Dear students, colleagues, alumni, and FTZ friends!
Time flies, and so you are now reading the last issue of our Tropical News of 2024.
Even though I hoped in the beginning of the year that this year would be more peaceful, the situation has hardly improved and with the – well not so – new president-elect in the USA it doesn’t look as if the global peace situation will improve in the near future. Sigh (yet again).
However, faithful to our vision and mission, and commitments, our faculty continues to research on a wide variety of subjects, and also to base its teaching on often cutting-edge research results. A number of these received prizes, whereas also our contribution to international networking and teaching activities got rewarded as you will read further into the text.
If you never heard of pangolins, this is your moment to try and dig into these fascinating species; at one moment, they were suspected of transmitting the Covid-19 virus, as a panel of SARS-CoV-2-related coronaviruses was indeed identified in them.
The faculty is actively promoting internationalization, and frequently receives foreign delegations, but also oftentimes links up abroad with research institutes, development projects, and universities. We are proud that so many southern partners want to call us in for collaborative efforts.
I hope you will find this issue an interesting one, and – if you are interested – we could discuss the content over a glass or cup of coffee in our bistro on the ground floor in our faculty building! See you there?!