New Wall-of-Fame Celebrates Our Academic Journey: Honoring PhDs and Habilitations!

New Wall-of-Fame Celebrates Our Academic Journey: Honoring PhDs and Habilitations!

May 2, 2025

We are proud to unveil our brand-new PhD and Habilitation Wall-of-Fame, a visual tribute to the many brilliant minds who have shaped the academic spirit of our department over the years. This gallery of excellence features individual portraits of every PhD graduate and every scholar who has completed their Habilitation with us – but quite a few are still missing and will be added in the forthcoming weeks.

📚 Celebrating Our Habilitations Each of our habilitated scholars now holds a professorship—a testament not only to their individual achievements but also to the strong academic environment we cultivate here. Their photos now serve as a beacon of inspiration for future generations and will be extended by the missing scholars in the next days.

🎓 PhD Graduates – Past and Present Our growing photo collection proudly showcases our PhD alumni, with many familiar faces already on display. While about 20+ PhD graduates are still to be added, we are actively gathering and updating the collection over the coming weeks. This wall is not static—it’s evolving, just like our research community.

📝 Keeping the Present in Focus In addition to honoring our alumni, the wall features regularly updated printouts listing all current PhD candidates. It’s a small but meaningful way to acknowledge their ongoing efforts and remind everyone of the vibrant academic life happening here and now.

So next time you walk by, take a moment to look at the faces, names, and stories on the wall. Whether you’re just starting your academic path or many milestones in, this display celebrates where we’ve come from—and where we’re going.

you may also like:

PhD Defense by Dorothee Stiller

PhD Defense by Dorothee Stiller

Dorothee Stiller will defend her PhD thesis "Potential of Remote Sensing Data and Methods for Urban Transport Research" on 15th of September at 4 p.m. at the John-Skilton Straße 4a, seminar Room 2/00.B.03. Everyone who is interested is cordially invited to join her...

Strengthening Collaboration with SANParks for Conservation Research

Strengthening Collaboration with SANParks for Conservation Research

Our long-standing collaboration with Dr. Corli Coetsee and Dr. Ben Wigley from SANParks is moving forward with promising new research activities. The joint work is focusing on mapping savanna features more accurately such as trees, paths, or animals through innovative...

Exploring Future Collaborations on Fire Research in African Savannas

Exploring Future Collaborations on Fire Research in African Savannas

During recent discussions, new opportunities for collaboration emerged between Navashni Govender, Senior Conservation Manager at SANParks in Kruger National Park, Prof. Katharina Breininger, head of the Pattern Recognition Lab in Informatics, and Dr. Mirjana Bevanda...

Understanding Urban Heat in Germany

Understanding Urban Heat in Germany

In a world where summers grow ever hotter, understanding and combating urban heat islands is becoming more urgent than ever. A recent study by our Prof. Hannes Taubenboeck sheds new light on this challenge—and at its helm is Dr. Tobias Leichtle, Dr. Thilo Erbertseder...

Exploring Drought and Fire Impacts on African Savanna Vegetation

Exploring Drought and Fire Impacts on African Savanna Vegetation

In the past weeks, our research team has been preparing for a unique field experiment investigating how drought and fire influence African savanna vegetation. The work is part of the PhD by Luisa Pflumm, she is supported by our PhD student Antonio Castaneda and his...