News — University of Bonn

Kai Sicks appointed Secretary General of the DAAD¹

The Director of the International Office of the University of Bonn, Dr. Kai Sicks, will be the new Secretary General of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). He will take over his new office in spring 2021 from Dr. Dorothea Rüland.

Genetic disposition protects immune system from aging²

A genetic disposition that plays a role in the development of the heart in the embryo also appears to play a key role in the human immune system. This is shown by a recent study led by the University of Bonn. When the gene is not active enough, the immune defense system undergoes characteristic changes, causing it to lose its effectiveness. Doctors speak of an aging immune system, as a similar effect can often be observed in older people. In the medium term, the results may contribute to reduce these age-related losses. The study is published in the journal Nature Immunology.

Baby dinosaurs were "little adults"³

Long neck, small head and a live weight of several tons - with this description you could have tracked down the Plateosaurus in Central Europe about 220 million years ago. Paleontologists at the University of Bonn have now described for the first time an almost complete skeleton of a juvenile Plateosaurus and discovered that it looked very similar to its parents even at a young age. The fact that Plateosaurus showed a largely fully developed morphology at an early age could have important implications for how the young animals lived and moved around. The young Plateosaurus, nicknamed "Fabian", was discovered in 2015 at the Frick fossil site in Switzerland and is exhibited in the local dinosaur museum. The study was published in the journal "Acta Palaeontologica Polonica".

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University of Bonn among the most influential university brands in the world⁴

The University of Bonn is one of the 200 most influential university brands in the world - this is the result of the current World Reputation Ranking of the British magazine Times Higher Education (THE).

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Halloween: How the Eve of October 31st Became Haunted⁵

With the Halloween outlook poor this year—canceled for many—more people have started thinking about how this scary holiday got started in the first place. A former student of Celtic Studies at the University of Bonn, today Dr. Michael Klevenhaus is Director of the German Center for Gaelic Language & Culture, or “Acadamaidh na Gàidhlig sa' Ghearmailt” in Bonn. Thus University Communications sought out Dr. Klevenhaus for an interview to find out about the origins and history of the holiday.

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Patient people earn more money⁶

Those who are more patient earn and save more on average. Institutions and campaigns such as World Savings Day encourage this from an early age. Researchers of the Cluster of Excellence ECONtribute: Markets & Public Policy of the Universities of Bonn and Cologne have evaluated data on patient behavior from 76 countries.

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Rector Michael Hoch elected for another four years⁷

The University of Bonn’s election assembly tonight appointed Rector Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Michael Hoch for a further four-year office term starting in April 2021.

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Saving the climate from the ground up⁸

Soil has the capacity to bind large quantities of carbon in the long term. An international team of researchers, including from the University of Bonn, is now advocating effective use of this potential. Experts estimate that this could reduce the increase of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by a third. At the same time, agricultural yields in many regions would also increase significantly. In a recent publication they present a strategy to achieve these goals. The study is published in the journal Nature Communications.

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