Review of the year by the President - Humboldt-Universität zu ...

Review of the year by the president
18 December 2020

Images you won't forget: chairs raised in the foyer of the Grimm Centre in spring 2020.

Review of the year by the President
Dear employees, dear students, dear professors,

behind us lies a year that will probably always be associated with a rollercoaster of
emotions in our memories. When I look for images of the past months, it is the look
into empty lecture halls, but it is also the look into the beaming faces of award win-
ners. Probably the only constant of the year was the constant ups and downs. And
now, at the end of the year, we find ourselves in a second lockdown, with all the con-
sequences that this means for work and leisure.

After we had to close our doors on 18 March, like all Berlin universities, almost
everything changed for all of us in one fell swoop: closed labs, lectures at Zoom,
cancelled business trips, postponed experiments, children who did not leave the hou-
se in the morning but had to be looked after and schooled at home. In short, we had a
crisis to deal with. This crisis continues to this day, and it is clear that it will continue

to demand a great deal of courage, perseverance and understanding from us in the
new year.

Together, we have managed to get the university through this time well. We could
not have done it without the great commitment of all faculties, departments and divi-
sions in the central and decentralized administration, the computer and media ser-
vice, the university library or the pandemic staff. In addition, we have brought our
"humboldt together" program and the introduction of SAP to the point where we can
go live on 4 January. I would like to thank you expressly for this.

Well aware of the modesty of the recognition, we as the President's Office neverthel-
ess want to acknowledge your considerable extra effort to maintain teaching, rese-
arch, transfer and administration. Therefore, all student assistants and employees up
to pay scale TV-L9A will receive a pandemic-related allowance of ten euros per
month with their December salary - from March to December. This allowance is tax-
and duty-free, so that in the end the total amount will end up in the account. For this,
an extra thanks to the colleagues of the salary office who made this possible. In addi-
tion, all University employees will be granted a work-free bridge day on 14 May
2021. I hope that outweighs a bit of your special efforts this year.

But I would also like to remind you of the many beautiful, motivating moments and
outstanding successes. For example, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded to Em-
manuelle Charpentier, honorary professor at our university, or the Leibniz Prize
awarded to social scientist Steffen Mau. But I would also like to recall the many be-
autiful, motivating moments and outstanding successes this year. For example, the
Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded to Emmanuelle Charpentier, honorary professor
at our university, the Leibniz Prize for social scientist Steffen Mau, or the Consolida-
tor Grants of the European Research Council for Tobias Kümmerle and Ignacio
Farias.

With the SAP rollout, we will have the next big chunk on the table after the turn of
the year. I am confident that in time we will become proficient in using the new sys-
tem and the changes in administrative processes that will accompany it. As always,
the beginning is hard, often fraught with mistakes and anxiety. But don't let that dis-
courage you. Keep at it. It will be worth it in the end. I am firmly convinced of that.

As president of this university, I would like to take this opportunity to emphasize
once again: We are an attendance university. And I am very much looking forward to
hallways full of searching freshmen, colleagues rushing by in a hurry, students on
the meadows and paths on all campuses - in short, to a full, lively house.

I wish you a happy and peaceful holiday season. Take care of yourself, avoid unne-
cessary contacts and look after your loved ones, so that we all get into the New Year
well and healthy, and hopefully soon through the pandemic.

And a final request: We currently have a fundraising campaign for our Deutschland-
stipendium. I would like to ask you to donate so that together we can provide more
students with financial support for their studies.

Learn more about the fundraising campaign

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr. Sabine Kunst
President of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Highlights of the year 2020

Nobel Prize for Emmanuelle Charpen-
tier

Emmanuelle Charpentier, honorary professor at HU, was awarded the Nobel Prize in
Chemistry together with Jennifer Doudna for pioneering work on CRISPR-Cas9, a
genome editing tool.

Learn more about the Nobel Prize for Charpentier

Leibniz Prize for Steffen Mau

The social scientist Steffen Mau was awarded the Leibniz Prize 2021 of the German
Research Foundation.

Learn more about the Leibniz Prize for Mau

One year of theological institutes

The Institute of Islamic Theology and the Institute of Catholic Theology have devel-
oped dynamically, according to the balance sheet for the one-year anniversary in No-
vember.

Learn more about the theological institutes

Online focus on diversity

Humboldt University addresses issues such as Black Lives Matter, discrimination,

and racism and anti-racism.

Read diversity focus on hu-berlin.de

One Year Berlin University Alliance

One year after its launch as a network of excellence, the Berlin University Alliance
(BUA) presented what it has achieved in its first year of funding.

Learn more about BUA's first year

Open Humboldt Website

Humboldt University is familiar with many established formats of exchange and is
constantly expanding them. The website Open Humboldt shows offers and possibili-
ties of knowledge transfer between university and society.

Go to the Open Humboldt website

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