CUI: Advanced Imaging of Matter
Cluster of ExcellenceCUI: Advanced
Imaging of Matter
Imaging of Matter
Summer party with award ceremony, lectures and hands-on activities
18 July 2025
Photo: Eva Peters
The colorful program of the summer celebration, to which guests were also cordially invited, ensured a good and lively atmosphere.
Photo: Eva Peters
Prof. Klaus Sengstock once again described everyone's great joy when the renewed funding for the cluster was announced. The summer party was also intended as a thank you to all cluster members for their commitment and their exceptional research results.
Photo: Eva Peters
Diversity Manager Eileen Schwanold and student representatives skillfully moderated and accompanied the hands-on activities.
Photo: Eva Peters
How to describe pictures from the "Arts & Science"-exhibition that you are not familiar with?
Photo: Eva Peters
The goal of the marshmallow challenge is to build the tallest spaghetti tower.
Photo: Eva Peters
The summer festival slowly came to a close in front of the food truck and in the H-Bar.
There were several reasons to celebrate at the CUI summer party: the extension of the Cluster of Excellence, the past seven years, and the new winners of the Mildred Dresselhaus Program.
As with previous celebrations, this party offered a successful mix of inspiration, joint activities, and discussions. The event began with the empathy workshop, "Creating Collaborative Success in Research." It addressed the different perspectives and needs of doctoral students, postdoctoral researchers, and professors to build bridges and strengthen mutual understanding. The results will be processed and made available to all members of the cluster.
Next, the Mildred Dresselhaus Award was presented to Prof. Teresa Pellegrino and Dr. Zala Lenarčič. (Ceremonial presentation of the Mildred Dresselhaus Prize 2025)
On the second day, there was a keynote speech. In his lecture, "Arguments for Democracy," Prof. Kai Spiekermann from the London School of Economics asked why we should prefer democracy to other forms of government. Traditional justifications point to either the intrinsic value of democratic procedures or the higher quality of the decisions they produce. Spiekermann, however, argues that democracy's unique power lies in its ability to transform citizens' attitudes and, under favorable circumstances, initiate a virtuous cycle of civic development. The central questions that led to lively discussions were what interrupts this positive cycle and what and what measures are in place to counteract it.
Following the excursion into political theory, the focus shifted to the Cluster of Excellence and its researchers. The cluster's spokespersons Prof. Klaus Sengstock, Prof. Francesca Calegari, and Prof. Henry Chapman outlined the past seven years, the particular challenges of the new application phase, and the great joy on May 22, when the cluster's renewed funding was announced. One particularly convincing aspect was the enormous number of scientific results achieved by the Cluster's researchers. The summer celebration was therefore also intended as a big thank you to everyone involved for their commitment.
The following quiz, which was skillfully moderated by Diversity Manager Eileen Schwanold and student representatives, was initially still rudimentarily about cluster research. The teams each chose a person who, based on the format of PowerPoint karaoke, presented an Arts & Science image they were unfamiliar with. Then came a "CUI Excellence Feud" and a “Marshmallow Spaghetti Challenge”. The summer festival slowly came to an end in front of the food truck and the H-Bar.
