In the week of 13 to 17 April 2026, Prof. Falk Liebner visited as Mercator Fellow within the RTG Climate-Informed Engineering (CIE), headed by Prof. Nima Shokri of the Institute of Geo-Hydroinformatics at Hamburg University of Technology. As a leading expert in lignin research, Prof. Liebner's visit strongly resonated with our ongoing work in this field.

The visit was hosted by Prof. Irina Smirnova together with our PhD student Natalia Gała whose PhD research within CIE focuses on lignin and who collaborates closely with Prof. Liebner.

The visit brought valuable insights and inspiration to our PhD community through a dynamic mix of lectures, workshops, and in-depth discussions with PhD candidates and PIs. These exchanges provided not only scientific expertise but also mentorship aligned with the ongoing research in Climate-Informed Engineering.

A particular highlight was Prof. Liebner's public lecture on “Lignin: Chemical Structure, Key Properties, and Emerging Applications”, which further deepened perspectives on lignin research and its future potential. We also had the opportunity to explore research facilities during several lab tours, including our CampusLabs and other institutes, guided by PhD students from the same CIE research group working on lignin: Madlen Rogel, Chloe Ng-Brossard, and Kaspar Eucken.

A big thanks to everyone involved for making this visit both scientifically enriching and personally memorable!