29th place worldwide in the "Times Higher Education" ranking

For the seventh time in a row, Bielefeld University has been named one of the world's best young universities by the British academic magazine Times Higher Education (THE). In the "Young University Rankings 2018" Bielefeld University ranks 29th worldwide. Among the German universities evaluated, it ranks fourth, and second in North Rhine-Westphalia. The ranking compares universities worldwide that are not older than 50 years.
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Bielefeld University’s international range of study courses extended

Two new double degree programmes make it possible to obtain an international double degree from Bielefeld University and a university in Mexico or Italy. Starting next winter semester, students can enrol in the German-Mexican Master's programme InterAmerican Studies/Estudios InterAmericanos in cooperation with the Universidad de Guadalajara, and in the German-Italian Master's programme in Literary Studies in cooperation with the Sapienza Università di Roma. The German-Italian partnership contract was presented at a ceremony at Bielefeld University yesterday (4/6/2018).[Weiterlesen]

Project from CITEC researchers wins prize in “Landmarks in the Land of Ideas” competition

Today, 4 June 2018, researchers at the Cluster of Excellence Cognitive Interaction Technology (CITEC) at Bielefeld University and their cooperation partners were awarded a prize for their intelligent glasses (Adamaas system) in Berlin. An independent jury selected the Bielefeld submission from among 100 submissions from approximately 1,500 applications submitted to the nationwide innovation competition “Ausgezeichnete Orte im Land der Ideen” (“Landmarks in the Land of Ideas”). On the topic of “Connecting Worlds – Strengthening Unity,” the project puts forth an answer to the question of how intelligent technology can provide assistance to elderly people as well as individuals with cognitive disabilities. This is already the second success for researchers from the Cluster of Excellence in this competition.[Weiterlesen]

A team from Bielefeld University’s Cluster of Excellence CITEC will compete in the RoboCup world championship with Pepper, a humanoid robot. The competition will be held from 18-22 June in Montreal, Canada, where more than 400 teams from around the globe will come together to compete in a total of 12 leagues in four areas. The team from the Cluster of Excellence Cognitive Interaction Technology (CITEC), made up of students and two researchers, will compete with Pepper in the household service league, where service robots will show off their skills.[Weiterlesen]

Bielefeld physics successfully concludes DFG priority programme

The national priority programme ‘Spin Caloric Transport’ (SpinCaT) funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) was set up to examine how magnetic currents can be generated through differences in temperature and explore their potential future use to save energy in nanoelectronics. Bielefeld University’s Faculty of Physics worked on seven projects in the now successfully completed programme that was launched in 2011. Dr Timo Kuschel and Professor Dr Günter Reiss and their research team achieved further breakthroughs in three projects.[Weiterlesen]

Pflegekräfte übernehmen in Brasilien eine ganz andere Rolle als in Deutschland: Sie sind akademisch ausgebildet und stellen medizinische Grundversorgung und Gesundheitsberatung sicher. Kerstin Hämel und Doris Schaeffer, Professorinnen für Gesundheitswissenschaften, arbeiten bereits seit einigen Jahren mit der Universidade Franciscana, einer Universität im Süden Brasiliens, zusammen. Jetzt haben sie die Präsidentin und die Professorin für Pflegewissenschaft aus Santa Maria nach Bielefeld eingeladen, um in einem Memorandum of Understanding für die kommenden drei Jahre gemeinsame Forschungsperspektiven festzuklopfen.

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Bielefeld chemists publish research article in the journal “Nature Communications”

Penicillin-based antibiotics contain a five-membered hydrocarbon cycle, additionally incorporating a sulfur and a nitrogen atom. Nadine Zumbrägel, doctoral student at the Chair of Organic Chemistry I at Bielefeld University, has succeeded in selectively synthesizing this important substructure with different residues on this cycle using a biotechnological method. The targeted design of such structures now enables the preparation of substance libraries of such so-called heterocycles, which can in future be used by the pharmaceutical industry to find new active substances. Besides the Bielefeld chemists, two scientists from the Ruhr-University Bochum were also involved in the studies. The researchers present their findings today (16 May 2018) in the renowned journal “Nature Communications” with Zumbrägel as first author and Professor Dr. Harald Gröger, head of the Chair of Organic Chemistry I, as corresponding author.[Weiterlesen]

First Scientific Collaboration coming in autumn

The intended partnership between higher education institutions in the regions Ostwestfalen-Lippe (OWL) and Alberta (Canada) has become more concrete: An agreement for cooperation has been signed in Edmonton, Canada. An upcoming meeting taking place in autumn in Edmonton will help shed light on how this German-Canadian cooperation could take shape in the future.    [Weiterlesen]

Research results published in the journal “Nature Communications”

The ratio of adult males and females is an important demographic trait in wild populations. In plovers, closely related populations express strikingly different adult sex ratios. This variation is mainly driven by sex differences in the survival of juveniles. Families in populations with biased adult sex ratios were predominantly tended by a single parent – typically the father – whereas in balanced populations, generally both parents take care of the young, suggesting that parental cooperation breaks down under an unbalanced sex ratio. That was found out by a research group around Dr. Luke Eberhart-Phillips. The behavioural scientist did his research about the sex ratio of plovers supervised by Professor Dr. Joseph Hoffman and Professor Dr. Oliver Krüger at Bielefeld University and he’s now Postdoc at Max Planck Institute for Ornithology Seewiesen. The research team, in which also the University of Bath and the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology Seewiesen are involved, presents its results today (25.04.2018) in the journal “Nature Communications”.[Weiterlesen]

Accompanying programme: Lectures, guided tours and photographic interventions

Reinhart Koselleck (1923-2006) was one of the most important historians of the 20th century. What is less well known is that the Bielefeld-based historian concerned himself closely with images and visual representation. Koselleck explored the question as to the visual dimension to history and research into it – in his photographs, drawings and writing. The exhibition “Reinhart Koselleck’ Images of Time” opens on 18 April at Bielefeld University, ZiF Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Kunstverein Bielefeld, showcasing over 600 photographs and selected exhibits from the historian’s estate. Guests from all over Germany will come to Bielefeld during the exhibition, which runs through July, to present lectures or take part in the panel discussions. Moreover, there will be guided tours and photographic interventions by students over the same period.[Weiterlesen]