Plants that need less fertilizer, plants that can thrive even with less water and bring high yields – plant researchers and growers have been working toward this goal for a long time, indeed long before global climate change became noticeable. Researchers at the Dahlem Centre of Plant Sciences, a focus area at Freie Universität Berlin, have now succeeded in specifically modifying the growth of plants’ roots so that the plants are better able to exploit nutrients in the soil and to withstand dry periods.

The press hails him as a “math guru,” his publisher calls him “Germany’s smartest math professor,” and his subject has been called “8,000 percent cool.” Günter M. Ziegler has made a major contribution to the more positive image math now enjoys among the public. Amid all this, he still makes sure to have time for actual calculations, as he shows in his activities, including as the head of the 25-person Discrete Geometry Working Group, which he brought with him from Technische Universität Berlin to the Dahlem campus of Freie Universität.

Alongside horses, cows, sheep, and pigs, honeybees are also a productive kind of animal. The flying pollinators ensure high yields for crops and fruit. At the Düppel campus of Freie Universität, students of veterinary medicine can now learn everything they need to know about beekeeping and honey production up close and personal, right at the beehive.