"An excellent year ahead..."

More than 300 guests from the worlds of academia, politics and business attended the traditional New Year’s Reception held by the ‘unifreunde’ at the Obere Rathaushalle in Bremen on January 31.

February 1, 2012

Among the guests were representatives from the Bremen Senate including Jens Böhrnsen, Mayor of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, Karoline Linnert, Senator of Finance and Renate Jürgens-Pieper, Senator of Education and Science.

They were joined by Jacobs University President Joachim Treusch, Wilfried Müller, President of the University of Bremen, Otto Lamotte, President of the Bremen Chamber of Commerce, and Bengt Beutler, Chairman of the ‘unifreunde’.

Speakers at the event included Mayor Böhrnsen, Prof. Beutler, Prof. Treusch, Prof. Müller as well as Petar Perkovic, President of the Jacobs University Alumni Association and his counterpart at the University of Bremen, Andreas Kottisch.

The speakers recognized the major importance of science for Bremen and the strong cooperation between both scientific institutions present at the event. Bremen’s graduate school BIGSSS, a joint ”Excellence Initiative” project by Jacobs University and the University of Bremen, was mentioned in particular as one of many successful collaborations.

The New Year’s reception of the ‘unifreunde’, a local association to foster the development of universities and science in Bremen, is traditionally held in the first month of the New Year to welcome new faculty members to Bremen.

After the official part guests took the opportunity to mingle and chat with new and old faculty members of both institutions at an informal gathering.

From left: Andreas Kottisch, Alumni President (University of Bremen), Joachim Treusch, President (Jacobs University), Bengt Beutler, Chairman ('unifreunde'), Ingeborg Zerbes, Professor of Law (University of Bremen), Jens Böhrnsen, Mayor of the Free Hansetic City of Bremen, Wilfried Müller, President  (University of Bremen), Petar Perkovic, President Alumni Association (Jacobs University)  and Giuseppe Abreu, Professor of Wireless Communication (Jacobs University).