Despite the almost traditionally rainy weather, the mood at the Dahlem Research School’s Summer Festival on July 10, 2025, was nothing short of festive - there was plenty to celebrate:

* numerous cheerful and weatherproof guests who contributed to a lively and joyful atmosphere,
* the newly (re-)elected doctoral representatives at Freie Universität,
* the establishment of a “Postdoc Office” at the DRS,
* and particularly committed doctoral supervisors!

After a warm welcome by Prof. Stefan Rinke, Scientific Director of the DRS, Prof. Helene Kretzmer (Hasso Plattner Institute Potsdam) and Prof. Harald Wenzel (Sociology, JFKI) were awarded the DRS Prize for Excellent Supervision. In his laudatory speech, Mr. Rinke emphasized the great commitment to individual support, which went far beyond the technical aspects and in both cases made it possible for the students to open up new fields of research and develop their independence.

Prof. Sabine Hunke, Managing Director of the Humboldt Graduate School, then presented the Berlin University Alliance's “Good Supervision Culture” project, in which a dialogue around good supervision was started among the four member universities. Prof. Benedikt Kaufer, who was invited as spokesperson for the Biomedical Sciences doctoral program, pointed out the advantages of supervision teams and in particular the role of the mentor, who complements the first and second supervisor. Maren Vogel was present as a member of the newly elected Doctoral Council, which has recently started its work and is already considering networking with representatives from other Berlin universities. The DRS has also recently become responsible for advising postdocs: Our colleague Julia Härder gave the audience an insight into her plans for the newly established “Postdoc Office”.

This year's summer party was accompanied by wonderful music from the band Lüx, who did everything they could to maintain the good mood despite the rain. The party was great fun and we would like to thank everyone involved!