In the latest QS World University Ranking by Subject, Freie Universität Berlin achieved outstanding performance in numerous subjects. As the global higher education company Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) Ltd. announced in London, the university ranks among the top 50 universities in the world in 13 subjects. Within Germany Freie Universität heads the list in six subjects and placed second six times. These results are based in particular on the university’s reputation among researchers and employers; the number of citations by researchers also played a major role. More than 1,200 institutions in 53 countries were evaluated and ranked.

A Friday evening in Basel, December 2006, 5:48 p.m. First there is a loud boom, and then the Earth shakes. The shocks are felt as far away as southern Bavaria, in Germany. Later, the authorities will announce that the quake had a magnitude of 3.4 on the Richter scale.

Scientists at Freie Universität Berlin have discovered an alternative route to drugs against tumor cells. The group led by Prof. Dr. Jörg Rademann from the Institute of Pharmacy examined the protein STAT5, which is responsible for the aggressive growth of human leukemia cells. They were able to show that the protein is able to self-assemble its own inhibitors from three simple chemical components once the appropriate building blocks have been added to the protein solution. The findings were published in the current issue of the online journal Nature Communications.

The Nazis are known for looting art, but that wasn’t all. They also took countless books during the Third Reich. Many of them are still housed at libraries in Germany today. In 1998, Germany signed on to the Washington Principles, committing to return not only works of art, but also books to the families of their owners wherever possible.

Matthew Harder is working on a doctorate at the University of Missouri. The American archaeologist is studying a small city in central Italy, specifically its development from 600 BCE to 300 CE. He is scheduled to travel to Amelia, in Umbria, for field research for the first time later this month, but right now he is in Berlin. Harder is spending six weeks at the Institute of Classical Archaeology at Freie Universität as a recipient of a fellowship from the Research Alumni Program.

Just imagine being in Japan and being able to buy earrings shaped like Currywurst, socks with a Spätzle pattern, or chairs reminiscent of Baumkuchen. Sound funny? In the case of sushi, that’s reality. The traditional Japanese dish has become a popular image for advertising and design – and thus an object of research for Irmela Hijiya-Kirschnereit, a professor of Japanese studies at Freie Universität.

Prof. Dr. Frank Noé of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Freie Universität Berlin is the recipient of this year’s Early Career Award in Theoretical Chemistry of the American Chemical Society (ACS). The highly reputed society cites Noé’s important pioneering work in the development of innovative computational methods in biophysics. In particular, Noé has made important scientific contributions in the field of “Markov Modeling” and its application to protein simulations.