2018
Political Science
Time and Timing
What effect are the torrents of information in today’s world having on political decision-making processes? Klaus H. Goetz studies the impact of time pressures on politics, and discerns signs of rising uncertainty and unpredictability.
Allergy prevention
The farm-milk effect on trial
Erika von Mutius studies the impact of environmental factors in early childhood on allergy and asthma risk. She is now planning a large-scale trial of the beneficial role of unprocessed milk, which will involve thousands of children.
Educational psychology
When you see their eyes light up
Educational psychologist Anne Frenzel studies the role of emotions in learning, and her recent research calls into question the validity of a widely held model of social interactions in the classroom.
ScienceHistory
The Father of Hygiene
To prove his hypothesis, Max von Pettenkofer drank a suspension of cholera bacteria. He survived the cholera cocktail, and his research on the impact of hygiene on health would revolutionize medicine and public health.
New Research Group
Alliances and Accommodations
At LMU’s Center for Advanced Studies, political scientist Bernhard Zangl and his colleague Andreas Kruck are studying how international organizations adjust to shifts in the global balance of power.
Quantum Physics
A Bridge to the Quantum World
Monika Aidelsburger uses a special type of optical lattice to simulate quantum many-body phenomena that are otherwise inaccessible to experimental exploration. She has now been awarded an ERC Starting Grant to pursue this work.
New Semester
The first week in pictures
You will notice a lot more hustle and bustle on campus now. It will be the first experience of campus life for thousands of students. Get a visual taste of the first week of lectures.
LMU’s campuses
Ready for take-off
The new crop of first-year students will soon be here. But a summary of the locations of its facilities may also be of interest to others. The following guide to LMU’s campuses is accompanied by a closer look from an unusual perspective.
LMU Research Fellowships
Travel broadens the mind
Chemist Henry Schurkus is the first Outgoing LMU Fellow. With an LMU Research Fellowship in his bag, he will work at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Excellence Strategy
4 Clusters of Excellence accepted
“We are very pleased with this very good result in a demanding and highly competitive selection process. I want to thank all faculty and staff involved in the competition,” said LMU President Bernd Huber.
Exhibition
Replies to questioning looks
As a seminar project, ethnology students at LMU took a plunge into the archives of Munich’s Five Continents Museum. They emerged with fascinating ethnographic photos – and findings that place their subjects in historical context.
Stipend by students
From Beneficiary to Benefactor
Tobias Jäger is grateful for the fact that the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine’s Alumni Association agreed to sponsor the Deutschlandstipendium to help him to finance his studies. Now he decided to finance a Deuschlandstipendium for other deserving students.
Digitalization and health
Steps to Better Health
Dr. Verina Wild studies the impact of digitalization and globalization on healthcare systems, and explores the ethical implications of this development for the individual and society as a whole.
Doctoral Degree
Summit of a Student Career
Preparing a doctoral thesis entails exploring the unknown. The task fosters critical thinking, practical skills, and personal development. But almost all doctoral candidates run into difficulties and need encouragement and support.
Inequality
Measures and Mismeasures
One of the major topics of public debate in Germany in recent years has focused on the growing gap between rich and poor. LMU economist Andreas Peichl, who studies inequality, discusses how the distribution of income and wealth is changing.
CAS Research Group
The Birth of Biological Information
Biophysicist Dieter Braun studies how life and the chemistry that made it possible originated on the early Earth.
Big data
Boon or bane?
Psychologists at LMU are trying to assess the informational value of big data. What do the digital clues left behind by everyone who logs onto the internet reveal about the user’s personality? And how useful are these data for researchers?
E-Learning
Lapping up ECTS credits
Students today want to learn their stuff where and when they wish. LMU’s many new e-learning courses now allow them to do just that. But e-learning demands self-discipline, and lecturers must work harder to make the material attractive.
Europaeum
"Fighting Europe’s Fights"
The new Scholars Programme set up by the Europaeum Network was launched in January 2018. PhD students enrolled in the Programme devote their doctoral research to developing effective responses to the challenges now facing the EU.
Memorandum of Understanding
Cambridge and LMU announce plans for strategic partnership
Two of Europe’s leading research universities have announced plans for a ‘strategic partnership’ – underlining the vital and ongoing relationship between UK universities and their peers across the EU in the post-Brexit landscape.
Chronobiology
Getting the timing right
Sleep patterns are determined by one‘s chronotype, says Till Roenneberg, and everyone should be allowed to follow its dictates. Here he discusses ways to achieve this goal and outlines the benefits it would bring.
Dental medicine
Dental students – and their patients
LMU‘s Dental School was recently ranked among the top ten worldwide at LMU. Here, patients can choose to be treated by students – under expert supervision. That option takes a little longer, but it has distinct advantages.
LMU Winter Schools
Placing the emphasis on practice
LMU’s Faculty of Medicine holds annual Winter Schools in oncology, neurology and in clinical and genetic epidemiology, enabling medical students to acquire practical experience in these fields. But these courses have more to offer …
Archaeology
Insights into early urban life
Adelheid Otto‘s research focuses on the development of urban civilization in ancient Mesopotamia. She is now excavating on the site of Ur, one of the world’s first cities. The finds yield fascinating insights into urban life 4000 years ago.
The Prague Spring
Much More Than a Passing Episode
For a few months everything was possible in Czechoslovakia. Then Soviet tanks put an end to democratization. Here, LMU historian Martin Schulze Wessel outlines how events unfolded in Prague in 1968.
New Research Group
An Entirely New Perspective
Aristotle’s Metaphysics is a seminal text in both the Western and the Arabic tradition. At LMU‘s Center for Advanced Studies, work is underway on a new edition which, for the first time, takes its reception in the Arab world into account.
75 years ago
"Law changes, the conscience doesn't."
75 years ago, LMU students Hans and Sophie Scholl and five of their friends from the White Rose paid for their convictions with their lives. They were convicted by an inhuman regime and put to death. We honor their memory.
Archaeology
Riddles in time and space
Simone Mühl hopes to fill a gap in the ancient history of an area in what is now Iraqi Kurdistan. The young researcher has been awarded the Therese von Bayern Prize for her work in the region.
Online rage
Asocial media
The incidence of abusive commentary on social media is rising. Media specialists Carsten Reinemann and Christoph Neuberger are exploring the grounds for this development, and have invited journalist Dunja Hayali to discuss the issue.
Learning abroad
See the world – and study it
Why not resolve to take time this year to study abroad? Be inspired by the following photos, taken by LMU students studying in foreign climes, and chosen from the International Office’s annual calendars.
Archaeology
“Women have always been very mobile”
Philipp Stockhammer, who studies cultural exchange in the Bronze Age, has shown that most of the women who lived in the Lech Valley 4000 years had come from elsewhere. In this video, he explains what they brought with them.
