Universität Hamburg (UHH)

Germany

As a University of Excellence, Universität Hamburg is one of the strongest research universities in Germany. As a flagship university in the greater Hamburg region, it nurtures innovative, cooperative contacts with partners inside and outside academia. It also provides and promotes sustainable education, knowledge, and knowledge exchange locally, nationally, and internationally.

Excellent research

Universität Hamburg boasts numerous interdisciplinary research projects in a broad range of fields and an extensive partner network with leading research and higher education institutions on a regional, national, and international scale. As part of the Excellence Strategy of the Federal and State Governments, Universität Hamburg has been granted clusters of excellence for 4 core research areas: CUI: Advanced Imaging of Matter (photon and nanosciences), Climate, Climatic Change, and Society (CLICCS) (climate research), Understanding Written Artefacts (manuscript research), and Quantum Universe (mathematics, particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology). An equally important core research area is Infection Research, in which researchers investigate the structure, dynamics, and mechanisms of infection processes to promote the development of new treatment methods and therapies.

Outstanding variety: over 180 degree programs

For its more than 44,000 students, Universität Hamburg offers approximately 170 degree programs within its 8 faculties:

A century of history

Opened in 1919, Universität Hamburg was the first democratically founded university in Germany. Nobel Prize winners such as physicist Klaus Hasselmann in 2021, Otto Stern, Wolfgang Pauli, and Isidor Rabi were active at the University. Other well-known scholars also taught here, such as Ernst Cassirer, Erwin Panofsky, Aby Warburg, William Stern, Agathe Lasch, Magdalene Schoch, Emil Artin, Ralf Dahrendorf, and Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, to name but a few.

Career opportunities

Universität Hamburg encourages excellent researchers and talented students to join the institution’s vibrant academic community. Find all career opportunities on the University’s job portal.

1 September 2020 - 31 August 2021

Region: Global
Subject/journal group: All

The table to the right includes counts of all research outputs for University of Hamburg (UHH) published between 1 September 2020 - 31 August 2021 which are tracked by the Nature Index.

Hover over the donut graph to view the FC output for each subject. Below, the same research outputs are grouped by subject. Click on the subject to drill-down into a list of articles organized by journal, and then by title.

Note: Articles may be assigned to more than one subject area.

Count	Share
393	73.86

Outputs by subject (Share)

Subject	Count	Share
Physical Sciences	194	34.08
Life Sciences	167	31.08
Chemistry	54	13.65
Earth & Environmental Sciences	26	4.70

Highlight of the month

Optogenetic tool offers rheostat-like control of brain activity

A new optogenetic tool that can both silence and activate a defined population of brain cells in the same experiment could open up a new world of precision neuroscience research.

Optogenetics is a powerful tool for determining the functions of brain regions. It uses laser light to either activate or deactivate neurons. Unfortunately, it is sometimes not possible to excite and inhibit the same neurons in one experiment.

Now, scientists at the University of Hamburg and elsewhere have developed a method that employs two light-sensitive proteins — one turns neurons on in response to red light and the other turns them off in response to blue light.

The researchers demonstrated the potential of their method in model organisms. In worms and fly larvae, for example, they manipulated the activity of motor neurons, leading to muscle contraction and relaxation, while in mice and ferrets they modulated neurons in the brain to control functions such as pupil dilation and sensory processing.

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