On 7 January 2026, the long-standing collaboration between the GeoHealth Centre and the Department of Geography at the University of Bonn was secured for the long term through a cooperation agreement. This strengthens Bonn's position as an important location for geographical health research. The cooperation in research and teaching, previously shaped significantly by Prof. Dr. Thomas Kistemann, will be continued under the leadership of PD Dr. Timo Falkenberg and Apl. Prof. Dr. Carsten Butsch. Key areas of joint research are urban health and health in the Global South.

The amount of litter floating in the Rhine is many times larger than previously believed. Researchers from the University of Bonn, the University of Tübingen and the Federal Institute of Hydrology (BfG) partnered with the Cologne-based non-profit pollution-fighting organization K.R.A.K.E. to collect and classify macro litter in a floating litter trap—the only one of its kind in Germany—over a period of 16 months. Katharina Höreth from Prof. Dr. Mariele Evers' working group “Ecohydrology and Water Resources Management” at the Department of Geography is part of the project. Extrapolation models based on the observed volume indicate that roughly 53,000 items of macro waste debris float past Cologne on the Rhine river every day. Disposable plastic products make up a large proportion of the litter found in the Rhine. The findings have now been published in the scientific journal “Communications Sustainability.”

Melanie Stammler successfully defended her dissertation “Multi-Scale Rock Glacier Kinematics in the Dry Andes of Argentina: From DEMs to the State of Permafrost Using Photogrammetry”, supervised by Prof. Dr. Lothar Schrott. Congratulations!

On 4 December the board of the Society for Geography (GfE) in Cologne presented Dr Arne Rieber with the certificate for this year's Dr Hohmann Grant for his research project “German Industrial Transformation: Geoeconomy and the Role of the State in the Chemical Industry”. Congratulations!

The Collaborative Research Center Transregio (TRR) 228 “Future Rural Africa” has secured four more years of funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG) and is thus entering its third funding period. In this project, researchers from the Universities of Bonn and Cologne study how rural regions in Africa are changing and can be shaped in the future, working closely with local partners to explore key questions about socio-ecological transformations and future-making in rural Africa. 

In May 2025, Benedikt Walker successfully defended his doctoral thesis entitled ‘The German Hydrogen Sector in Global Production Networks: Structures, Agency, and Uneven Development’ at the Department of Geography at the University of Bonn. The thesis was supervised by Prof. Britta Klagge, with Prof. Andrew Cumbers (University of Glasgow) serving as second examiner. Congratulations!

Phillip Garjay Innis has successfully defended his doctoral thesis on Navigating Urban Riskscapes under the supervision of Prof. Detlef Müller-Mahn. Congratulations!

Hurricanes, earthquakes, and floods cause devastating damage around the world. Space-based Earth observation, communication, and navigation systems can provide important assistance in warning of and managing disasters. Global capacity building for such peaceful uses of space technology should continue to advance. To this end, the University of Bonn, the International Peace Alliance (IPA Space) and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) have signed a partnership agreement for the next four years.