From Calendars to Climate Adaptation Measures: Faculty Celebration Shows the Diversity and Relevance of Research

The range of topics covered in the presentations at the academic annual celebration of the Faculty of Geography and Geosciences reflected the broad spectrum of work carried out by the two sister institutes:

Prof. Dr. Chris Kyba, who took up his position at the Institute of Geography last year, provided insights into his research on night-time lighting, first discussing the measurement of time using stars and calendars, and then linking this to current issues of light pollution.

Inga Lammers, winner of the 2025 Sigfried Niedermeyer Award, presented her work on the use of high-resolution satellite images to measure lava flow velocities. The Applied Geosciences Award went to Moritz Arnd, who presented a vertical analysis of the urban climate, which can be used to evaluate climate adaptation measures through green infrastructure.

Dean Prof. Dr. Adrian Immenhauser put current developments into a larger temporal context from a geoscientific perspective and explained, for example, that the recent snowfall was “just winter” and not a “winter of the century” like the one at the turn of 1978/79.

As always, the highlight of the ceremony was the awarding of diplomas to the graduates. In the past academic year, 20 B.Sc. and 22 M.Sc. degrees were awarded in geosciences, as well as 76 B.Sc. and 44 M.Sc. degrees in geography.

In addition, 29 students completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in two subjects; 25 of them wrote their bachelor's thesis in geography. The graduates received their diplomas at a separate event held by the Professional School of Education.

It was particularly encouraging to see seven doctoral students successfully complete their doctorates this year.

The audience was actively involved as well: in a quiz, Dr. Katharina Jockers, office manager of the dean's office, and M.A. Christina Rauch, public relations officer of the Institute of Geosciences, shared interesting and surprising facts about the faculty and its members.

And those who looked closely were able to spot a very special guest among all the scientific highlights: the mascot of the Geosciences Student Council, Pickhammer Petra, did not miss the opportunity to make a personal appearance at the annual celebration.