castile and the novella-style wisdom literature from his kingdom. Further information Alfonso el Sabio y la conceptuali- zación jurídica de la monarquía en las ‘Siete Partidas’/Alfonso the Wise and the Juridical Conceptualization of Monarchy in the ‘Siete Partidas,’ Mechthild Albert, Ulrike Becker, Elmar Schmidt (eds.). With texts written largely in Spanish and English plus detailed English summaries. Studien zu Macht und Herrschaft, Volume 10. V&R unipress. €37.99 Power and rule: CRC and new center The book of the Hispanic Studies sub-project “Macht and Herrschaft in the Novelistic Wisdom Literature of Castile (1250–1350),” part of CRC 1167 “Macht and Herrschaft – Premodern Configurations in a Transcultural Perspective,” appeared in a CRC 1167 publication series, Macht und Herrschaft (Power and Rule) and Studien zu Macht und Herrschaft (Studies on Power and Rule), published by Bonn University Press/Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. Research into power and rule was resumed recently at the “Bonner Zentrum für vormoderne Ordnungen und ihre Kommunikationsformen” (“Bonn Center for Pre-Modern Regimes and their Forms of Communication”). n n a m m o r F a r a b r a B : o t o h P forsch 2/2021 UNIVERSITY OF BONN 39

World Food and Sustainable Agriculture - Agricultural Economist Matin Qaim With the Schlegel Professorships, named after Bonn philologist August Wilhelm Schlegel (1767-1845), the University of Bonn also establishes high-profile chairs in the course of promoting excellence. The “Schlegel Chairs“ are filled by the faculties in subjects that belong to strong research focus areas or the develop- ment areas. With Matin Qaim as Schlegel Pro- fessor of Economic and Technological Change, the Faculty of Agriculture gains a globally renowned agricultural economist. At the same time, he be- came the new director of the Center for Development Research (ZEF) at the University of Bonn, succeeding Prof. Dr. Joachim von Braun on October 1st. Matin Qaim‘s interdisciplinary work addresses issues of world food and sustainable agriculture in the con- text of scarce natural resources, cli- mate change and pressing environmen- L E G E L H C S tal problems. Among other topics, he and his research group analyze issues of poverty and food insecurity and their underlying socioeconomic caus- es. In addition, Qaim assesses the im- pact of agricultural policies and other national and international megatrends on human welfare and equity. He has conducted research in many countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America and has a global network of collaborators. Through his research, he aims to help generate knowledge useful for promot- ing sustainable development. “Bonn offers an excellent environ- ment for global sustainability research and international development policy,“ Qaim says of the new appointment. “I am very much looking forward to working at the University of Excel- lence in the future.“ The appointment also helps build the profile of the Transdisciplinary Research Area “In- novation and Technology for Sustain- able Futures.“ t r e n n a L r e k l o V : o t o h P Comparative Theology with a Focus on Islam - Theologian Klaus von Stosch Another Schlegel professorship is held by Klaus von Stosch, a world-re- nowned expert in comparative theolo- gy with a focus on Islam. He is consid- ered one of the authoritative voices in international Catholic systematic the- ology. In a global perspective, religions play a major role in addressing major social, cultural, political, and ecologi- cal challenges. As a scholarly “bridge builder,“ Klaus von Stosch addresses major ethical, social, and political is- sues in interreligious and intercultural conversation. Klaus von Stosch is very well con- nected in the European, Anglo-Ameri- can and Islamic worlds. “I am looking forward to the new task in Bonn and would like to make a contribution to linking the University even more closely with top international research in the field of theology,“ says von Stosch. “My comparative research in the conversation of religions in partic- ular can help make the social relevance of theology more visible.“ The new professorship is closely linked to the Transdisciplinary Research Area “In- dividuals, Institutions and Societies“. n a b r U o c r a M : o t o h P forsch 2/2021 UNIVERSITY OF BONN 41

New professorships for dependency studies The Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS) has been strengthened by three outstanding scholars: The historians Julia Hillner and Claudia Jarzebowski as well as the Americanist Pia Wiegmink will take up professorships at the Cluster, completing the team of professorships established there as part of the Excellence Strategy. Christoph Witzenrath, also a historian, already researches and teaches at the BCDSS. Prof. Dr. Claudia Jarzebowski fo- cuses on global and gender history of the early modern period, including the history of dependence and enslave- ment, as well as the genesis of bourgeois society. Prof. Dr. Pia Wiegmink is inter- ested in cultural practices and narratives of nineteenth-century American slavery and dependency and their transatlantic entanglements. Prof. Dr. Julia Hillner works predominant- ly on the transformations of the family and the household in the period 300– 750 and how these are reflected in legal norms and practices. Prof. Dr. Christoph Witzenrath’s research focuses on the Eurasian steppe and its neighbors, and on the influence of no- madic-settled relations and the slave trade on social dependency and political representation. n n a m m o r F a r a b r a B : o t o h P group led by Prof. Dr. Jan Hasenauer of the LIMES Institute at the University of Bonn performed a model-based analy- sis to predict possible levels at which SARS-CoV-2 herd immunity is reached. The research approach of combining mathematics and life sciences is part of a common thematic focus of the Clus- ter of Excellence ImmunoSensation2 and the Hausdorff Center for Mathe- matics (HCM) as well as the Transdisci- plinary Research Areas “Modelling“ and Health“ Lancet Global Health, DOI: 10.1016/S2214-109X(21)00386-7 “Life and QUANTUM PHYSICS FOR THE EARS An English-language podcast of the Clus- #EDUCATION: THE CERTIFICATE HUNT What motivates young people to study? Why do students drop out? And are they only interested in the final degree certificate for later success on the job market, or do they actually care about the content taught? Laura Ehrmantraut, a doctoral student at the Cluster of Ex- cellence ECONtribute, analyzed in a study with her colleagues what drives students. The result: the vast majority assume that, in the end, it is the degree certificate alone that determines career success and the wages that go with it. In the ECONtribute business podcast, Ehrmantraut talks about why the signal effect of the degree is so strong and what students hope to achieve with econtribute.de/de/ their newsroom/#podcast degree. SPREAD OF SARS-COV-2 IN ETHIO- PIA IS UNDERESTIMATED In an Ethiopian-German research col- laboration, researchers of the Division of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine at the LMU University Hospi- tal with participation of the University of Bonn investigated blood samples of frontline healthcare workers and resi- dents from urban and rural communi- ties for antibodies. The results suggest that the true COVID-19 prevalence is much higher than previously reported official figures. Therefore, the research team recommends a realignment of the vaccination strategy for Africa. The aim of the cohort study was to ob- tain epidemiological data on seropreva- lence (frequency of specific antibodies in blood serum) and seroincidence (in- crease in the proportion of anti- body-positive individuals over time) in Africa for the first time. The research 5At a reception in the Rector‘s Office - Rector Prof. Dr. Dr. hc. Michael Hoch officially presented appointment certificates to Prof. Dr. Julia Hillner, Prof. Dr. Pia Wiegmink, Prof. Dr. Claudia Jarzebowski and Prof. Dr. Christoph Witzenrath (from left). ter of Excellence ML4Q (Matter and Light for Quantum Computing) takes listeners into the fascinating world of quantum physics. Listeners are immersed in the lives of ML4Q scientists and learn about the complexity of their research topics. In the current episode, PhD stu- dent Kathrin Dorn talks to Prof. Dr. Dag- mar Bruss, theoretical physicist at HHU Düsseldorf. The two chat about Dagmar Bruss‘ passion for quantum information theory, how a coffee break at Oxford shifted her research focus to quantum key distribution, her experience with the impostor phenomenon, and how she got involved in a supercosm project in astron- omy engineering. https://ml4q.de/ml4qa/ n h a J x e A l : o t o h P e c n e l l l e c x e f o s r e t s u l c e h t n o T C A P M O C forsch 2/2021 UNIVERSITY OF BONN 43

longer stints, I go to the Eifel region; if I need some recovery laps, then may- be along the Sieg river. But only if the weather’s bad, else there are too many people out and about. Do your fellow students know about your medal win or your sport? Having stretched out my degree program a bit, I don’t have any fellow students who’ve been with me since the start. But when we’ve had study groups or tutorials, which now take place via Zoom in the coronavirus era, then it’s cropped up in conversation once or twice. Then everyone’s congratulated me, even though we haven’t seen each other for ages. What do you love about track cycling? Back when I was 15, I thought to myself, “Oh, a racing bike would be fantastic.” I probably saw someone riding one on the way to school and thought: “I can do that too.” Or it could just have been my imagination. When I told people what I wanted, my mum sent me to have a trial at the club first, because racing bikes don’t come cheap. I did my trial, stuck with it, bought my first second-hand bike for €120. After that I was really bitten by the bug, and I won my first race. Then the regional association spotted me, and things took off from there. This year has been a huge success for you, as we know. What other com- petitions did you have lined up after the Olympics? The season ran until the end of October. First up were the Road World Championships, where I won a gold in the team relay, then I did the Paris–Roubaix. This was a dra- matic race with a lot of mud and cy- cling on cobbles. It was the first time they’d had a women’s race as well. Finally, there were the European Road Championships in Switzerland, where I picked up another gold, and straight after that the Track Cycling World Championships, back in Rou- baix again. We in the women’s four won gold there too. Where’s your medal right now? Rather unspectacularly, the gold medal is currently on my desk— though it’s no longer in the freezer bag it came home in. INTERVIEW: SEBASTIAN ECKERT t r e n n a L r e k l o V : o t o h P forsch 2/2021 UNIVERSITY OF BONN 45

Green Office opens its doors The University of Bonn opened its “Green Office” in early October 2021. The new sustainability office serves as the first port of call for anything to do with sus- tainable development. This is designed to foster dialogue between students, teach- ers and other University staff and embed the issue of sustainability into the very fabric of the University. “We’re sharing information with all University members, bringing them to- gether and helping them to get involved in making it a more sustainable place,” says geography student David Schwarz, one of three student assistants in the Green Office. Together with trainee teacher Liza Nemes and law student Sar- ah Marenbach, he works closely with the Vice Rectorate for Sustainability and the Sustainability Unit at the University. l b ü H r o g e r G : o t o h P 3Sarah Marenbach, Liza Nemes and David Schwarz are now points of contact in the Green Office Among other things, the Green Of- fice, which is based at Genscherallee 2 (53113 Bonn), plans to set up sustainabil- ity working groups across the University where people from all walks of university life can come together to address the sus- tainable development of their respective area. This will be able to build on initial examples of the concept being imple- mented successfully, such as the sustain- ability working group at the Department of Geography, the Fairtrade University steering group and the Biocamp project, where students and lecturers have joined forces to promote a more sustainable ap- proach to managing the University’s green spaces. Via a “sustainability reader” that will be updated regularly, the Green Office will also be sharing a wealth of in- formation on sustainable development at the University of Bonn, particularly on tar- gets, measures, areas for improvement and projects. A University-wide sustain- ability conference is in the pipeline too. Kontakt: Greenoffice@uni-bonn.de Facebook / IG: @greenofficeunibonn Tel: 228/180599-33 One year as a Fairtrade University: the students’ fair-trade initiative The University of Bonn has been enti- tled to call itself a Fairtrade University since November 23, 2020. This means that it makes a concerted effort to incor- porate fair-trade principles in its adminis- tration, procurement and events and use more fair-trade products. It took two years of work before the University of Bonn was awarded the accolade by Fairtrade Ger- many. A group of highly dedicated stu- dents had been responsible for instigating and progressing the University’s applica- tion, organizing and supporting the two- year-long preparation and application process. One of them is Leonie Bach, who knows full well that the University of Bonn still has a lot of work ahead of it. “We’re not yet at the stage where all large-scale University events consider fair-trade as- pects right from the word ‘go.’” However, some fair-trade products such as tea, cof- fee and chocolate have been a firm fixture at the Studierendenwerk for years. Last year, students worked closely with the Studierendenwerk to buy in fair-trade ba- nanas, which are now going to be avail- able in the canteens from November on- ward. its new purchases in the future, allowing us to play with fair-trade soccer balls and volleyballs,” says Judith Meder, who has been part of the team since March 2021. Students have already had a chance to test out the fair-trade balls—in the goal wall challenge during “Sustainable Sep- tember,” where they were also able to find out about the working conditions en- dured by the soccer ball makers. member of the student initiative since January 2021, underlines: “By launching more campaigns in the next few semes- ters, we want to foster and raise aware- ness of fair trade both within the Universi- ty of Bonn and further afield.” Anyone keen to put their own fair-trade ideas into practice is welcome to join the student initiative and thus play an active role in helping to make the University a fairer and more sustainable place. : o t o h P n n a m m o r F a r a b r a B 3Representatives of the students‘ Fair Trade Group: Meera Klußmann Judith Meder, Leonie Bach, Luise Tegeler. The student initiative is also engaged in discussions with other key players and has encouraged University Sports to trial fair-trade soccer balls, which they are do- ing at the moment. “We hope that this is just the beginning and that University Sports will factor fair-trade criteria into all But what exactly does “fair trade” mean? Fair trade is based on methods of production and commerce that put peo- ple and the environment before financial gain. It prioritizes the fundamentals: pay- ing workers fairly, strengthening the rights of women and children, and protecting the environment. Luise Tegeler, an active Get in touch! Mail: Fairtrade@uni-bonn.de Instagram: @fairtrade_bonn Website: uni-bonn.de/de/universitaet/ ueber-die-uni/nachhaltige-uni/ fairtradeuniversity-bonn forsch 2/2021 UNIVERSITY OF BONN 47

Exhibitions The Forgotten Coast Until February 4, 2022, the Museum of the Bonn Collection of the Americas (BASA Museum) in Oxfordstraße will be showing an exhibition on the “Gua- delupe” archaeology project, which is researching pre-Columbian Honduras. Venue: Department for the Anthropology of the Americas, Department of Archaeology and Cultural Anthropology, Oxfordstraße 15, 53111 Bonn, Germany, Tuesday to Friday, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. More information basa.uni-bonn.de/ausstellungen/aktuell Glittering Pieces of History The “Geschichtsstücke” (“Pieces of History”) exhibition will take visitors back to the very early days of the Mineralogical Museum through selected items from its collection; until spring 2022, the exhibition in Poppelsdorf Palace will give you an opportunity to explore the museum’s 200-year history. Venue: Mineralogical Museum of the University of Bonn in Poppelsdorf Palace, Meckenheimer Allee 169, 53115 Bonn, Germany. Wednesday and Friday, 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. More information: ifgeo.uni-bonn.de/museen/mineralogisches-museum Watch more: uni-bonn.tv Regional Studies: a Shared Responsibility Running until the end of February 2022, an exhibition in the Museum of the University of Bonn is marking the foundation of the Institut für geschichtliche Landeskunde der Rheinlande, the institute for historical and cultural studies of the Rhineland, 100 years ago. “Region als gemeinsame Aufgabe” (“Regional Studies: a Shared Responsibility”) tells the story of the institute, from its founding and dissolution through to its modern-day successors, and pays tribute to local and regional history associations. Drawings by Anna Thinius provide a visual illustration of key aspects. Venue: Museum of the University of Bonn, Wednesday to Saturday, 12 noon to 4:30 pm. Free admission. More information: antikensammlung.uni-bonn.de/ Video with curators on uni-bonn.tv I A D / l i e d n e R s u k r a M : o t o h P n e z t a G p p i l i h P : o t o h P Complete Refurbishment of the Academic Museum of Art While the Academic Museum of Art is undergoing complete refurbishment, the original collection featuring antique ceramic vases, stone and clay sculptures, and artworks made from metal, glass and organic materials can be viewed in the building at Römerstraße 164. A cross-section from the collection of plaster casts will be on show. Venue: Römerstraße 164, 53117 Bonn,, Germany forsch 2/2021 UNIVERSITY OF BONN 49 e k c a Z e n n A : o t o h P t r e b u h c S a tt u J : o t o h P

“Master’s or no Master’s“ Workshop offered by the the Central Study Advisory and Counseling Ser- vice and the Career Center for Bachelor Students What happens after a bachelor’s degree? A workshop offers students an overview of the various options available to them after completing a bachelor’s degree. The aim of the workshop is to enable them to finally make a conscious decision for or against a master’s degree program. Since the winter semester 2020/21, the offer has been provided jointly by the two advising center - the Central Study Advisory and Counseling Service and the Career Center. The Central Study Advisory and Counseling Service of the University of Bonn inform and advise prospective students and students on concerns related to choosing, taking up, and mastering a degree program. The Career Center supports students in the transition from university to work and thus in all questions regarding career orientation and career planning. More Information: www.uni-bonn.de/zsb Workshops and Coachings Contact: Britta Förster 4 (Central Study Advisory and Counsel- ing Service) and Dr. Anke Bohne (Career Center) n n a m m o r F a r a b r a B : o t o h P Ersti-Welcome in the courtyard Finally on site again: Around 1000 students were present at this year’s Ersti-Welcome in in the University’s arcade courtyard on October 4th to get to know each other and exchange ideas. Beforehand, there was an official welcome including a stage talk with Michael Hoch and guests from the Rectorate, AStA, student councils and other institutions in the auditorium of the University’s main building. The program was flanked by online offers and livestreams. t r e n n a L r e k l o V : o t o h P forsch 2/2021 UNIVERSITY OF BONN 51 VIdeo: UniBonnTV

Ihr Alumni-Netzwerk Bleiben Sie mit Ihrer Universität in Verbindung! Für Sie als Absolventi nnen und Absolventen stellt sich die Frage: Was kommt jetzt? Oder auch: Was bleibt von meiner Studien- zeit, welche Erkenntnisse und Fähigkeiten? Ihre Fragen interessieren nicht nur Sie – sondern auch uns. Denn Sie sind jetzt Botschaft er unserer Universität! Deshalb bieten wir Ihnen mit dem kostenfreien Alumni-Netzwerk der Universität Bonn und dem dazugehörigen Alumni-Portal eine zentrale Plattf orm für den weiteren Aus- tausch. Pfl egen Sie Freundschaft en aus Ihrer Studien- zeit, knüpfen Sie neue wertvolle Kontakte und moti vieren Sie Ihre Freunde zur Teilnahme. Das Alumni-Netzwerk ist so lebendig und aktuell wie Sie es gestalten! Angebote für unsere Alumni: ■ Einladungen zu Alumni-Veranstaltungen (on- und offl ine) ■ Zugang zum exklusiven Alumni-Portal mit der Möglichkeit der Kommilitonensuche ■ Treff en in Regionalgruppen ■ Kontakt zu Ihrem Fachbereich durch Fach- gruppen ■ Newslett er mit Neuigkeiten aus der Uni- versität und Ihrem Netzwerk ■ Abonnement der Universitäts- zeitung forsch (ePaper) ■ Ihre persönliche Alumni-Karte mit exklusiven Angeboten in und um Bonn ■ Ihre E-Mail-Adresse …@uni-bonn.de als Weiter- leitungsadresse ■ Veranstaltungsreihe Forum Beruf: fachspezifi sche Informati onen zum Berufseinsti eg für Studierende und junge Absolventi nnen und Absolventen durch Bonner Alumni Engagieren Sie sich für Ihre Universität: ■ Werden Sie Referent bei einem Forum Beruf und teilen Sie Ihre wert- vollen Erfahrungen aus der Praxis mit Studierenden und jungen Absolven- ti nnen und Absolventen. ■ Engagieren Sie sich in Fach- & Regionalgruppen. ■ Fördern Sie aktuelle Studierende mit einem Beitrag zum Deutschland- sti pendium. ■ Erzählen Sie von der Universität Bonn und tragen Sie unseren guten Ruf in die Welt hinaus – Sie als Ehemalige sind in ganz besonderer Weise Botschaft er unserer Universität! Melden Sie sich an – es kostet nur einen Klick… www.alumni.uni-bonn.de forsch 2/2021 UNIVERSITY OF BONN 53