life newspaper of the university of freiburg www.leben.uni-freiburg.de 03 2017 padding: fat cells alter with age > p. 4 learning: german lessons at the market > p. 9 stopping: rules preventing constant availability > p. 10 animal custodians of the countryside a sheep appears curious and trusting, like the other animals in the meadow, at a press gathering on site in june 2017. photo: jürgen gocke sheep and goats graze the freiburg castle hill – and help promote research, teaching and conservation by nicolas scherger hello!” cries nicolas schoof, moving two electric fence wires aside and entering the meadow – a slope on freiburg’s castle hill, grassland below, for- est above. peace and quiet. then a black goat stretches its neck out between the trees, glances around and struts down the slope to meet the visitors. frauke is the alpha. a few moments later four more goats follow her down. “that’s the herd instinct,” says schoof and smiles. but all the same the phd student from the faculty of environment and natural resources of the uni- versity of freiburg hasn’t gathered all his fl ock yet. so off we go into the woods. there we find an old pagoda from the days when the area was still a park. in the shade lounging on the cool stone, three sheep chew the cud at their ease. so now they are all there, the eight custodians of the countryside working on behalf of conservation, research and teaching: this coop- eration project with the further education academy of the german caritas association that owns the area is expected to show the long term changes from grazing to fl ora and fauna, as part of its teaching work. the herd includes wald- schafe, a longwool breed of sheep, tauernscheck goats and one nera verzasca goat – all farm animals at risk of extinction. “i’m actively engaged in conser- vation, and so i had the idea of ini- tiating a project at the university of freiburg as well,” says schoof. in june 2016 he found the right part- ner: dr. dirk sichelschmidt, deputy director of the further education academy and as such responsible amongst other things for its quality and environmental management. he was immediately attracted by the idea. in addition, the student council of the university of freiburg gave the grazing project funding of eur 1,700 and with it fi nanced the electric fence that is powered by solar panels as well as the purchase of the animals from an adventure farm in neckartal. even before they arrived, students recorded the vegetation on the site, in order to be able to compare data later. the meadow of almost the magic nibbles tree: nicolas schoof, the initiator of the grazing project, gives two tauernscheck goats a delicious treat. waist-high grass and moss almost completely covering the ground was already starting to turn into forest – if it had been left untend- ed, in just a few years shrubs and trees would have been growing. the forest itself had hollow trunks and dead wood which offer valua- ble ecological niches, but as a whole it was too dark there for many species. finally in april 2017 everything was ready. “it was lovely to ob- serve how the animals straight away explored everything on the site,” remarks sichelschmidt. they were especially pleased with the brambles, but nettles were less popular. and there were clear changes after just a few weeks: the grass in the meadow now looks as if trimmed with a mower, and the soil has been loosened by hoofs walking on it, giving a chance again to seeds from other plants. gradually, it is expected that the brambles and moss will recede too and wildfl owers which are interest- ing to insects will start to grow in- stead. in turn, they could attract animals such as smooth snakes, wall lizards or bats. so species of plants and animals which were originally native here and which are especially valuable for conser- vation, would return to the site. in the forest, meanwhile, the animals have nibbled the bark off many trees and eaten up small shoots. in the long term it is hoped that this will once again create a habitat for species which still fi nd it too dark here at the moment – such as cuckoo pint, melick, silver- washed fritillary or the speckled wood butterfly. “the law that no grazing can take place in the forest without special authorization is a real problem from the point of view of conservation,” says schoof. “the animals promote biodiversity in natural ways – it’s far better than any habitat care with machinery.” over the coming semesters, he wants to study the long-term changes to fl ora and fauna in re- search projects together with his students. other conservation measures are planned too, which students can also take part in: op- tions include a pond for amphibi- ans, piles of stones for newts or a ‘bee hotel’. an adventure area for guests but that’s not all! “the project is creating a new adventure area for guests of the further education academy and everyone from freiburg and the region,” says schoof. so far this is especially ap- parent at the academy itself, which welcomes around 24,000 guests to conferences and for overnight stays each year. it is part of a pilot group of fi ve caritas organizations that in june 2017 received the eu- ropean union’s emas certifi cation for environmental management – the grazing project played an im- portant part in this as an example of careful, sustainable manage- ment of the land. “the animals are very much enjoyed by our guests as well as by our staff, and give rise to a wide variety of reactions,” comments sichelschmidt. amongst other things, he is planning to sur- vey guests to gather more detailed information about their experience of the environment. “the meadow is a small example of how we can demonstrate that in conservation and cultural terms the arduous and economically barely recognized work of shep- herds and goatherds is incredibly valuable,” says schoof. the team wants to install information boards to explain this to visitors. the pro- ject is also valuable for teaching about the environment, “our ani- mals develop relationships with people and have a calming effect, but they also differ widely in temperament.” for instance, lewi the sheep, a cuddly tearaway, likes to butt his head against people’s legs to signal that he wants to be fussed. franz the goat on the other hand prefers not to be touched – but at the same time is so curi- ous that he will nibble at anything, even yew trees which are in fact toxic to him. ideas for bringing people and animals together range from the possibility of students act- ing as temporary herders on the project for a full semester to an adventure space where children can learn about the environment. schoof and sichelschmidt relate, “the enthusiasm and the will to make the most of the potential of this project are massive for all involved.”

03 2017 news 3 unı life newspaper of the university of freiburg www.leben.uni-freiburg.de the right routes the ‘silk road’ is a romanticized view of historic trade relationships – sitta von reden explains why we need to rethink history stretching more than 10,000 kilometers – the distance from rome to the ancient chinese city of xi’an, the home of the emperor – the silk road was a network of trade routes that from ancient times linked europe with asia. freiburg ancient historian prof. dr. sitta von reden is researching the lively trade that blossomed back then be- tween the empires which had access to these routes. the aca- demic believes china’s current ini- tiative of a ‘new silk road’ is a bogus claim. verena adt spoke with her. uni’leben: ms. von reden, was there really a ‘silk road’, or is it just a european fantasy? sitta von reden: the term is an invention of ferdinand von rich- thofen. he was a german geogra- pher who in the 19th centur y re- searched the taklamakan desert in the modern xinjiang province and realized the significance of the ex- changes in this area. this led him to name the routes along which silk was found in graves and ancient way-stations the ‘silk road’. this idea was then tidied up by rich- thofen’s student, sven hedin, who between 1927 and 1935 led a major expedition in this region. this led to the ‘silk road’ becoming a romantic concept which bears no relation to historic reality. how long has trade taken place how long has trade taken place along this route? there were exchanges over great there were exchanges over great distances in the wider area of asia distances in the wider area of asia back during the persian empire and back during the persian empire and back during the persian empire and back during the persian empire and even in the bronze age. today, we even in the bronze age. today, we even in the bronze age. today, we prefer to speak of ‘silk roads’. prefer to speak of ‘silk roads’. prefer to speak of ‘silk roads’. “the idea of building up a trade route with one’s own resources and organizing it politically was totally alien to the powers of ancient times,” sitta von reden believes that china’s present-day politics are being played down in the concept of the ‘new silk road’. photo: jürgen gocke from the 1st century was in fact of- ten impor ted from egypt. but the long-distance trade with asia wasn’t just about silk but also pearls and ivory, precious perfume oils, pepper from india and spices from arabia. from india and spices from arabia. there were many local trade net- there were many local trade net- works in which luxury goods circu- works in which luxury goods circu- lated and which were not controlled lated and which were not controlled by rome. by rome. was it essentially was it essentially was it essentially a trade in luxur y a trade in luxur y a trade in luxur y goods? goods? goods? in the region of in the region of the black sea and the black sea and the black sea and around the red around the red around the red sea a lot of grain sea a lot of grain sea a lot of grain sea a lot of grain was shipped too, was shipped too, was shipped too, was shipped too, but t h a t lation were farmers, and they had little to do with trade and nothing with the elites who consumed luxury goods. they had their border con- flicts. it is said, however, that religious systems – christianity, is- lam, buddhism, manichaeism – spread along these routes. so were these people also ac- tively traveling with a missionary purpose? absolutely not! the fact that hu- mans migrated in 300 b.c. is not just due to trade. militar y move- ments are also par ticularly impor- tant in my research project. there were always troops in this region, and they were a means of intercul- tural exchange. and the population was very mobile too. nomads were not the only ones who migrated, oth- er people did too, and took their goods and their faith with goods and their faith with them. many peo- them. many peo- them. many peo- traveled traveled traveled trade the routes who never traded. ple ple ple invest much in increasing their impe- rial wealth through trade. the idea of building up a trade route with one’s own resources and organizing it politically was totally alien to the powers of ancient times. is the ‘new silk road’ a bogus political claim? the term ‘new silk road’ plays down the politics behind it. and the c oncept is unhistoric al. the new silk road t akes an entirely different route. rome isn’t included but düsseldor f is! c ontinent al european destinations were utterly irrelevant to the old trade routes. that’s what i find so annoying: few people are willing to ser iously c onsider ancient societies, their languages, ideas and physic al remains, but they are frequently picked up as a symbol for the depths that our moder n soc iet y draws from. a lot of money f lows into c ontemporar y projec ts, but then people refer without thinking to ‘ the silk road’, ‘ the c radle of europe’ or c radle of demo cracy’. ‘ the precious perfume oils, pearls, grain, spices from india and arabia: the long-distance trade with asia involved far more than just silk. photos: christan junge, shooting88, espies, svetlana kuznetsova, evgene kudryavtsev, alleba zib/all by fotolia roads, not street. the plural indicates that it was a very complex network. there was also a sea route via india, which was more important for the transport of silk than the land route. didn’t bring in the big money of course. you just have to compare the price of a barrel of grain and a small pearl. animals and slaves al- ways played a large part in the trade as well. did the silk always come from did this vigorous trade prevent china? armed conflicts? what the romans called silk and what was repeatedly listed in the descriptions of luxurious garments in ancient times, trade and politics were separate realms. eighty per cent of the ancient settled popu- the chinese the chinese the chinese the chinese g o v e r n m e n t g o v e r n m e n t g o v e r n m e n t g o v e r n m e n t has recently has recently has recently recently has a n n o u n c e d a n n o u n c e d a n n o u n c e d a n n o u n c e d that it wants to that it wants to establish a ‘new’ establish a ‘new’ silk road. what silk road. what silk road. what it it it it ‘old’ silk ‘old’ silk distinguishes distinguishes distinguishes distinguishes from the from the road? the ‘new silk road’ is a project of china alone, which aims to increase china’s influence in central asia. it will boost infrastructure and bring a lot of money to the countries, but in the end the aim is for china to gain influence there. the first area in- volved was kazakhstan in 2013. it’s now the same in pakistan. this control of trade from the center is not a historical concept. in ancient times, emperors and kings distrib- uted money in large cities to demon- strate their status, but they didn’t ‘beyond the silk road’ the european research council (erc) is funding sitta von reden’s project ‘beyond the silk road’ with an advanced grant. this award is one of the most prestigious euro- pean research awards and is endowed with eur 2.5 million. von reden and her international and interdisciplinary team are hoping to develop a comprehensive model of the exchange between empires in ancient times, and to research the relationship between economics, cultural exchange and migration as well as the significance of border regions. ten million francs in funding for center of excellence the georg h. endress foundation has pledged to provide up to 10 million francs in funding over the next ten years for the joint project “quantum science and quantum computing” at the universities of basel and freiburg. under the umbrella of eucor – the european campus, the new center of excellence will consolidate the pioneering role of the two universities in quantum physics. at the heart of the new project is an international cluster for postdoctoral researchers and two doctoral programs in basel and freiburg. the postdocs will work on joint research projects at both universities. the goal is to train outstanding doctoral candidates and postdoctoral researchers, thus preparing the future workforce for the emerging market in quantum technologies. eucor awards “seed money” with “seed money”, eucor – the european campus has created its very fi rst signifi cant own funding instrument and will award 300,000 euros annually from 2018 to 2020. the goal is to fi nance new cross-border projects that foster the development of eucor – the european campus and its scientific network. two lines of funding are planned: “research and innovation” and “teaching”. each year between five and ten projects will receive a maximum of 60,000 euros each. online applications are now being accepted via the eucor website until 2 october 2017. the financing will begin on 1 january 2018 at the earliest and runs for a maximum of 18 months.  www.eucor-uni.org/de/seed-money university election results in the university elections on 4 july 2017, enrolled students and postdocs at the university of freiburg voted for their representa- tives on the senate and faculty councils. participation in the senate elections was around eleven per cent. for the faculty councils it was approximately 6 - 23.5 per cent. from 1 october 2017 the members of the senate will be: josefine morgan from the juso university group, samuel wunderlich from the rcds & lhg list, phillip stöcks from iris kimizoglu from the bvs b list. the senate represents all areas of the university. elected members hold office for four years, while students hold office for one year. the faculty councils have similar duties and functions at faculty level as the senate for the university as a whole. five or six members are elected to each of these bodies. the bvs a list and  www.zuv.uni-freiburg.de/service/ wahlplattform/universitaetswahlen

03 2017 research unı life newspaper of the university of freiburg www.leben.uni-freiburg.de achieving uniform standards: martina biebert hopes her results will be incorporated in the training of dog handlers. photos: christoph breithaupt 5 german research foundation dfg supporting new research training groups find it, fi nd it! sniffer dogs can detect explosive materials with great precision – and at the same time protect people’s privacy training groups the deutsche forschungs- gemeinschaft (dfg, german research foundation) has ap- proved fifteen new research training groups to further support early career researchers in ger- many. at the university of freiburg, the “meinbio – bioinme: exploration of spatio- temporal dynamics of gene regulation using high-throughput and high-resolution methods” and “statistical modeling in psychology (smip)” in which five universities are involved, have been estab- lished. they will receive around 10 million euros funding. the training group for implementing genetic into cell systems will receive around 4.8 mil- lion euros while the training group for statistical modeling of psycho- logical theories will receive around 4.9 million euros. information in by thomas goebel w hy would you have a sniffer dog at a football stadium? maybe it’s nosing around the fans and hunting for fireworks. emotion- ally-charged derbies especially are often seen as high-risk games, so organizers like to have intensive checks. but is it a good idea to use dogs in such volatile situations? for instance, how do football fans such as ultras respond to the animals? how successful are the dogs at de- tecting explosives? and what special care should the dog handlers take at work? biermann, biebert is responsible for ‘ancillary sociological research’: her colleague looks at technical resourc- es, she looks at sniffer dogs. human and dog are a team is jobs one of bieber t’s to determine the factors contributing to acceptance: what is the effect of the dogs on the people that they are supposed to be controlling? “technical research has shown that use of cer tain methods can also have unintended consequences.” for instance, use of the body scanner is ef fective, but it has given rise to resistance – many people feel it is a massive intrusion into their personal privacy. dogs can perceive even the smallest traces of scent – but we still don’t know how they do it. cultural anthropologist mar tina bieber t is interested in questions like this. she works at the centre for security and society of the univer- sity of freiburg on the evadex project, which aims to assess the many for detective explosive materials – in every area except the already strictly regulated aviation safety. together with andré systems “a dog appears to intrude on people’s privacy less,” says biebert. whilst each deployment must be considered on its own, on the whole she draws a positive conclusion, “the dog is a very well-established tactical tool for deployments.” this is not just a result of the tradition of the police dog in germany that stretches back more than one example, fear or disgust reactions during checks can be reduced if cer tain breeds and muzzles are used; also, operational processes could be more standardized, as could training and testing the dogs. in addition, the project team is undertaking fundamental research into dogs’ sense of smell, “we know that they can perceive traces of scent down to absurdly small levels – but we don’t know exactly how they do it,” says biebert. in experiments with a cooperating swiss dog team, bieber t and the scientists at the fraunhofer-institut für chemische technologie in pfinztal near karlsruhe are investigating what exactly happens when a sniffer dog is on an operation. the joint work is cultural amazing, anthropologist, “the dog is a multidisciplinary object of study.” says the junior research group receives 1.4 million euros sinc e 1 august 2017, a new junior research group headed by dr. a ndreas har tmann at the faculty of environment and natural resources has been investigating water stress in karst landsc apes wor ldwide – and how to ensure sustainable water supplies in these areas. the g er man researc h foundation is providing a total of 1.4 million euros from the emmy noether program over the next five year s. kar st for med when carbonate rock weathers. karst aq- uifers currently supply around one quar ter of the world population’s drinking water. is das volle programm für gute unterhaltung m o c . o t o h p k c o t s i : s o t o f hundred years, but also of the thousand years of shared history of humankind and dogs. both mam- mals once lived together in a kind of symbiosis, “the dog cleaned up waste, kept the herd together, warned of danger and in return was taken care of by humans.” biebert has held numerous inter- views: with police dog handlers and industry safety managers, with team leaders and private security servic- es, with ultras and with those responsible for the fans. she has accompanied a dog handler and his german shepherd dog on patrol outside an exhibition hall before an agm, and she has obser ved the bundesliga game between werder bremen and the hamburger sport- verein. whilst irritated fans are en- tirely capable of kicking a screening machine apart, ultras told her that they tended to feel sorr y for the dogs because they assumed the situation was stressful for them. great need for standardization on the other hand bieber t de- tected a certain skepticism amongst team leaders and security managers about the use of sniffer dogs: they generally felt that technical tools were more reliable or predictable – which biebert puts down partly to the individual relationship between dog handler and dog but also to the lack of uniform standards. the project also aims to contribute to developing such standards. fear of terrorist attacks has massively increased the demand for explosives sniffer dogs at major events. biebert hopes that her results will be incor- porated in the deutsche institut für normung’s revised standards for se- curity ser vice providers, “the demand is there – and there is loads of potential for standardization.” for developing therapies for older leukemia patients a new research group at the university of freiburg and the freiburg university medical center aims to conduct fundamental and clinical research into acute myeloid leukemia (aml), a type of blood can- cer diagnosed in around 3000 people a year in germany. the german re- search foundation (dfg) has agreed to provide 4.2 million euros in funding for the project over the next three years. the group spokesperson is prof. dr. michael lübbert from the department of medicine i of the medical center – university of freiburg. he will be responsible for coordinating the project together with prof. dr. christoph plass from the german cancer research center in heidelberg (dkfz). “the approval of funding for this research group is a great success and further proof of the university of freiburg’s prominence as a center for epigenetic research,” says rector prof. dr. hans-jochen schiewer. geschichten – so spannend wie das leben. für jedes alter und jeden geschmack. zum lesen, hören, sehen. und verschenken. buchhandlung rombach bertoldstraße 10 mitten in freiburg www.rombach.de lesen, was gefällt: rombach bei facebook

03 2017 campus 7 unı life newspaper of the university of freiburg www.leben.uni-freiburg.de freedom on two wheels the team from bike bridge teaches female refugees to cycle by sarah schwarzkopf s hahrzad mohammadi had to ask one of the basketball players on the sports field at bissierstraße whether any women lived at the refugee home too. she had watched him and his friends jumping and drib- bling for some time and not seen any women anywhere. the man explained that they were in the apartments. “he told me that there were no leisure activities for women. then i had a long talk with his wife,” mohammadi, a phd student in sports science and physical education at the university of freiburg, explains. that was the birth of bike bridge. teaches bike bridge female refugees to cycle. the aim of the project is to reduce the social isola- tion of female refugees and facilitate social inclusion. “we increase their mobility and put them in contact with local women,” says mohammadi, whose dissertation looks at gender aspects of sport. following her expe- rience in the refugee home, she and her co-organizers clara speidel and lena pawelke found out that there really were no sport-related projects for female refugees. the trio wanted to fill the gap. but why specifically bicycles? “in my country the culture doesn’t al- low me to ride a bicycle,” explains a yazidi woman who prefers not to see her name in print. she has lived in ger- many for two years and learned to cycle with bike bridge. “in many islamic somalia and cameroon. the common language is german – the trainer translates if there are communication problems. the trainers include former participants. “the group can profit from their language skills and it makes the project more sustainable: we don’t just wave goodbye to the women at the end of the season,” mohammadi explains. that was the case for the yazidi woman from iraq, for example. she speaks arabic, kurdish and german, and is now helping to give her first course work- ing together with german-speaking trainers. donations for bicycles and helmets the project has already won a few national and regional awards. but the waiting list is long. and there are inquiries from hamburg, frankfurt and many other cities which would like to introduce the idea, but so far the project has lacked capacity. “we are trying to build up a good base in freiburg first,” explains mohammadi. so far bike bridge has financed bicycles, helmets and locks from donations. since they lack the equipment for bad weather the courses only take place in spring and summer. next year the team wants to offer ten courses. the latest idea is designed for advanced students: mohammadi wants to teach mothers how they can transport their children safely by bike too.  https://bikebridge.org freedom for women: bike bridge wants to strengthen the autonomy of female refugees. photo: peter herrmann countries such as iraq or syria women are forbidden from cycling,” adds mo- hammadi, “the pressure comes from society there. in iraq it is even prohibit- ed by law. in germany, however, bicy- cles are very important, particularly in freiburg.” so cycling not only offers participants mobility but also integrates them into society. “it’s given me a lot of freedom,” confi rms the yazidi woman. first walk, then pedal the project had its pilot phase in 2016 at the largest refugee home in freiburg on bissierstraße. a course with bike bridge takes three months. ten participants meet twice a week. every woman gets a tandem partner as a trainer to accompany them. the groups learn the rules of the road and how to cycle, and get language lessons. in the beginning they ride without pedaling, with the women simply pushing the bicycles with their feet to get a feel for it. they also learn how to repair the bicycles. “the participants love the repair workshop: they learn and they practice – it’s wonderful,” mohammadi says with delight. in the third month the group goes on cycle tours. how often they go and whether they go to a park or a museum is decided by each group for itself. wherever they go, the women have a picnic, chat and learn a bit about that part of town. at the end of the course they can keep their bicycle. so far there have been four cours- es in various residential homes. participants have ranged in age from 20 to 65 and come from afghanistan, pakistan, iraq, syria, iraq, nigeria, raise your horns: the horn troop practises regularly outside the herder building. photo: jürgen gocke sounding the horn students bring the sound of the wild to the former herder press building by stephanie streif i t’s a wednesday evening in may. as the evening rush hour traffic winds its weary way along the hab- sburgerstraße, sixteen hunting horn players in green polo shir ts stand on the lawn in front of the for- mer herder press building. all is peaceful. not a sound. then the order is given “raise your horns!” the horns are at and now everyone’s lips, sounding out against the engine noise and hum- ming of the tram. suddenly, it’s as if the forest is around us. founded by two students of forest sciences, the group of hunting horn players comes from the univer- sity of freiburg. one of them is val- entin platten. three and a half years ago when he came to freiburg to study, he had already decided to join the hunting horn players. he knew from his uncle, who had studied for- est sciences at the university of freiburg before him, that there had to be such a group. so platten went looking for them. and found – noth- ing. not one hunting horn player to be found far and wide. so in 2014, together with his fellow student pat- rick zaglauer, he founded a new horn player group on the spot. both believe you need a little tradi- tion. why? “it’s a little bit of history that shouldn’t be forgotten,” says platten. “without hunting horns,” zaglauer adds, “hunts could never have been organized in the past.” back then, signals such as ‘start beating’ or ‘dead pig’ were sent through the forest by horn. “there were no mobile telephones, and the hunters had to communicate with each other somehow.” one important custom was ‘sounding the kill’, when the game had been bagged at the end of the hunt and the hunters took up the horn to honor it for one last time. any time the forestry students celebrate anywhere, the horn troop are there, at christmas or summer parties for instance. last year they even played together with the dreisamtal hunting horn players at the wasserschlössle festival of freiburg’s energy supplier badenova. applause from passers-by whenever the weather allows, the hunting horn players like to take their rehearsals into the garden of the herder building. above, the foliage of beech and lime – and in front of them passers- by, who sometimes even stop, listen and applaud. to begin with it was just platten and zaglauer. but now between 15 and 20 students play with them, in- cluding three women and one non-for- estry student: leopold pfl uger is study- ing renewable energies, but he also has a hunting license. he joined the horn group because he loves ‘blaring something out together’. “young hunters playing hunting horn, that’s cool,” he says. when he joined the troop he could hardly get a sound out of his little fürst pless horn, but within just two years he worked his way up from third to second horn. but not without diffi culties: barely a year ago his neighbor rang his bell one evening and asked him to please, please stop playing, because he just couldn’t hear any improvement. pfl uger plugged on. other horn players from the group get their horns out sometimes when they are stuck in traffi c on the a5. “it’s great practising in the car,” says leonard kloos. the atmosphere is cheerful. a lot of chatter, a lot of laughter, and in the breaks between practising the odd beer is opened. now and then as the troop are standing around chatting, the warm summer evening wind blows a page of sheet music from the stands and whisks it across the grass. then there’s a merry chase after it. when classic tunes from the german repertoire such as ‘ein jäger aus kurpfalz’ or ‘auf, auf zum fröhlichen jagen’ ring out in several parts, platten and zaglauer take up the large parforce horns. compared to the fürst pless horns, they sound fuller and deeper, and both horns work entirely without valves. “the notes are made with the lips,” explains zaglauer. that’s why hunting horn players are better kissers, someone jokes. horn players are better kissers but then they get serious. “hunters’ march number three,” announces zaglauer. “keep in time, please, loud, soft, soft, loud. and ... raise your horns.” what happens next is almost instanta- neous. the players raise the horns rest- ing on their right thighs to their mouths. and then note follows note. a woman is walking along the path on the other side of the fence. she looks into the garden, raises her hand and waves. and marches off in time to the music ringing out in the summer evening. join in! anyone who would like to join in is warmly invited to play with the horn group – you don’t have to be study- ing forest sciences. a fürst pless horn is provided for a try-out.  e-mail: patrick.zaglauer@t-online.de

03 2017 campus 9 unı life newspaper of the university of freiburg www.leben.uni-freiburg.de mangold’s a veg a visit to the münstermarkt farmers’ market becomes a german lesson for foreign students by alexander ochs t he colorful stems with the large leaves radiate canary yellow, crimson and ruby. “what’s that?” asks one of the group, who comes from india. “mangold!” replies the ven- dor. “mango?” they echo. “nowt like! mango’s fruit, ‘at’s a veg!” declares the expert. a typical scene for this morning, which recalls the ‘learning by doing’ method. you learn what you are doing by doing it. the ‘walking dialogues’ are very similar: foreign students go out and experience real life with their german tutors, in order to test out their language skills in eve- ryday scenarios. no dry exercises, no fake situations, no rote learning. the idea for this german lesson came from yani guo from the studier- endenwerk freiburg-schwarzwald and team members katharina knop, nicole nicklas and marielle raih, all students with a background in teach- ing. before each upcoming session they simply provide the participants with appropriate vocabulary in a classic lesson, to prepare them for the language café walkabout. vocabulary training on the hoof today, a hectic saturday in july, a freiburg classic is on the schedule: shopping at the münsterplatz farmers’ market. “we’ll go around the market once,” nicklas explains the procedure. “and then we’ll have a bratwurst or – for the vegetarians – tofu.” “you have tofu here?” asks yang peng, a twen- ty-one year old from china. “can you barbeque tofu?” peals of laughter. “well, that’s what the germans are always doing,” yang persists. and mandarin. however guo from the studierendenwerk cheerfully reminds his compatriot, “in german!” but when things get too difficult in german, the three indians, paul, jijo and raghu and jibran from pakistan can switch to their mother tongues. “hindi and urdu are similar, but only when speaking,” explains jibran. the four young men from south asia cook almost daily, and therefore are very familiar with foods and their prepara- tion. gradually, people get hungry. time for a snack. one tries a ‘lange rote’, the traditional freiburg wurst, another a veal sausage. raghu, whose name is pronounced like ‘ra- gout’ in french, has found a vegetar- ian snack: tofu dressed as bratwurst. with a lot of yellowy-orange gleaming spices. “aaah!” he cries out when he tries it, “very hot!” “really?” the group responds, surprised. “no,” he plays it down with a smile. he was just imitat- ing the typical german reaction to spicy food of course. everyone laughs. and all look forward to the next session; regular events begin again in the 2017/18 winter semester. radishes, raspberries, savoy cabbage: it’s easier to pick up vocabulary in real life than in a lesson. photo: jürgen gocke straight away we have come to a socio-cultural question. germany, country of eternal barbecuers? nicole – everyone is on first name terms here – meanwhile presses on blithely, pointing out gooseberries, rhubarb, blackcurrant. jijo george and swertin paul are it students from india, and have been in freiburg since autumn 2016. on the tour, they try things out and explain things alternately. grab a bite to eat at the baker’s stall, then to the cheese stall. “my housemate always eats blue cheese,” george repor ts in still halting german on his ever yday life. talking about dair y produce at a cake stall nick- las explains, “sour cream, that’s a kind of cream. sow-er cream,” she pronounces carefully and deliber- ately. peng repeats after her, “sow ... sow cream.” he has lived in freiburg for almost four years, and as a philosopher he is ver y highly skilled in the f ield of languages (heidegger !). as they pass the stalls selling lettuce and other salad vegetables, nicklas explains the expression ‘da hast du den salat!’ – ‘what did i tell you?’ this makes peng think of something: “ kabel- salat!” – cable spaghetti. however he didn’t learn it on the german course but on the internet. tofu dressed as bratwurst the summery range on offer at the market bewitches the senses. rad- ishes are a welcoming deep red, eve- rywhere berries beckon in shades of red, pink, purple and blue, the cour- gettes glow yellow. yellow cour- gettes? “normally they’re always green,” says one. his gaze falls on a box of plump cherries. “i first ate cherries in germany,” says peng, “we don’t have them at home.” “we do,” responds guo. both can talk in walking dialogues gathering language practice in every- day life – whether on a cycle tour, visit- ing the mundenhof zoo or at the freiburg museums night: this is the idea of the walking dialogues, an event organized by the studierenden- werk freiburg-schwarzwald. between semesters they take place about once a month. the free offer is designed for students at freiburg’s universities and colleges. please register if you are in- terested. e-mail: guo@swfr.de.  www.swfr.de w i n a vo u c h e r ! uni’cum stationery, bibs, rubber ducks: the university of freiburg’s uni’shop supplies a wide range of goods not just for everyday life on campus but also for every other kind of situation. in this series, uni’life presents a few of its products and there is a prize draw for coupons. enjoy substance with style by martin jost w e’re simply saying: avolatte. it’s a latte macchiato served in half a scooped-out avocado. there are already 700 pictures of avolattes on instagram. but that still does not make it a trend that will revolutionize the world just yet. however avolatte is what we might be faced with if we don’t soon stop polluting the world with paper cups. or else we might have to sip our coffee from an oily fruit husk. we don’t want to put anyone off their cof fee on the way to the lec- ture, or even during the lecture. and it’s impossible to meet the demands of student or academic life without caffeine today anyway. (rumors that the bologna process was a triumph for the cof fee lobby are however excessive and unsubstantiated.) fortunately it is extremely easy to sipping coffee from avocado hulls is a fleeting pleasure. but the cups and thermos beakers from the uni’shop are forever. photo: jürgen gocke enjoy a coffee while out and about or during a lecture: just keep a thermos beaker in your bag at all times. we won’t lie about it, we think the university of freiburg’s coffee cup range is very chic. you can buy por- celain cups or thermos beakers with the logo at the uni’shop – and they are designed to last. insulating to keep hot presenting the freiburg uni thermos beaker in a new design and new quality. it is snowy white with choice of blue or red detailing and a printed logo. the inside of the new model has a double-wall in stainless steel, to keep contents hot for a very long time. the silhouette is clean and ergonomic. you can open and close the sipper with just one hand using the button on the lid. when the sipper is closed, the cup is absolutely leak-tight, so it could fall over in your bag without soaking your books and laptop. if you are an old-school consumer and like to take time for your dose of caffeine at the kitchen table or desk instead of drinking on the go, the uni’shop also has something for you: porcelain cups in two dif ferent styles. the slightly larger cup is shaped roughly like a tumbler and has a capacity of 300 ml, while the slimmer cup with a triangular handle holds 250 ml and is white on the outside with a choice of red or blue inside. all the porcelain cups feature the emblem of the university printed on the outside. so, enjoy your coffee either sitting comfortably or to go when you like. but please invest in a sustainable cup – and give the avocado goblet a miss this time. competition! win one of two 25 euro coupons for the uni’shop. send an e-mail to unileben@pr.uni-freiburg.de by 8th september 2017. the coupon winners will be drawn from all the entries received.  www.shop.uni-freiburg.de

03 2017 compass 11 unı life newspaper of the university of freiburg www.leben.uni-freiburg.de knowledge breeds trust long the german u15, a group of fifteen universities with a wide spectrum of subjects, traditions, major medical schools, and world class re- search, has published a magazine, wissen schafft vertrauen. “the humanities and social sciences and cultural disciplines are highly valued in germany. they enable people to critically interpret the world and the changes in it, and to position them- selves in it. in this way, they create social resistance to dangerous oversimplifications – as well as faith in the future of our society; particu- larly in the face of rising challenges from strengthening nationalism, from climate change, terrorism, even inte- gration,” says professor hans-jochen schiewer, university of freiburg rector and chair of the german u15. fifteen including freiburg historian ulrich herbert, hope their contributions to the maga- zine will stimulate a reasoned and constructive debate. researchers, dressed as a witch the biologist henriette gruber shows a tour group of the botanic garden the benefi ts to health that can be obtained from blossoms and leaves. photo: patrick seeger  www.german-u15.de/epaper-wissen- schafft-vertrauen/index.html good spirits clad in green a guided tour of the botanic garden through magic, myth and medicine by sonja seidel the towards a blazing hot afternoon at the botanic garden of the uni- versity of freiburg. a crooked old dame stands beneath a birch tree, a black scar f over her head. turning her besom she pokes the stick elderly man standing before her. “the birch emanates a power ful magic, a pro- tective magic,” she whispers and looks with narrowed eyes at the group. a brief silence, then a grin passes over the faces of everyone present. the old dame straightens up, removes her headscar f, reveal- ing the dyed red hair of dr. henri- ette gruber, a young woman in a silky summer dress. she laughs hear tily and explains in practiced tones, “the birch had a spiritual significance back in germanic mythology. but you can drink a tea of birch leaves or birch juice as an excellent treatment for cellulite and swollen legs.” nor thern germany. “so, what can you taste? ” the group sips at the drink thoughtfully. an elderly lady wear ing a pink blouse, str ing of pear ls and summer hat pipes up, “it smells and tastes of elderflower.” the others agree. “that’s right, you can’t mistake the fragrance of el- der f lower – it ’s almost indecent,” oil. its ef fect was long known be - fore people spoke of witches and wizards. but be c areful! never drink too much sage tea, because if you do thujone has a toxic effect.” “ so how many cups a day are okay?” asks a middle-aged man in beige trekking shor ts wor r iedly. “ well, three or four cups, but not delicate yellow, sweet and fragrant: a drink of elderfl ower and lemon balm tickles the taste buds of participants. a group of thir teen freiburgers has gathered under the leadership of the biologist for the ‘ witc hes, ghosts and genetics’ guided tour on medicinal plants and science. these guided tours of the botanic garden are a tradition and have been offered by the association of friends and sponsors of the botan- ic garden of the univer sit y of freiburg for more than ten years now. up to four times a semester, biologists roam the grounds and glasshouses with guests. for gruber it’s her premiere: in real life she is a tutor at the freiburg uni- versity of education, but today she is playing the par t of the wise woman. taste, smell, feel gruber pours a delic ate yellow liquid from a stone jug into plastic cups and hands it round. a n old recipe of her grandmother’s, from says gruber, going on to tell them a lot more about the plant. as she does so, she adopts the role of the foreteller of doom, “ the elder is one of the most magical plants. it is inhabited by good spir its. but never hang a branch of elder above a child’s cot, or the fairies will get it.” h ow ser ious g r uber is with such practical tips is hard to say. m edic ine and magic are ver y closely related. take the elder: it is diaphoretic – it induces sweating – and strengthens the immune system. “ but that hasn’t been scientifically proven,” adds gruber. to the group proc eeds the sensor y garden, where oregano, bay and sage give of f a beguiling sc ent. bees are restor ing them - selves from the purple and white blossoms. the participants feel the furry leaves of sage and then smell their hands. “it ’s great for sweaty feet,” explains the biologist. “that’s the result of thujone, an essential more,” says the exper t. at least one par tic ipant looks likely to switch to chamomile now. mind- expanding and delicious another herb that can be found in ever y kitc hen cupboard has unimagined powers, “bay is mind- expanding, but only if you burn it, not if you stir it in your spaghet ti sauc e,” g r uber repor ts. “ the priestesses of the oracle in delphi slept on laurel leaves and inhaled the smoke from bur ning bay and laurel, to foretell the future.” the 21st century priestess also uses it, not least to enc hant her sweet- hear t. yarrow on the other hand is a rather boring plant from a witch’s point of view. it can be found in the botanic garden in one of the eight round themed plots that are organ- ized by region and period. “yarrow has no spec ial magic al power s,” says gruber, starting to move on to the next plant. but an elderly man from the group c ontradic ts her, “until the 20th century they used to hang yarrow in the window in the forests of bavar ia, to keep the plague from the house.” konrad müller is an exper t on the plague and has already wr it ten many books on the black death. he knows enough to give at least one guided tour of the botanic garden. to c onc lude the tour g r uber wants to cast a spell herself, and so she has brought a blend of herbs with her that are traditionally burned at midsummer in mid-june. the longest day of the year is a mystical date which was celebrated with feasts by the germans and the celts. gruber burns oak bark, sage, mugwor t, f leabane, frankincense and myrrh in a small metal bowl, a blend that is supposed to capture the energy of the sun and at tune one to the second half of the year. in addition, the dried leaves and crumbs of resin protect travelers from impending disaster. “ this passes the energy of the herbs to us,” explains gruber, fanning the rising column of smoke towards the group which stands there snif fing it, and promises, “ today you go home pur if ied and with the maximum of protection.” discover the botanic garden there is an autumn walk with head gardener dirk rohleder at the botanic garden on 23rd september 2017. meet at the main entrance of the botanic garden, schänzlestraße 1, 79104 freiburg, at 2 p.m. admission costs eur 3.00. children and teenagers aged up to 16 can take part free of charge. no need to register.  www.botanischer-garten.uni-freiburg.de/ freunde-und-foerderer neues karriereportal alles auf einen klick: die universität freiburg hat mit dem karriereportal einen neuen service eingerichtet, der mitarbeiterinnen und mitarbeiter über weiterbildungs- und beratungsange- bote, förderprogramme sowie maßnahmen der personalentwicklung informiert. das portal richtet sich an beschäftigte aus wissenschaft sowie verwaltung, service und technik auf allen karrierestufen. interessierte fi n- den in einer stellenbörse zudem alle offenen positionen an der universität. das portal ist in einer zusammen- arbeit der stabsstelle strategie und hochschulentwicklung, den freiburg research services, dem wissens- management und der im januar 2017 eingerichteten geschäftsstelle person- alentwicklung entstanden. die abteilungen werden künftig das ange- bot des karriereportals weiter ausbau- en.  www.uni-freiburg.de/karriere successfully applying for dfg grants what are the keys to a successful application to the german research foundation (dfg)? what do evalua- tors rate particularly highly? these and other questions on the topic “applying successfully for dfg funding” (“erfolgreich dfg-mittel einwerben”) are the focus of a panel discussion. prof. dr. annegret wilde, the dfg liaison officer at the university of freiburg, and the science support centre of freiburg research services are issuing an invitation to the event. the dfg liaison officer will be joined on the panel by dfg colleagues, a member of the dfg’s approval committee and the senate committee on research training groups and the group leader of dfg’s emmy noether program. there will be a q&a and discussion at the end. the event takes place on 10 october 2017, 2 p.m. in biology i lecture theater, hauptstraße 1, 79104 freiburg, and is open to researchers of all disciplines. please to kurs programm@frs.uni-freiburg.de by 15 september 2017. register by email

03 2017 personnel 13 unı life newspaper of the university of freiburg www.leben.uni-freiburg.de awards measurements the winners of the f irst phase of the st ar tinsland business plan c ompetition have been named: b e n j a m i n b a u m a n n, m a t h i a s k l e n n e r, b e r n h a r d s c h ö n e and ch r i s t i a n z e c h won the ‘innova - tions from scienc e and universi - ties’ c ategor y with their projec t ‘ondosense’. they are developing an innovative intelligent sensor for t aking in environments where optic al or acoustic sensors are imprecise or fail c ompletely. first prize in the c ategor y ‘innovations from busi - ness and society’ went to jerome m e i n ke, lilian ret tegi and dr. lu k a s s p o h n for their ‘cline x ’ business concept, an app for digi- tal documentation of physical ex- aminations. the special prize for ‘g reen ec onomy ’ went to m a r c o armbruster and benedik t hauer. as ‘arbeitsgruppe biomasse’ they aim to of fer advic e, laborator y analyses and automated fermenta- tion test stands with appropriate software to operators of biogas fa- c ilities. e s t h e r a r r oyo g a r c i a, fr e d e r i k b ö h m and ch r i s t i a n hir t h impressed with their ‘deep - va’ (deep v ideo a nalysis) business concept, taking the ‘digi- tal future’ special prize. the sys- tem c an automatic ally ex trac t various features from videos, gen- erate metadata and classif y and desc r ibe the video using this content. mater ials exper t dr. h a t e m a b u s h a m m a l a who was super- vised by the professor of forest biomater ials has rec eived the ecology prize from the sigrid-und- viktor- dulger- stif tung for his the - sis. this looked at how nanotech- nology can enrich traditional wood science. the ecology prize is en- dowed with eur 6,0 0 0 and was presented at the heidelberg acad- emy of sciences and humanities. it is awarded annually for a work in the f ields of humanities, soc ial sciences and science or engineer- ing that aims to resolve environ - mental problems. suppor ts the biologist dr. milena ber tolotti from the univer sit à v it a - salute san raf faele in milan, italy, has rec eived the humboldt research scholarship from the alexander von humboldt foundation for post- doc s. with its sc holar ship, the foundation highly qualified scientists from abroad at the star t of their career. ber tolotti will be using a new method to investigate the localization and in- terac tion of rec eptor s on b - lym - phocytes and b-tumor cells on the nanometer scale at the university of freiburg. she is hosted by prof. dr. michael reth from the institute of biology iii, bioss c entre for biological signalling studies, and the max planck institute of immu- nobiology epigenetic s, freiburg. and the univer sit y of freiburg has conferred the university medal on kar in endress and margot sel z. endress, president of the founda- tion board of the georg h. endress foundation, received the university medal for the foundation’s ex ten- sive suppor t of the tec hnic al faculty, freiburg sustainability re- search, and the european campus. selz, the initiator and chair of the a k tionskreis freiburger sc hule – initiative für ordnungspolitik e.v., was given the distinction for her lasting the public disc our se about fundament al is - sues of a social market economy in dialogue with the univer sit y of freiburg. impac t on dr. karim mohamed gad from the institute of microsystems engineer- ing rec eived the südwestmet all incentive award for his dissertation which looks at the use of functional nano-layers in silicon solar panels. the inc entive award honor s out- standing achievements by junior researchers at the nine universities in the federal st ate of baden - wür t temberg. the award br ings with it eur 5,0 0 0 for wor k of significance to the industrial world of work or its socio-political frame- work. gad researched how dif fer- ent nano - layer s c an be used to produc e hetero - c ont ac ts on the basis of silic on crystals. passivated the neurobiologist prof. dr. carola h a a s has rec eived the a lfred hauptmann prize. the prize for the best scientific work in clinical and exper iment al epileptology in german-speaking countries, which br ings with it eur 10,0 0 0, is awarded ever y t wo year s. haas was honored for a study c ar r ied out in 2016. in it, she examined development al disorder s of the human temporal lobes that fre - quently occur in conjunction with medic ation - resist ant epilepsy. haas shares the prize money with a swiss research team, including assoc iate professor dr. g i a n m a rco d e m a rchi s of the univer- sitätsspital basel and dr. deborah pu g i n of the h ôpit aux univer si - taires de genève. mic robiology the internist and senior physician in the department of infectiology at the university medical center, prof. dr. winfried kern, has been hon- ored by the european societ y of clinic al and infectious diseases (escmid) for his researc h wor k and c ontr ibu - tions to society by being named an honorar y member of escmid, the european soc iet y for clinic al mic robiology infec tious diseases. ker n has been on the board of escmid since 2009 and is now the program director of the annual conference, which is one of the largest international events in the field of infectiology and clinical microbiology. and the deutsche gesellschaf t für pä- diatrische infektiologie has award- ed t he t he o do r esc her ic h pr ize, w h i c h i s e n d o we d w i t h eu r 2 0, 0 0 0, t o d r. r o l a n d e l l i n g. el li n g i s a s p e c i a li st at t h e z e n - trum für kinder- und jugendmedi- zin of the university medical cent- e r a n d a f e l l o w o n t h e b e r t a o t tenstein pro gr am fo r c linic ian sc ientists of the medic al fac ult y. he was awarded the prize for his p l a n n e d p r o j e c t t o s t u d y t h e ef - fects of gluc oc or tic oid hormones o n immune c e lls in tub e rc ul o si s and other inflammator y processes using crispr /cas9 gene editing technology. the univer sit y c ollege freiburg (ucf) has awarded the sociologist m a t t h i a s l e a n z a the erasmus pr ize for the liberal a r ts and sciences 2017 for his disser tation ‘ die zeit der prävention. eine genealogie der krankheitsvorbeu- gung’. the ucf has awarded the prize annually since 2013 for work which treats its subject in an exem- plary fashion from a perspective of the science of history or epistemol- ogy and that c ontr ibutes to an interdisciplinar y methodic al and theoretical exchange. the prize is endowed with eur 5,0 0 0 and is funded by the sparkasse freiburg- nördlicher breisgau. in his disser- tation, leanza traced the develop- ment of prevention in a moder n c ontex t, t aking as an example disease prevention. prof. dr. jennifer e. reardon from the university of california, usa , has received the friedrich wilhelm bessel researc h award. the alexander von humboldt founda- tion honors internationally-recog- nized foreign sc ientists with the prize, which is endowed with eur 45,000. reardon will be working on big data in the life sciences at the university of freiburg. she will be investigating how scientists deal with the problem of interpretation of large quantities of dat a. her is prof. dr. ve r o n i k a host li p p h a r d t of the univer sit y college freiburg. this year, the univer sit y of freiburg is awarding the university teac hing award for outst anding teaching achievements to dr. anna rosen, research assistant at the depar tment of english, and prof. dr. t i m k r i e g e r, holder of the wilfr ied guth endowed chair for constitutional politic al ec onomy and competition policy. the prize is endowed with eur 5,0 0 0 for each recipient. endowed with eur 500, the special prize for student initiative goes to alexandra haag, a student of medicine. the prizes will be presented in october 2017 at the start of the 2017/18 academ- ic year. the university is honoring rosen’s teaching concept ‘applying linguistic s foreign language classroom’, which ena- bles prospective english teachers to engage with the authentic speech of school pupils in research projec ts of their own. k r ieger receives the universit y teaching award for his many year s of acclaimed teaching in economics and above all for his teac hing concept ‘economics blog’. alexan- dra haag will receive the award for her children’s referenc e book ‘paula und die zauberschuhe’. this of fer s insight into the wor ld of a child with a physical disability. the in the islamic scholar prof. dr. walid ahmad saleh from the university of toronto, canada, has received the konrad adenauer researc h award. the a lexander von humboldt foundation awards the annual pr ize, which is funded by the german foreign ministry, to an i n t e r n a t i o n a l l y - r e c o g n i z e d researcher from canada. the prize is endowed with eur 6 0,0 0 0. saleh will be researching glosses to the koran c omment ar y of al - baidawi, the most impor tant and widely- known koran c omment ar y up until the 20 th c entur y. his host is prof. dr. j o h a n n a pi n k of the o r ient al seminar. sunni at the end of marc h, prof. dr. nadine schlüter, research profes- sor at the department of operative dentistr y and per iodontology of the univer sit y m edic al c enter freiburg, received the basil g. bib- by young investigator award at the annual meeting of the international association for dental research in san franc isc o. the pr ize is endowed with usd 2,5 0 0 and honors work to date by junior researchers in the field of cariology. faculty news faculty of theology faculty of humanities the faculty of theology has awarded three honorary doctorates. the distinction was given to prof. dr. christine axt-pis- calar, holder of the chair for systematic theology and head of the institutum lu- theranum at the university of göttingen, prof. dr. wolfgang bernhardt, honorary professor for corporate governance at the university of leipzig and chair of the su- pervisory board of the frankfurter allge- meine zeitung until 2012, and prof. dr. rudolf langthaler, management of the institut für christliche philosophie at the faculty of catholic theology of the uni- versity of vienna. the rector has awarded associate profes- sor dr. stephan wahle the title of adjunct professor for the duration of his license to teach at the university of freiburg. faculty of medicine with effect from 1 may 2017, the rector has appointed prof. dr. harald binder, university medical center at the jo- hannes gutenberg university of mainz, professor of medical biometry and statis- tics. with effect from 1 may 2017, the rector has appointed prof. dr. tilmann brummer, institute of molecular medicine and cell research, professor of medical cell research and signal transduction. with effect from 1 may 2017, the rector has appointed prof. dr. matthias eder, deutsches krebsforschungszentrum hei- delberg, of radio- pharmaceutical development after the jülicher model. professor with effect from 1 april 2017, the rector has appointed prof. dr. olaf groß, tech- nical university of munich, professor of experimental neuro pathology. with effect from 1 may 2017, the rector has appointed prof. dr. andreas vlachos, heinrich-heine-universität düs- seldorf, professor of neuroanatomy. faculty of philology prof. dr. rolf kailuweit has accepted the appointment offered by the heinrich- heine-universität düsseldorf. he is leav- ing the professorship in romance lan- guages and media studies at the department of romance languages and literatures here. with effect from 1 may 2017, the rector has appointed michael abeßer from the department of history to be an adminis- trative officer for the period of three years. prof. dr. jörn leonhard has declined the appointment offered to him by the ruhr- universität bochum in connection with an appointment the kulturwissenschaftlichen institut in essen. by faculty of mathematics and physics with effect from 21 june 2017, the rector has appointed dr. andrea knue from the institute of physics to be an administrative officer for the period of three years. faculty of chemistry and pharmacy the rector has appointed prof. dr. dr. an- dreas barner, president of the stifterver- band für die deutsche wissenschaft e.v., honorary professor. dr. michael summer has accepted the appointment offered by the chemnitz uni- versity of technology. faculty of biology prof. dr. ilka diester from the institute of biology iii has declined the appointment offered by the eberhard karls university of tübingen. faculty of environment and natural resources with effect from 1 june 2017, the rector has appointed dr. malte junge of the in- stitute of geology and environmental sci- ences to be an administrative officer for the period of three years. with effect from 12 july 2017, the rector has appointed dr. gerwin wulf of the institute of geology and environmental sciences to be an administrative officer for the period of three years. faculty of engineering with effect from 1 july 2017, the rector has appointed dr. alfons dehé, infineon technologies ag, professor of smart sys- tems integration. prof. dr. thomas brox from the institute of computer science has declined the appointment offered to him by the eberhard karls university of tübingen. neue produkte im sor timent produkte finden sie im online-shop: www.shop.uni-freiburg.de und in den buchhandlungen rombach und walthari anniversaries 25th anniversaries prof. dr. ad aertsen, institute of biology iii/bernstein center freiburg prof. dr. manfred june, institute of pharmaceutical sciences lothar mertink, university computer center ralf rich, central university administration 40th anniversaries prof. dr. elisabeth cheauré, department of slavic languages and literatures prof. dr. ulrich landgraf, institute of physics prof. dr. oliver landmann, institute of economic theory and public finance venia legendi for dr. nicole falkenhayner, english literature and cultural studies dr. alberto rodríguez gonzález, physics dr. tobias hack, moral theology dr. benjamin kohlmann, english philology dr. sonja levsen, modern and contemporary history dr. alexander mischnik, medical microbiology