Jacobs University students on a field trip to Southern Germany

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July 2, 2021
 
There is life after the Coronavirus lockdown! After many months of restrictions, a group of third year Earth and Environmental Science and PhD students enjoyed an excursion to the sunny hills of the Swabian Alb. Part of the field trip consisted of a sampling campaign for an EU research project. The BSc students were, for example, responsible for measuring pH, conductivity and temperature of the Danube River and its tributaries from the river's origin to the German-Austrian border. They related the observed trends to the local geology and to anthropogenic impacts from land use and waste water treatment plants.

A highlight of the field camp was searching for (and finding!) fossils such as large ammonites in an abandoned quarry. Aside from the geochemical and environmental aspects the group explored local geological highlights. Walking on limestone beds that formed when dinosaurs had roamed the land millions of years ago, they discussed how these rocks may have formed – preferably in one of the traditional beer gardens. Among the discussants were Julia Taenzer, Mai-Brit Schulte, Shriya Poudel (all BSc) as well as Keran Zhang, Franziska Klimpel and David Ernst (PhD).

The academic excellence of geosciences at Jacobs University was recently confirmed in the CHE-Ranking 2021, with Earth and Environmental Sciences students being particularly pleased with the excursions and the high quality support for first-year students.

With approximately 120,000 students surveyed and more than 300 universities and colleges examined, the ranking by the Center for Higher Education Development (CHE) is the most comprehensive and detailed comparison of universities in German-speaking countries. Jacobs University also regularly receives top positions in international rankings such as the U-Multirank and the World University Ranking of the Times Higher Education (THE) magazine.