On Friday, 15 November 2024, there was every reason to celebrate: the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development (HNEE) bid farewell to around 400 graduates of the past academic year with a graduation ceremony at Haus Schwärzetal. Around half of the graduates accepted the invitation to the ceremony followed by a party on the university's forest campus. They received their certificates and outstanding achievements were honoured.

It was a colourful and entertaining evening: the graduates celebrated their successful academic degrees together with their families and friends as well as professors from HNEE. A student moderation team with Stela Bergan and Kabilan Thavachelvan hosted the event. The student councils of all four faculties of the university provided entertainment with their interactive improvisation theatre.

University President Prof Dr Matthias Barth warmly congratulated the graduates on their success: "Today we are not only celebrating a graduation, but also the beginning of a new chapter in which it is about finding joy and actively shaping the world. As the Dalai Lama and Bishop Tutu write in their Book of Joy: 'It is not dark destiny that determines our future - we determine it ourselves,'" emphasised the President.

Outstanding achievements honoured

Several students were also honoured for their outstanding theses. In addition to honouring the best thesis as part of HNEE's Johannes Schubert Prize, the Sparkassen Prize and the Gunther Wolff Prize were also awarded.

This year's Johannes Schubert Prize was awarded to Hanna Bienert and Jan Feldenz. Ms Bienert dealt with the condition and management perspectives of moors in the Schorfheide-Chorin biosphere reserve, while Mr Feldenz developed a model that records the relationship between small-scale weather conditions and tree growth - a work of particular relevance in view of climate change.

The coveted Sparkasse Prize was awarded to four graduates this year:

• Zoe Ropella (Faculty of Forestry and Environment, Bachelor's degree programme in Forestry) for her work on the "Installation and data analysis of a Marteloscope in Haselberg as part of the Digital Forest Labs project".
• Radka Geissler (Faculty of Landscape Management and Nature Conservation, Bachelor's degree programme Landscape Management and Nature Conservation) for her "Analysis of the current condition of a forest bog in the Gartzer Schrey in the Lower Oder Valley National Park".
• Julia Langer (Faculty of Landscape Management and Nature Conservation, Master's study programme Regional Development & Nature Conservation) for her concept "Reawakening the Liepe Cultural Landscape Trail - a concept for cultural landscape mediation".
• Dominik Eisenhardt (Faculty of Wood Engineering, Bachelor's degree course in Wood Engineering) for his work on "Energy optimisation of buildings using internal insulation systems with special consideration of the moisture occurrence at the beam heads in the exterior wall area".

Michael Kinkelbur received the Gunther Wolff Prize 2024 for his bachelor's thesis "Enhanced Forest Resilience to Climate Change through decayed Deadwood, closed Canopy and reduced Fragmentation", supervised by Prof. Dr Pierre Ibisch.

The celebration continued from 8 p.m. with a party organised by the AStA on the forest campus to celebrate the successful academic degree together.

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