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Welcome to the HAUS Blatt!
As you will see in the fall edition of the HAUS Blatt, itâs been a very busy time in Heidelberg, in the New York office and with you and your HAUS colleagues across the U.S. We often take time around the year-end holiday season to reflect on the things and people for which we are thankful. We are particularly grateful for each and every one of YOU, HAUS members, and for the energy and passion you bring to sustaining our HAUS. Our HAUS was built by all of you, and it remains vibrant and strong because of YOU. Thank you all! And, we hope to see many of you next July in Heidelberg! (See details below.)
We wish you a Happy Thanksgiving!
Best wishes,
Kathleen
Kathleen Lance, HAUS President
Katja and Melanie
Dr. Katja Simons, Executive Director & Melanie Grossmann, Program Officer
Heidelberg University Association
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| News from Universität Heidelberg |
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| Insitutional Partnership between Harvard and Heidelberg |
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Heidelberg University and Harvard University signed a Memorandum of Understanding in August 2025 to deepen and expand their cooperation. The state of Baden-WĂźrttemberg is providing the sum of ten million euros to support this Heidelberg initiative. The funding is part of the stateâs âGlobal Partnership in Scienceâ activities. Learn more here
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| Hospital Merger Heidelberg and Mannheim |
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The two university hospitals â Heidelberg and Mannheim â will be merged early next year, creating the preconditions for Heidelberg University to combine the two Medical Faculties January 2027. This will result in one of the biggest medical faculties in Germany, which will offer outstanding conditions for basic research, the training of medical personnel and transfer. Learn more here
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| New Center for Ethics |
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In order to advance cross-disciplinary and societal dialogue on ethical issues, Heidelberg University has founded a Center for Ethics. The new Camilla and Georg Jellinek Center for Ethics aims to strengthen ethical reflection in research and teaching across all disciplines and to constructively accompany social debates through dialogue with the public. Learn more here
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| Newsroom |
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Stay up to date via the Heidelberg University Newsroom
You can find recordings of lectures at hei_ONLINE - Universität Heidelberg
(for example, the James W.C. Pennington Award 2025 Lecture, and soon also the Ruperto Carola Lecture Series âHuman and Algorithm â Whose Future?â)
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| News from Heidelberg Alumni International (HAI) |
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Save the Date for 30 Years of HAI
July 23-26, 2026 in Heidelberg
Registration starts on February 1, 2026!
Have a sneak peek of the program here
Celebrate 30 years of HAI with us and come to Heidelberg for our HAUS National Meeting on the beautiful Neckar River taking place on Friday, July 24 at noon in the Heidelberg Center for American Studies.
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New Scholarship: Athena. Thanks to generous donations by alumni, HAI has launched a new program, which supports doctoral students from the Humanities with a partial scholarship. The scholarship is aimed at doctoral candidates who need temporary financial support, for example because they have unexpectedly found themselves in an emergency situation or need a temporary grant in order to be able to concentrate fully on their doctoral project or on their final phase of the doctorate. Learn more here.
Please consider supporting this scholarship and contact the New York office at ksimons@heidelberguniversity.org
if you would like more information.
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Heidelberg Talks Online
are offered on a regular basis on a wide range of topics from medicine and psychology to philosophy, literature, politics or history to natural sciences or environmental issues. You can find future talks here.
Interesting news about HAI activities, new mentors, and the university can be found on HAI's current topics page.
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It was a treat to welcome 40 attendees to our HAUS 17th National Meeting in Chicago. We kicked off the weekend with a welcome dinner at the legendary Berghoff Restaurant! At our Jahreshauptversammlung in the Goethe-Institut Chicago, members heard updates from the HAUS President and gained fresh insights from Heidelberg, including remarks by Vice Rector Prof. Dr. Marc-Philippe Weller and flash talks by early career researchers from Heidelberg on corporations and sustainability. The Chicago River Architecture Tour on Saturday afternoon was another highlightâwe admired the cityâs stunning skyline from the water.
Our Evening Celebration at the David Rubenstein Forum at University of Chicago featured a welcome drink sponsored by American Junior Year (AJY) at Heidelberg University, opening remarks by Deputy Consul General Dirk Schulz, and a talk by Prof. David Wilson, PhD (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign) on the dynamics of urban change and gentrification in Chicago. We all had a splendid time together and a weekend full of connection and Heidelberg spiritâuntil next time!
Watch our HAUS National Meeting recap video clip on Facebook here.
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HAUS Chapter Activities
After a busy spring with Chapter activities across the country, the New York, Boston, Washington, DC, Northern California and Heidelberg Chapters were active this summer and early fall! Great to see so much networking! Thank you, our current HAUS leadership team and chapter chairs!
Heidelberg â In July, Heidelberg Chapter members met with current students from the US and Canada to connect them with HAI and HAUS, enjoying great conversations and a sunny evening at the Neckar River.
New York â A rainy start couldnât dampen the spirit as alumni from Freiburg, Heidelberg, and Karlsruhe gathered for drinks and networking end of July on the 1014.NYC rooftop at Serendipity Labs.
Boston â In August, the HAUS chapter met with Rektorin Frauke Melchior and other representatives from Heidelberg (on the occasion of the GAIN conference) at the Trillium Brewery in Fenway, and in mid-November, members met for coffee at Kendall Square.
Washington, DC â Chapter members got together for a casual Oktoberfest at The Brig with a lot of conversation auf Deutsch.
Northern California â In early November the NorCal Chapter (and Shelley, all the way from Merced! Thatâs dedication!) met at The Radhaus, a lively Bavarian-inspired spot near Fort Mason with a special German menu, offering beautiful views of the Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge.
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HAUS Alumni News
Congratulations to Stephanie Cabell for starting the role as HAUS Vice President! Thank you for your commitment to HAUS!
Nina Brandt, HAUS Chapter Chair in New York, has started a new position as Chief of Advocacy, Partnerships and Communications, UN Youth Office.
Richard DâSouza, Heidelberg University alumnus, is new Director of the Vatican Observatory. We learned this from Sarah Rice (co-chair HAUS Chapter Washington, DC) who was Richardâs classmate for two years in HD! Read more here.
Obituary Dr. Annalene Amirana
We are mourning the loss of alumna Dr. Annelene J. Amirana: the physician, who together with her husband Dr Mahomed T. Amirana established the Amirana Scholarship to support Heidelberg students and doctoral candidates in medicine and dentistry from countries in the Global South, has passed away at the age of 94. Read the obituary here.
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Thank you for participating in Online GIVING and throughout the year! Your support helps fund scholarships, innovative programs and alumni activities to ensure a solid future for Heidelbergâs tradition of excellence.
Did you miss Online Giving Day? You can still contribute, and you can find the Online Giving page here or get touch with us if you have questions or prefer other payment options.
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We are proud to work together with alumni to support study and learning at Heidelberg University for students from the United States. Thank you to everyone who helps to make the HAUS Scholarships possible.
The HAUS Scholarships are supported entirely by the HAUS community and demonstrate our continued commitment to providing the opportunity to experience Ruperto Carola. Thanks to your previous donations, HAUS has been able to award 18 full-semester scholarships since 2012 and 17 Summer School (Ferienkurs) scholarships since 2018. We reported on the Ferienkurs participants in our summer issue of our HAUS Blatt. Our scholarship recipients are deeply grateful to HAUS for making their study abroad dreams a reality.
âI would not have been able to take advantage of this opportunity without the kindness and help from the sponsors of the HAUS scholarship, and I would like to sincerely thank them. Heidelberg has a special place in my heart, and I cannot wait for the next time I get to visit.â (Ferienkurs scholarship recipient)
For the current winter semester 2025/26, HAUS Study Scholarships have been awarded to three students to study on the Masterâs level. Read about the recipients Natalie AmRhein, Hannah Olson and Eva Reyblat here.
This year, HAUS travel stipends support two postdoctoral researchers (Elijah Lowenstein from Harvard and Maya Anjur-Dietrich from MIT) visiting Heidelberg in mid-December for the Heidelberg Future Leaders in Sciences and Humanities Forum.
The Amirana Scholarships provides financial aid to international students in medicine from low- and middle-income countries of the Global South. This fund has supported 44 students since 2017. Thanks for your generous support!
Read more about our scholarship programs.
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| News from the New York Office |
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In the past months and weeks, we were busy supporting Heidelberg Universityâs transatlantic academic partnerships and promoting study and research in Heidelberg.
We participated in the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Heidelberg and Harvard in Cambridge, MA with Rektorin Prof. Dr. Frauke Melchior end of August and supported the renewal of the MoU between Heidelberg and University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, IN together with Vice-Rector Prof. Dr. Marc-Philippe Weller in early October.
During our visit to Heidelberg this summer, we contributed together with heiInnovation, the DWIH New York and the Health + Life Science Alliance Heidelberg Mannheim to a conversation on Transatlantic Research and Innovation: Competition or Collaboration? with speakers from industry and academia. Learn more here.
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Right after Labor Day, we were pleased to bring alumni of Heidelberg University who contributed their expertise in tech and innovation to the Future Forum on Global Health organized by DWIH New York at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, MA.
We participated in several in-person and virtual events in late summer and fall promoting study and research in Heidelberg. From the research career conference GAIN (including supporting the visit of Rektorin Frauke Melchior in Boston) to the virtual Grad Fair to the Career Booster at the Goethe Institut in New York and the Pathways to Germany info session for students, we did not miss an opportunity to speak about the many good reasons for studying and doing research in HD. Our intern Lea organized an info session on studying in Germany for students in the upper school at German International School New York in White Plains.
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December 3, 2025 | Annual Holiday Party in the German House, New York City
January 22, 2026 at noon | Virtual Heidelberg Lecture: From Heidelberg to Baltimore: What Johns Hopkins University Owes the Oldest German University; with speaker: Mackenzie S. Zalin, PhD, MSLS; Librarian for Classics, Comparative Thought and Literature, Jewish Studies, and Modern Languages and Literatures | Academic Liaison; Johns Hopkins University.
January/ February, 2026 (tbd) | Virtual Kaffeeklatsch
Invitations will be sent in early January
View our events here.
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Scholarships for Teachers of German
This year, we partnered again with the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG) and the German-American Scholarship Association (Quadrille Fellowship Program) to offer three scholarships for the teachersâ workshop at the International Summer School for German Language and Culture at Heidelberg University. Heidelberg University provides a generous stipend to support travel and accommodation and the German-American Scholarship Association covers the program course fee. The next call will soon be announced on AATGâs website.
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Max Kade Visiting Professorship
at Universität Heidelberg
We are grateful to the Max Kade Foundation for supporting each year a visiting professorship in Heidelberg for many years. This summer, the Heidelberg Center for American Studies (HCA) hosted Dr. Ted Beatty, Professor of History and Global Affairs, Keough School of Global Affairs, University of Notre Dame. The Call for the Max Kade Visting Professorship 2026 has been announced here and hosts in Heidelberg are encouraged to apply.
Last month, we hosted a Virtual Heidelberg Lecture with former Max Kade Visting Professor Dr. David Kaplan, Hilldale Professor & Richard L. Venezky Professor of Educational Psychology, University of Wisconsin â Madison. He explored how countries around the world are progressing toward the UN Sustainable Development Goal of Attaining Minimum Proficiency in Reading and Math.
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Do you have something to share? Tell us! We know that our alumni are doing a lot of interesting things in the world. Please let us know if you have had a recent achievement, visit to Heidelberg, or other event that could be of interest to the HAUS community, and we may choose to share your story on social media or in the next issue of HAUS Blatt.
Contact information updates The New York office staff is always updating alumni contact information. If you move, change your email address, or your phone number, please contact Melanie at mgrossmann@heidelberguniversity.org.
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