The graduation ceremony on January 27 th, 2023, was the first event since three years that was organized in presence. A fact that was reflected not only in a relatively high number of participants and guests, but also in a cheerful and festive atmosphere. The dean, Ingo Steinwart, opened the graduation ceremony with a speech in which he addressed personal words to the guests and awardees and very vividly highlighted the achievements of the graduates from a mathematical-physical point of view. He reviewed the events of the past year and reiterated the commitment of students and colleagues. Four students from the Stuttgart University of Music provided the musical background for the ceremony with the Divertimento in D-Dur for string quartet, an early composition by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
The prizes for the graduates of the B.Sc. and M.Sc. mathematics programs were gratefully awarded by Robert Bosch GmbH, which was represented by Professor Dr. Uwe Iben. Jiahui Wang was awarded the prize for her outstanding Bachelor’s degree and Saskia Kemmer, who received the prize for her outstanding master's degree, presented the topic of her thesis "Stability of self-similar decay for geometric flow problems" in a short slideshow.
One of the faculty’s prizes for the best teaching degrees went to Lukas Blessing, who is studying mathematics in the bachelor’s degree program with the aim of becoming a teacher. A scientific contribution came from Sandra Kim Kappl, who was awarded another of the faculty’s teaching prizes for her outstanding degree in M.Ed. Mathematics and Physics. Both prizes had been handed over by Jens Wirth, dean of studies, and had been sponsored by Verein der Freunde der Mathematik e.V.
Prizes were also awarded to the three best master's degrees in physics; these awards honored the graduates Johannes Mögerle, Hangoo Lee and Julius Fischer and were handed over by vice dean Harald Giessen.
In addition, for the fourth year in succession, an outstanding doctorate at the department of Physics was awarded with the Wilhelm and Else Heraeus-Dissertation Prize, a prize that has been granted by the foundation bearing the same name since 2019 and is endowed with an amount of 4,000 euros. The prize fell to Steffen Both, who presented the topic of his doctoral thesis "Theory of resonant light- matter interactions in nanophotonic sensing" in a generally understandable way in an approximately 5- minute talk.
The ceremonial handing over of the congratulation letters to all present graduates finalized the festivities in the lecture hall and was the transition to refreshments and buffet, which expected all participants in the foyer of Praffenwalding 57. Overall, our graduation ceremony was an entirely successful event in presence, with which Faculty 8 once again showed that team spirit and good communication characterize the faculty culture and are, thus, a guarantee for academic togetherness. We look forward to many more events.
