The Rüdiger Kurt Bode-Stiftung is awarding the 2021 Water Resource Prize, endowed with 100,000 Euros, to Prof. Dr. Harald Kunstmann, Chair of Regional Climate and Hydrology at the University of Augsburg and Deputy Director of the Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research - Atmospheric Environmental Research at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, the KIT Alpine Campus.

In future, waste from agriculture and forestry could serve as the basis for environmentally friendly building materials, insulation foams or fuels. Over the past four and a half years, an EU project has explored the potential of such products. The results also show how much a holistic view is needed when using them in order to avoid undesirable side effects.

If there is more carbon dioxide in the air, photosynthesis and plant growth can be stimulated. Geographers at the University of Augsburg, together with scientists from 12 countries, have found in a study that this effect has decreased worldwide by about 30% over the last four decades. What are the causes for this and what are the consequences of the results.

Under the direction of the Augsburg geographer Prof. Dr. Peter Fiener, a Europe-wide "EU Innovative Training Network" has been launched to investigate the pollution of agricultural soils with macro- and microplastics. A total of 14 doctoral students at eleven European research institutions are working on the topic. Their expertise gained from research should bring influence to bear with innovative products, services and ideas for the economy and society.

A German-polish research team from Augsburg, Münster, Munich and Wrocław successfully mixed nanoscale sound waves and light quanta. In their study published in Optica the scientists use an ’artificial atom’ that converts the vibrations of the sound wave to single light quanta - photons - with unprecedented precision. The demonstrated fundamental principle marks an important step toward the development of future hybrid quantum technologies.

Stay up to date on regulations and information related to the Corona Pandemic and studying or working at the University of Augsburg.

The environmental damage arising from the production of foods is not currently reflected in prices. If the consequential costs of the greenhouse gases emitted are determined and added to current food prices, animal products such as milk, cheese and especially meat would have to become far more expensive. The price difference between conventional and organic products would also be less.  This was published in Nature Communications by a team of researchers led by economist Dr Tobias Gaugler.

Can a COVID-19 infection be detected based on your voice and sounds? This is what the speech and audio analysis app developed by Prof. Dr. Björn W. Schuller, Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Health is developed for. It estimates the probability of being infected with the corona virus based on prolonged vowels or a text that has been read aloud or free speech. First results are highly promising, but the app is still being improved and tested, in particular by collecting more data.

A major international study with participation of the University of Augsburg shows for the first time that flooding characteristics in recent decades are unlike those of previous centuries across Europe.

A study by the Augsburg pathologist Dr Tina Schaller from the University Hospital of Augsburg, together with an interdisciplinary medical team, shows that the lung tissue of deceased COVID-19 patients is irreversibly damaged. The cause of the damage was the virus, the genetic make-up of which could still be detected in the respiratory tract.

As part of the High-Tech Agenda, the University of Augsburg has received two new professorships from the Free State of Bavaria in the field of artificial intelligence. This is a great success for the university and complements the existing interdisciplinary research areas - especially in relation to medicine. The new professorship for robot-assisted surgery and intelligent systems is intended to investigate the integration of modern robotics and intelligent, data-supported assistance systems into everyday clinical practice.

Physicists from the universities of Augsburg and Münster have presented a new type of emitter for generating terahertz radiation, which can be switched on or off by varying the temperature. In the future, it could possibly enable the construction of higher intensity radiation sources.