07. February 2020

Prof. Christian Kurts appointed honorary professor of the University of Melbourne Prof. Christian Kurts appointed honorary professor of the University of Melbourne

Prof. Dr. Christian Kurts, Professor of Experimental Immunology at the University of Bonn, has been appointed honorary professor at the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Melbourne. With this appointment, Australia's leading university acknowledges the achievements in establishing a scientific network between Melbourne and Bonn. Prof. Kurts is a recipient of the Gottfried-Wilhelm-Leibniz-Prize and is director of the Institute of Experimental Immunology at the University Hospital Bonn.

Honorary professor in Melbourne - Prof. Dr. Christian Kurts. © Photo: David Außerhofer

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"The appointment as honorary professor is a great honor for me," says Prof. Kurts. "I hope that the commitment between Bonn and Melbourne will lead to a sustainable, bilateral relationship in teaching and research beyond the already established programs". Further bilateral projects are already in preparation.

The universities of Bonn and Melbourne are strategic partners in research and teaching. The flagship of the cooperation is a joint international graduate college in which students are trained in the field of immunology at both universities. Prof. Kurts, who himself received his immunological training in Melbourne, founded the Bonn & Melbourne Research and Graduate School of Immunology in 2016 together with his Melbourne colleague Prof. Sammy Bedoui. It is funded by the German Research Foundation as an international research training group.

The thematic focus is the role of myeloid antigen-presenting cells in infections, tumor diseases, autoimmunity and vaccination. At the Graduate School, more than 30 research groups from both universities are involved in the training of doctoral students. German and Australian students spend two years in Germany and one year at the partner university abroad. Successful completion of the program leads to a doctorate from both universities. The first 15 students of the graduate school successfully completed their studies in January 2020.

With the support of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Prof. Kurts and Prof. Bedoui founded the Bonn & Melbourne Academy for Excellence in Immunosciences (BM-AXIS) in 2017 and expanded the research and teaching program, in particular to include the exchange of postdocs and professors. Researchers of all career levels can thus take advantage of the excellent research opportunities in Bonn and Melbourne.