Feeding an estimated total of nearly nine billion people in 2030 and supplying the biogenic resources required for a sustainable bioeconomy are both global challenges of great relevance to society. Thanks to the unique way in which it combines the agricultural, nutritional and engineering sciences, the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Bonn is ideally placed to help deliver the research that will underpin these mammoth undertakings and to assist with putting it into practice.
“With the name change, we intend to highlight the fact that the nutritional and engineering sciences are also key pillars of our research and teaching alongside the agricultural sciences,” says Dean Professor Heiko Schoof. It is the way that these three fields are linked together that gives the faculty the profile that makes it unique in Germany. “This has already proven the case in numerous successful joint projects such as the PhenoRob Cluster of Excellence and the DETECT Collaborative Research Center,” Professor Schoof explains. “We are a dynamic faculty with an international outlook that is tackling issues of burning relevance to society, from sustainable agricultural and food systems through to cutting-edge technologies like drones, robots and satellites.” The new name now shines the spotlight equally on the nutritional and engineering sciences. The faculty’s research and teaching activities in the engineering sciences are the responsibility of the Geodesy, Agricultural Engineering and Food Technology teams, which also award the doctoral degree of “Dr.-Ing.”
The Rector of the University, Professor Michael Hoch, also supports the name change: “The faculty boasts an exceptional tradition and enjoys an outstanding reputation both in Germany and abroad. Through its research, it is tackling the big challenges facing humanity and is driving the development of innovative technologies. With its new name, the faculty is now taking a decisive step into the future by lending even greater visibility to the breadth of subjects that it covers and to the excellence of its main areas of work.”
The Faculty of Agricultural, Nutritional, and Engineering Sciences began using its new name earlier today and will now be updating the old name where mentioned on a rolling basis. The faculty will celebrate its renaming with a special colloquium on December 4.
