News
Smart use of trees and crops brings best yield
Cultivating crops – such as wheat, barley and rye – alongside rows of trees is a system of agroforestry that is known as “alley-cropping”. It serves many functions: in addition to enhancing ecosystems and biodiversity, it can also counteract the negative effects of growing crops in treeless open land. Benefits include improved soil quality and reduced wind erosion, but nearby trees can create competition for resources. It's not easy to weigh up the benefits of alley-cropping so researchers investigated to find what works. more…
Deep evolutionary history of land plants’ closest algal relatives
What did the algae that gave rise to the first land plants look like? Researchers investigated the closest living algal relatives of land plants: Zygnematophyceae. Despite their relatively simple appearance, they are particularly important for understanding plant evolution due to their close relationship with land plants. Researchers analysed a dataset covering more than 100 species and 2,000 genes to shed light on the evolution of multicellularity. more…
Ceremony in Stockholm
Professor Holger Militz at the University of Göttingen has been awarded the 2026 Marcus Wallenberg Prize. This honour, from the Marcus Wallenberg Foundation for International Scientific Collaboration, recognises Militz for his ground-breaking contributions to the research and industrial application of wood modification technologies. Prince Carl Phillip of Sweden presented the award at a ceremony in Stockholm. The ceremony followed the same format as the Nobel Prize award ceremony. more…
Many first-year students at the University of Göttingen
At the University of Göttingen, around 4,440 students have so far enrolled as new students at the start of the 2026/27 winter semester. The number of new enrolments thus remains at a high level. The provisional total number of students currently stands at 26,658. Up to 27,000 students are expected as the semester progresses. The proportion of international students has risen again to 19.3 per cent. more…
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Further news
Top marks for Göttingen University academic subjects
In the 2026 Global Ranking of Academic Subjects, the University of Göttingen’s Ecology department is in first place in Germany again. The ranking also places Agricultural Sciences (including Forestry) in second place in Germany. Earth Sciences, Statistics and Human Biology have made it into the top ten nationwide. Ecology is in 25th place and Agricultural Sciences in 38th place in the world. more…
University of Göttingen: eleventh in Germany
The most recent World University Rankings by the Times Higher Education (THE) have placed the University of Göttingen 11th in Germany. In the global rankings, it is in 133rd place this year. The University performs very well in the area of research quality, scoring 85 out of a possible 100 points, as it did last year. more…