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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.

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.

After its premiere last year, the University of Münster will host a “Falling Walls Lab” in 2026 as well. After a successful application, young talents can present their idea, research or initiative on 11 September at the REACH – EUREGIO Start-up Center. The winner will travel to Berlin in early November for the international finale, the “Falling Walls Science Summit”.

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 Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space is funding a project on the resource-efficient, solvent-free production of battery electrodes. The project is being coordinated by the MEET Battery Research Centre.

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.

Our youngest members of society are becoming regular users of digital media which can confront them with problematic role models. The international and interdisciplinary research network “G+Media” is investigating to what extent educational media contributes to discrimination so that it can counteract it at an early stage.

The battery recycling industry must massively expand its capacity and cope with the fact that the complexity of the batteries being returned is increasing significantly. This is shown by a new study involving researchers from the Institute of Business Chemistry at the University of Münster.

A research team led by Prof. Christos Gatsogiannis at the University of Münster has gained new insights into the workings of a cellular transporter — a protein essential for pathogenic fungi to absorb vital nutrients. These findings could contribute to the development of new therapeutic strategies against fungal infections in the long term.

Researchers led by Professor Iris Finkemeier from the Institute of Plant Biology and Biotechnology discovered a specific chemical mark in the ‘histone code’ of thale cress that is responsible for adaptation to salt stress.