Newsportal

In the latest Shanghai Ranking, the University of Münster achieves an excellent position within Germany, ranking between sixth and eleventh. In an international comparison, it is ranked in the 151st to 200th group.

For more than 100 years, scholars had assumed that the rulers of the ancient Assyrian Empire in the Near East, from 1000 to 609 BC, were listed in full in a king list. Assyriologists Dr. Alexander Edmonds (University of Münster) and Prof. Eckart Frahm (Yale University) have now been able to prove that there were three further kings, who were almost completely erased from history.

A research team led by the universities of Münster, Hanover, and Halle has shown that the mitochondria, the “powerhouses” of cells, are already ready for action in dry plant seeds. Their internal structure is fully developed and their “machinery” is complete.

Psychological interventions are effective in treating post-traumatic stress disorders in children and adolescents. But are they also safe? An international research team led by Dr Thole H. Hoppen and Professor Nexhmedin Morina come to a clear conclusion in a meta-study published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.

A research team involving Professors Christos Gatsogiannis and Bart Jan Ravoo has shown that peptides carrying a flat carbon network aggregate into long fibres in water. Using cryo-electron microscopy, the researchers analysed the structure with record resolution.

For ten years, Prof Dr Johannes Wessels has presided over the University of Münster. He made far-reaching decisions, received numerous guests, conducted business trips and expanded his expertise every day. Looking back, he says he rarely reflected on his days as a “normal researcher”. Instead, he is grateful for the many fascinating insights he has gained.

A German-Turkish team has surveyed the Ararat glacier for the first time at an altitude of over 5,000 metres. Beneath the melting ice could lie a unique climate and cultural archive dating back thousands of years. The team, comprising archaeologists and glaciologists, has now identified the best location from which to extract ice cores in future.

The Rectorate’s Office has launched three new internal funding lines – IDEAS, START and ADVANCED – which support innovative ideas, new collaborations and competitive research proposals. In an interview with Kathrin Kottke, Prof Dr Monika Stoll, Vice-Rector for Research, explains why unconventional ideas deserve a chance, why failure is part and parcel of research, and why sometimes it comes down to drawing lots.

The German Research Foundation (DFG) has awarded Dr. Robin J. Sroka with approximately 1.3 million euros in funding as part of the Emmy Noether Programme. Over the next six years, this will enable the mathematician to establish his own research group “Cohomology and K-Theory: Exploring New Connections”.

Located on Scharnhorststraße, and sitting behind unremarkable walls and along tidy corridors, the staff in the central examinations offices perform invaluable work. They offer support for undergraduates and PhD students at the University of Münster, from the first to the last examinations they take.

Fossilised wood from the Kyffhäuser has proved to be a previously unknown geoarchive. Tiny quartz crystals have preserved the temperatures and depths to which the tree trunks were exposed over the course of 300 million years. With the help of these inclusions, a research team led by the University of Münster has been able to reconstruct the development of our continent.

The University of Münster will soon see a change in management. The University Electoral Assembly overwhelmingly confirmed the appointment of Prof Dr Ulrike Weyland as vice-rector, and elected Prof Dr Sven G. Meuth and Prof Dr Benjamin Risse as new vice-rectors. On 1 October, Prof Dr Susanne Menzel-Riedl will replace Prof Dr Johannes Wessels as the new University Rector.