The mathematician Prof. Günter M. Ziegler, a professor at Freie Universität Berlin, was elected president of Freie Universität. During a session of the Extended Academic Senate on Wednesday, Ziegler received 39 of 61 votes cast in the first ballot, as the Central Election Committee announced.

According to this year’s QS World University Ranking, Freie Universität remains one of the six best universities in Germany. As Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) Ltd. announced on Thursday in London, Freie Universität ranks 130 worldwide, a similarly strong position as in the previous year (2017/2018: 125). The university’s good academic reputation and an increase in the number of citations by the university’s scholars and scientists were important factors.

Time has already practically run out for the shallow-water reefs of the tropics. These fascinating ecosystems face increasing stress due to rising water temperatures.

The West African nation of Burkina Faso is the fastest-growing producer of gold on the African continent. Still, the country is among the poorest in the world. Many new mining licenses have been granted to multinational corporations and domestic ones alike in Burkina Faso since the mid-2000s.

In January 2016, Nil Mutluer was the head of the Institute of Sociology at Nişantaşı University, in Istanbul. Just one month later, she lost her position as a professor by presidential decree because she had joined more than 2,000 other members of the Turkish academic and research community in participating in the “Academics for Peace” petition. The group had called on the Turkish government – peacefully, but in clear terms – to end the war in the Kurdish areas of Turkey.

Freie Universität operates seven liaison offices worldwide to help its scholars and scientists build and maintain international networks. The office in Cairo was established in 2010, with the goal of strengthening the exchange of students and scholarly and scientific cooperation between Freie Universität and higher education institutions in Egypt and expanding these activities in the wider region, including Jordan, Lebanon, the Gulf states, and in some cases Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia.

This year we are reflecting on the founding of Freie Universität in December 1948 and the many changes the university has undergone since then. How has the campus changed? Plus: Do you have memories from your time at Freie Universität?