The 2016 Alumni Meeting from 8 to 10 July featured a wide range of lectures, guided tours, and festivities focusing on the university. For many alumni, returning to their university meant looking back on and reminiscing about their studies – the “time of their lives.”

On this alumni weekend, the university welcomed back former students eager to learn about the university’s latest projects and innovations. One of the most striking recent innovations is the technically and architecturally unique University Library. Accordingly, Freiburg’s deputy mayor Otto Neideck and Rector Professor Hans-Jochen Schiewer made a point of introducing the alumni to this futuristic new building. The visitors then took a guided tour through all five floors to learn about the complex system behind one of Europe’s most modern libraries.

The program organized by the faculties provided the guests fascinating perspectives on current research and teaching. The neurobiologist Professor Ad Aertsen, for instance, introduced aspects of his research on brain-controlled neuroprostheses in his lecture “Brain–Machine Interfaces: How Thinking Becomes Movement.” In addition, the alumni could learn about the burning issue of asylum and refugee law or receive insight into the complex quantum dynamics of ultracold chemical reactions. The Faculty of Humanities presented its impressive collection of exhibits from Greek and Roman antiquity. The program was complemented by numerous other tours and festivities.

The alumni were also invited to take part in an extensive cultural program: Concerts by the Academic Orchestra and the University Big Band demonstrated the great musical creativity of Freiburg students. Finally, a visit to the Freiburg Wine Festival on Münsterplatz gave everyone the opportunity to get together and indulge in the Freiburg way of life once again over a cool glass of wine.

Guests from around the world traveled to Freiburg for the Alumni Meeting, including the international alumni club presidents, who serve as contact persons for all alumni and interested students in their region. In a workshop they participated in together with the German club presidents, they received an inside look at the new University College Freiburg: It launched Germany’s only “Liberal Arts and Sciences” program in 2012, which enables students to reflect on academic topics from a wide range of  interdisciplinary perspectives. The club presidents were also invited to a lecture organized by the “Freiburg Academy of Continuing Education” (FRAUW). This institution offers in-service further training programs for students and alumni, most of which can be completed online in a distance learning format.

As much as the university may have changed for the alumni in the years since they completed their studies, it remains rooted in their memory just as it always has been. Many formers students therefore aim to come back again – for the next international Alumni Meeting.