On 25 November, the Faculty of Natural Sciences celebrated the successful completion of their degree or doctorate in the Audimax with this year's graduates and their friends and family.
The Vice President for International Relations, Prof Dr Torsten Meier, congratulated them on behalf of the university management.
The Dean, Prof Dr Wolf Gero Schmidt, reported briefly on the development and successes of the faculty over the last 12 months. These include the appointment of Prof. Dr Martin Brehm to a Heisenberg professorship in the Department of Chemistry and the admission of Prof. Dr Christine Silberhorn to the German Council of Science and Humanities and the German Academy of Science and Engineering acatech. The faculty has enjoyed numerous publications in outstanding scientific journals as well as third-party funding totalling around EUR 10 million. Furthermore, renowned EU projects such as the "Quantum Secure Networks Partnership" (Prof. Dr Christine Silberhorn) or "OPINCHARGE" (Jun.-Prof. Hans-Georg Steinrück) as well as BMBF projects on educational research with participation from physics (including Prof. Dr Eva Blumberg) and sport (including Prof. Dr Elke Grimminger-Seidensticker) have been launched. The construction of the "Photonic Quantum Systems Laboratory", i.e. the research building of the Institute of Photonic Quantum Systems, is making visible progress. Following the recently celebrated topping-out ceremony, the keys are due to be handed over at the end of 2024. Despite numerous, very successful activities in the area of public relations and recruiting young talent, however, there has been a slight decline in enrolments in the Faculty's degree programmes to 3,505. Inspiring young people to study natural sciences will remain a focus of the faculty's work. In this context, the Dean paid tribute to the students who have been accepted into scholarship programmes, e.g. the OWL Study Fund or the German National Academic Foundation, and encouraged further applications.
Afterwards, the graduates organised a joint presentation under the motto "Jumping sparks in physics, chemistry and sport" with vivid reports from their day-to-day studies. Experiments in chemistry and physics, a sports dance performance and, in particular, a demonstration by the Paderborn Dolphins cheerleaders were all impressive.
This was followed by the presentation of certificates from the Departments of Sport & Health, Chemistry and Physics. The best student theses in sport (Isabel Ehlting, Carina Pohle) were honoured with the Paderborn Sports Science Prize. The ceremony was musically framed by the singer Gina Westerhelweg with piano accompaniment by Eckhard Wiemann. After the official ceremony, all graduates and their families and friends were invited to a reception in the foyer of the Audimax. The offer of UPB Alumni - the central alumni network of Paderborn University - to take photos with gowns was gladly taken up by many graduates.
This text has been translated automatically.
