News

FAU without face-to-face teaching? This was the problem that teaching staff, the Executive Board, University Administration and FAU’s services were suddenly confronted with at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Sónia Hetzner, director of the Innovation in Learning Institute (ILI) at FAU, talks about the most intense period of time she has ever experienced at FAU.

In 2020 a lot of things are different than before – and that includes the Schlossgartenfest at FAU. Instead of celebrating together at the Schlossgartenfest, this year we will celebrate together online: at the #FAUSommernacht on Saturday 11 July from 7pm. An evening of music, interviews and memories of previous garden parties as a YouTube stream.

‘Once upon a time...’ If a text begins with these words, there can be no doubt in the reader’s mind that it is a fairy tale. Fairy tales are classed as cultural heritage, many people associate them with childhood memories, and yet they are often criticised for conveying clichés and outdated role models. Is there still a place for fairy tales in the modern world? We met Prof. Dr. Maren Conrad to discuss this topic.

At the current time, almost 80 million people throughout the world are fleeing violence, catastrophes, conflicts, wars and persecution. For several years now, refugees and migration have been one of the major topics of our times. Many of the questions raised are now being dealt with in a collaborative project on migration and refugee research launched at the Centre for Human Rights Erlangen-Nürnberg (CHREN) at FAU.

The wave of forced migration in 2015 and 2016 has changed integration politics in towns, administrative districts and municipalities in Germany forever. As a consequence, local integration management has been set up in several municipalities or existing structures have been expanded. At the same time, funding for integration policy measures is often not secure.

A team of researchers at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) has now investigated changes to the area and height of all glaciers in the European Alps over a 14 year period in their recent study. The result: approximately 17 percent of the entire volume of the ice has been lost since the start of the new millennium. The findings were published in the journal Nature Communications.

The FAU university election is currently taking place via postal vote. The Students' Representatives have put a ‘Vote-O-Meter’ online as well as an online podium discussion on 25 June, speed dating, videos and an Instagram takeover of the FAU channel @uni_fau.

Research at FAU into new applications for bioactive glass.

Explosions from stars, so-called supernovas, can shed some light onto the research into dark matter. This has been shown by a study carried out by team of German and Slovenian researchers at FAU and the University of Nova Gorica.

After 182 days, the x-ray telescope eROSITA on board the Spectrum-X-Gamma space probe has completed its first complete survey of the sky. The new map of the hot, energetic universe includes more than one million objects. Researchers at FAU are strongly involved in the project.