The WISE Demography Network, launched by Jacobs University, recently met at Bremen's Weser Stadion to discuss the topic of Personnel and Executive Development. The meeting was hosted by the latest addition to the network – Werder Bremen.

Prof. Dr. Ursula M. Staudinger, Vice President of Jacobs University Bremen and Founding Dean of the Jacobs Center on Lifelong Learning and Institutional Development (JCLL) joins Columbia University (New York) as of July 1, 2013.

In early April, nine students from Jacobs University started a new project with the Gerhard-Rohlfs-Oberschule in Bremen-Nord on behalf of the Yachay Initiative, an international non-profit organization run by Jacobs alumni and students. Once a week the Jacobs students teach a class of 8th graders on how to work in teams and develop ideas to initiate positive change in their community. The project will run until the beginning of June.

Dr. Tim Nesemann, Chairman of the Board of Sparkasse Bremen, met the current recipients of the ‘Sparkasse Scholarship for Mathematics’ to find out more about their studies and life at Jacobs University. Accompanied by math students Mengyuan Zhang and Alexandru Mihai and Jacobs University President Prof. Dr. Heinz-Otto Peitgen, Dr. Nesemann, who also holds a PhD in Mathematics, toured the university campus.

Mirroring the success of previous years Jacobs University has again achieved great results in the latest CHE ranking. The German Center for Higher Education Development (CHE) and leading German news weekly DIE ZEIT have just released results for 2013. This year’s ranking focused on the fields of engineering, linguistic and educational sciences and psychology. Four study programs at Jacobs University received top scores.

More than 700 spectators watched exciting races between the rowing teams of Jacobs University and HSBA Hamburg School of Business Administration in Hamburg on May 4, 2013. In the main race over 2,000m the Jacobs men’s eight could not succeed: the cup will stay in Hamburg. In their boat ‘Liekedeeler’ the HSBA eight crossed the finish line on the Alster river with several boat lengths ahead of the Jacobs ‘Frieda’. In the overall score Jacobs University and HSBA now have reached a draw of 3:3.

Jacobs University is taking part in the much talked about "MOOC Production Fellowship" with applications for six open online courses ranging from life sciences, to the humanities, and social sciences. The online course movie trailers, an integral part of the Fellowship's application, will give an early feedback about the potential demand for the course idea, and can be voted from now through to May 23.

On May 4, 2013, Jacobs University will compete against the HSBA Hamburg School of Business Administration in the traditional Hanse Boat Race in Hamburg on the Alster river. Fans and spectators can watch four exciting races of the universities’ men’s and women’s teams. The rowing course runs from Schwanenwik to Krugkoppelbrücke, where also the main race over 2,000m will be fought out between the men’s eight. Heinz-Otto Peitgen, President of Jacobs University, and Uve Samuels, Managing Director of the HSBA, will welcome the guests.

More than 30 students from Bremen schools visited Jacobs University on Future Day, a German-wide project that allows girls and boys to get insight into technical and science-oriented professions. At Jacobs, the 10 to 14-year-olds visited bioscientific labs, learned about robotics engineering and heard at first hand from Jacobs faculty and staff, what it is like to work in an academic environment.

Many chemical reactions on earth cannot take place unless they are accelerated by catalysts, i.e. special compounds which facilitate and speed up a chemical reaction, but are not consumed themselves. In living organisms enzymes take over this role and act as biocatalysts. Enzymes achieve their special activity by encapsulating the react compounds inside small pockets or cavities in which reactions can then take place with ease. For some time scientists have been intrigued by this process and researchers from Jacobs University, the Jyväskylä University in Finland and other institutions have gained fundamental insights into the role of molecular cavities and how their size affects chemical reactions. Their research is featured as a cover story in the May issue of leading journal Nature Chemistry (Nat. Chem. 2013, DOI: 10.1038/NCHEM.1618).

For two days students from all over the world visited Jacobs University to present their business ideas in front of a critical expert jury as part of the annual JacoBus business plan competition.

How can we measure the quality of life in nations? Traditionally, the GDP has served as an indicator for the ‘state of states’. But there are rising doubts about the usefulness of GDP for evaluating how good life is, and a number of alternative measures have been developed. Jan Delhey, Professor of Sociology at Jacobs, and Christian Kroll, Affiliated Postdoctoral Fellow, Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences (BIGSSS), compared alternative quality-of-life (QOL) measures and put them to the “happiness test”: Are the new QOL measures better equipped to capture what makes people happy and satisfied with their lives?

Jacobs alumna Marlen de la Chaux has been awarded the much sought-after Gates Cambridge Scholarship, one of the most prestigious international scholarships in the world. The program was established with a donation of USD 210 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to the University of Cambridge.

The Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences – BIGSSS – bestowed its first Best Paper Award on PhD Fellow Evgenia Bystrov for her outstanding paper “Testing the Second Demographic Transition Theory with Seemingly Unrelated Regression: Marital Postponement and Human Empowerment.” 

From April 15 to 18, Jacobs students have the unique opportunity to practice their French language skills while trying out their acting talent. In cooperation with the Institut Français, Jacobs University offers a workshop conducted by the French stage director Yazid Lakhouache taking place at Theater Space from Monday to Wednesday (April 15- 17). The results of the workshop will be presented at Krupp College Common Room on Thursday (April 18) at 8p.m.

Gabriela Ponce and Robin Wanjiru Njenga have been chosen for the Mercator Award 2012/2013. The 20-year-old from Ecuador and the 21-year-old from Kenya will receive 5000 Euro in prize money. Since 2008 the Mercator Foundation has annually honored students living in Mercator College for their outstanding social and intercultural commitment and their great academic achievements. Larissa Dickhaut from the Mercator Foundation handed over the award on April 8 – coinciding with the 10th anniversary of Mercator College.

Jacobs University’s executive master program “Basin & Petroleum System Dynamics “ (BPSD) has gone into its second round welcoming eight new participants for a week of courses, workshops and lectures.

Can animals change the way we think? Can we learn anything from invasive species? How do we measure animal behavior in the wild? Jacobs alumna Dr. Joanna Bagniewska (Class of 2006) ventured to answer these questions at the recent TEDxWarsaw in March.

JacoBus is a business plan competition from students for students promoting responsible entrepreneurship, diversity in leadership and sustainability. On April 19 and 20, students from 18 universities from around the world are meeting at Jacobs University for the final of the competition. This year’s topic is food and water. A jury of experts made up of scientists and business representatives will choose three winning teams out of a final round of ten giving them the opportunity to win a total of almost €10,000 in prize money.

Jacobs University has scored highly in the special analysis “Diverse Excellence 2012” ranking published recently by the non-profit Centre for Higher Education (Centrum für Hochschulentwicklung CHE). In its findings – with a focus on mathematics and natural sciences – the CHE examined 83 German universities in four areas: research, application, and internationality and student guidance. The results are based on the CHE Ranking 2012 first published in May last year. Jacobs University gets high scores in five study programs.

Remember when...it was proper spring...

If you are staying on campus over spring break, here is a little reminder about the changed opening times of the serveries. Have a happy and relaxed spring break...with lots of chocolate!

Researchers from Jacobs University in cooperation with Bremen-based business consultancy PTSGroup have conducted a study on the perspectives, possibilities and limits of social media use in companies. Now, first results have been published.

Carbenes are considered rather unstable carbon compounds. Despite predictions reaching back as far as 200 years, the synthesis of compounds containing carbenes showed only first results in the 1970s. N-Heterocyclic carbenes (NHC) in particular were soon used in pharmaceutical and technical processes. Scientists at Jacobs University have now developed new ways of synthesizing stable NHC-complexes of main-group elements, which are user-friendly. They can be used as chemical overcharge protection in lithium ion batteries or possibly as liquid crystals in LC-displays. The German Research Foundation, the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology and the Merck KGaA support the research with a total of €1.2million.

Internet, SMS, and smartphones make an important contribution to support the elderly in health promotion. So-called expert systems provide individualized questions and tasks. A research group lead by Sonia Lippke, Professor of Health Psychology at Jacobs University, found that the use of new media may change negative health behaviors like smoking and lack of physical activity. The most important goal is to incorporate healthy behaviors into a daily routine.

Jacobs University President Dr. Heinz-Otto Peitgen joined Dr. Raymond Wells (Jacobs University Foundation of America President), Dr. Howard Resnikoff (Jacobs University Foundation of America Chairman), and about thirty Jacobs alumni from the class of 2004 through 2012 Saturday, for the 2013 Alumni Spring Reunion held in San Francisco. The event was jointly hosted by the Jacobs University Foundation of America (JUFA), and the Jacobs Alumni Association, and took place at the University Club of San Francisco atop San Francisco's Nob Hill. The board meeting featured the annual report from President Peitgen and a review of cooperations between the JUFA and Jacobs, culminated in dinner and an evening in the city.

Jacobs alumna Holly Oberle has published a book for US high school and Bachelor’s students interested in pursuing an international education outside of their home country. Many Americans know about the wealth of study abroad opportunities, but few directly enroll as full-time students in a university abroad.

Local high school students Svenja Schwichtenberg and Christina Porwig came first in the field of biology in the Bremen finals of the annual science competition “Jugend forscht”. They also received the two special awards “World Saviour” from University of Bremen and “Environmental Engineering” from Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt. The students from Schulzentrum Rübekamp in Bremen developed an eco-friendly glue made from algae – Alglue – in a lab at Jacobs University.

Think globally, act locally: From September 1, 2013 the HANSA-FLEX Foundation supports Jacobs University students with scholarships worth €150,000 p.a. over three years covering either full or partial tuition and / or board. By providing the new scholarships and allowing promising young talents to study at Jacobs University the HANSA-FLEX Foundation aims to strengthen Bremen as a location for science, research and education. Students especially hailing from Bremen, Eastern Europe or Asia and enrolled in natural sciences and business-related programs can apply for the scholarships.

Jacobs University today unveiled its new concert piano – a donation by a benefactor – with an hour-long concert by Jacobs students and the leader of the university's chamber orchestra.

“Nano” has become a buzzword, which attracts increasing attention due to the growing number of applications, based on extremely small structures. The research team led by Arnulf Materny, Professor of Chemical Physics at Jacobs University, has developed a microscope, which allows for the investigation of ultrafast chemical processes with extremely high spatial resolution.

Matthias Ullrich, Professor of Microbiology at Jacobs University, is one of the co-chairs of this year’s Annual Conference of the Association for General and Applied Microbiology in collaboration with the Royal Netherlands Society for Microbiology. The conference, billed as the largest of its kind in Europe, takes place at the Congress Center Bremen from March 10 - 13.

Jacobs students successfully participated in the recent 2nd Edition of the ‘LiDAR as Art’ contest, which is held in conjunction with the International LiDAR Mapping Forum in Denver, Colorado. PhD student Jan Elseberg won contest with an image called 'Self Portrait with Duckling'. LiDAR is short for Laser Imaging Detection and Ranging.

On March 1 and 2, Jacobs students are taking part in the regional finals of the 4th annual Hult Prize contest, the world’s largest student competition on social entrepreneurship. It is supported by Bill Clinton and the Clinton Global Initiative. The year's contest is addressing the Global Food Crisis. 

Jacobs students of the Masters program 'International Logistics – Management and Engineering' together with students of Prof. Jens Froese’s International Logistics Group have set up a new Logistics Master course making use of Jacobs video conferencing facilities. They have linked up with six European universities as part of European-Union-funded project 'TrainMoS' to offer more courses. These are open to students from Jacobs and other institutions free of charge.

On February 21, Jacobs University welcomed the Ostasiatischer Verein Bremen e.V. (OAV) on campus for a reception preceding the OAV’s annual celebration of its founding anniversary. Close to 200 guests from the fields of business, politics and science were on hand, including ambassadors from East and South East Asia as well as Australia.

The Board of Jacobs University’s Alumni Association gathered in Austria for the first of this year's three annual meetings. Following a tradition of coming together in cities where board members reside, the meeting took place in Mozart’s birthplace of Salzburg. It was hosted by Salzburg Research, the employer of one of the board members.

Jacobs University and euro engineering AG are cooperating to offer a new mentoring program for undergraduate students. The pilot project is initially aimed at Jacobs engineering students with a view to expand it in across other sectors and study programs in the future.

Bacteria resistant to multiple antibiotics are one of the biggest health hazards of our time. In order to push the development of new antibiotic drugs fighting antimicrobial resistance (AMR), the research project TRANSLOCATION has been set up as part of the Euroepan public-private partnership Innovative Medicine Initiative (IMI). Lead by Jacobs University, 25 industry and science partners are united in the five-year project which is funded with a total of €29.3 million.

Peter Wiegand, Director of Corporate Communications at Jacobs University, will leave the university as of March 1, 2013 to pursue new professional challenges. Wiegand played a decisive role in successfully positioning Jacobs University nationally and internationally.

The JacoBus Challenge business plan competition enters its third round. This year, students from all over the world are asked to hand in their ideas for innovative products and initiatives in the field of “Food and Water”.

State redistribution from rich to poor can spur economic growth within a society, researchers at Jacobs University, University of Bremen and the ETH Zurich have found. By employing theoretical model calculations the scientists were able to show that redistribution of wealth would not only be beneficial for social and security reasons, but also have distinct economic advantages. The study results have just been published by Open-Access journal PLOS ONE. (DOI: 10.1371/journals.pone.0054904).

Two Jacobs University graduates are among six young awardees honored with the OLB Wissenschaftspreis, the highest-endowed science prize in the Northwest of Germany. With a total endowment of €22,000 the award recognizes student and graduate dissertations including PhD, Magister, Diploma, State Exam, Bachelor and Master theses. It is funded by the OLB-Stiftung of Oldenburgische Landesbank AG.

More than 300 guests from the worlds of academia, politics and business attended the traditional New Year’s Reception held by the ‘unifreunde’ at the Obere Rathaushalle in Bremen. At the festive event new professors appointetd by Jacobs University and the University of Bremen over the course of the last year were introduced to the public.

Picture shows from left to right:
Prof. Dr. Moritz Renner (Professor of Transnational Business Law / University of Bremen), Prof. Dr. Bernd Scholz-Reiter (Rector of University of Bremen), Prof. Dr. Heinz-Otto Peitgen (President of Jacobs University), Eva Quante-Brandt (Senator for Education and Science), Prof. Dr. Dominic Sachsenmaier (Professor of Modern Asian History / Jacobs University), Prof. Dr. Katja Windt (Provost of Jacobs University), Unifreunde Chairman Bengt Beutler.

For the spring semester Jacobs University welcomes 33 visiting and exchange students from the US and the Netherlands on campus. The students from Lafayette College (Pennsylvania, USA), Wellesley College (Massachusetts, USA), Rice University (Texas, USA) and University College Utrecht (Netherlands) take part in an exciting but also intensive university program.

The three-day workshop “Hybrids in Microscopy” will focus on microscopic techniques that enable researchers to face the challenges of live cell imaging. It runs from January 30 to February 1.

As Jacobs University prepares for the return of its students and the start of the spring semester, we are putting the spotlight on an event series unique to our campus: Country Information Days or CIDs - run by students for the Jacobs community.

From January 14 to 31, Jacobs University offers its annual winter school for internal and external students. Courses range from politics to art to methodological topics. The program is designed for undergraduate and graduate students who would like to participate in intensive study programs and earn credits.

In Germany, China and other industrial nations the ever growing use of rare earth elements is starting to have a negative impact on the environment. Rare earths are used in the production of wind turbines, mobile phones, computers and other high-tech goods. A new study by Michael Bau, Professor of Geosciences at Jacobs University, and Serkan Kulaksiz, post-doctorate researcher, now shows that in addition to abnormally high concentrations of lanthanum and gadolinium, the Rhine is also polluted with rare earth element samarium.

A team of scientists at Jacobs University has identified a new type of weak chemical forces in an artificially created molecular system. Up to now, such forces have only been known to occur in biological systems such as proteins. The researchers were able to detect that iodine and bromine molecules placed in the hollow synthetic container molecule cucurbit[6]uril formed perpendicular contacts between a urea group of the molecular container and the encapsulated halogens. These biomimetic chemical interactions can now open new doors in the design and development of halogen-containing drugs, antiseptics, batteries, and solar cells.

As part of the EU-funded project EMOTE, Arvid Kappas, Professor of Psychology at Jacobs University, conducts research on a new generation of robotic tutors with perceptive capabilities to engage in empathic interactions with learners. These artificial tutors can serve as a complement to traditional teaching. Overall, the EMOTE project aims to research the role of empathic interventions in the process of facilitating the learning progress. The researchers explore if and how the exchange of socio-emotional cues with a tutor can create a sense of connection and social bonding and enhance the learning experience. The three-year-long project is funded with €2.9 million.