We’ve just updated our PhD and Habilitation Wall-of-Fame—a small but meaningful way of recognising the academic journeys completed within our EORC. The latest names have been carefully added, marking the culmination of years of dedicated research and quiet perseverance.

But as we take a step back to admire the newly refreshed list, we realise: it’s already almost out of date.

Several new PhD defenses are scheduled in the coming months, and it won’t be long before another round of names will join the growing community of researchers who have taken this important step in their careers within the Earth Observation Research Cluster at the University of Wuerzburg. It’s a reminder that academic life never stands still. There’s always another question to explore, another thesis to defend, another contribution waiting to be made.

These walls tell the story of our department not through grand gestures, but through steady progress—person by person, thesis by thesis. We’re grateful for the hard work and dedication that each name represents, and we look forward to adding the next ones very soon.

To those preparing to defend: we wish you clarity, confidence, and calm. And when the time comes, your name will have its place on the wall, among colleagues past and present.