Autumn 2011

The University of Groningen welcomed over 1400 new international students and PhD students at the end of August. They were officially received in the Martinikerk and the Academy Building with speeches, a lunch, an information market, workshops and a drinks party. > read more

Putting down roots

Gregory Ashworth (Glasgow, 1941), connected with the University of Groningen since 1979, is a world renowned researcher in his field of expertise: management of cultural heritage, urban tourism, urban planning, city marketing and leisure management. In 1994 he was appointed Professor of Heritage Management and Urban Tourism at the Faculty of Spatial Sciences of the University of Groningen. Although he retired in 2006, he still is a keen ambassador for the Faculty, the University and the city of Groningen. > read more

Prof. Ben Feringa in Nature Nanotechnology: Control of complex nanosystems a step closer.

We are a step closer to solving one of the most important scientific challenges issued by Science in 2005. The Groningen chemist Prof. Ben Feringa and his team have succeeded in assembling a nano system and then disassembling it using light. Control of this principle is important for targeted administration of drugs, among other things. A publication in Nature Nanotechnology has been online since 14 August. > read more

The Groningen alumni song is a fact!

Wouldn’t it be great to have an alumni song to remind all our alumni of their time at our University and the city of Groningen? This dream is now a reality: a song to share with our alumni! > read more

No Guts no Glory

‘Do we shoot the deer or each other?’ I hear. Am I having a bad dream? No, I’m not. Neither am I in a forest or on a film-set. And I’m not holding a gun in my hands either. Where I am? > read more

Tune in to Happy Hour!

Every year in September, the University of Groningen welcomes large numbers of international students, who will be making Groningen their home for a six-month to four-year period. This year alone, about 1,400 international students came to Groningen. Do these students just keep to themselves and devote all their time to studying? Or do they mingle, establishing a bond with the locals and the city as a whole?

Recently we spoke to Ivo Dimchev from Bulgaria, who spends his Monday evenings bringing Dutch news to English listeners via local radio station Happy Hour FM. > read more

Is your partner really that sexy?

Probably not. University of Groningen researchers Pieternel Dijkstra and Dick Barelds have discovered that love is indeed blind. A partner’s crooked nose or big belly tends to be overlooked due to the ‘positive illusion’ effect, which causes people to rate the hotness of their partner more highly than strangers do. Partners may use these positive illusions to enhance their sense of security, thus stabilizing their long-term bond. > read more

Breaking ground: Groningen Confucius Institute

An inspiring work environment and good access to broad facilities are essential conditions for work and study. In order to achieve this, the University of Groningen is continually breaking ground: building and redesigning university locations and creating new facilities for its students and staff. In this issue:

Groningen Confucius Institute. > read more

How to multitask effectively? An ERC grant awarded to Professor Niels Taatgen

Professor Taatgen of the Department of Artifical Intelligence has been awarded a grant from the European Research Council (ERC) for research into how people can multitask better. His starting point is that people are in principle able to multitask, but that this can sometimes go wrong due to several tasks needing the same part of the brain at the same time. > read more

Did you know?

The University shop now has a web shop

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