{"id":4223,"date":"2025-06-23T08:36:33","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T09:36:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/bremen\/?p=4223"},"modified":"2025-07-17T09:05:03","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T10:05:03","slug":"william-g-and-elke-durden-dickinson-in-bremen-program-40th-anniversary-monady-june-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/bremen\/2025\/06\/23\/william-g-and-elke-durden-dickinson-in-bremen-program-40th-anniversary-monady-june-2\/","title":{"rendered":"40th Anniversary \u2013 Monday June 2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Monday morning started with a short visit to the Dickinson Room on campus, before President Jones and his wife received a special tour through the Bremen Drop Tower, at Uni Bremen’s ZARM institute.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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back row, from left to right:<\/em> Prof. Dr. Marc Avila (Director of ZARM), Dr. Mandy Boehnke (University of Bremen Vice President for International Affairs, Academic Qualification, and Diversity), Dr. Janine Ludwig (Academic Director of the Durden Dickinson in Bremen Program)
front row, from left to right:<\/em> Prof. Dr. Jutta G\u00fcnther (Rector of the University of Bremen), Dickinson College President John E. Jones III, Beth Jones (wife of John E. Jones III)
\u00a9Matej Meza<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

ZARM is an institute within the faculty of Production Engineering<\/a>, and the Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity<\/a>. More than 100 scientists conduct cutting-edge research using experimental, theoretical, and computational approaches to explore fundamental scientific questions as well as to develop innovative technologies for space missions and microgravity experiments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Two doctoral students explain their own fascinating innovation, which will hopefully be used in a space mission in 2040.<\/em>
\u00a9Matej Meza<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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President Jones asks Prof. Avila<\/a> about details of ZARM\u2019s contribution to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency JAXA\u2019s mission Hayabusa (2003-2010) which \u2013 for the first time in history \u2013 retrieved samples from an asteroid.
\u00a9Matej Meza<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The ZARM Drop Tower enables short-term microgravity experiments. A capsule can be dropped and has a free fall in zero gravity. ZARM cooperates, among others, with NASA. This drop tower is unique in Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Looking inside the GraviTower Bremen Pro, a completely new type of microgravity laboratory<\/em>. \u00a9Matej Meza<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Alumni Reception <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After a joint lunch at Bellini, it was time to head to the SFG Building on the University Campus, where the Alumni Reception took place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We welcomed more than 70 people in total: 55 to 60 alumni from Dickinson and the University of Bremen, current Dickinson-in-Germany students, current and former Bremen partners and program officials as well as friends of the program attend the event in person. Several former Dickinson-in-Bremen students traveled to Bremen for the celebrations from other parts of Germany, where they now live; one flew in from the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Alumni, current students, current and former partners and program officials as well as friends of the program attended the event in person. \u00a9Matej Meza<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\u00a9Matej Meza<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

An additional 22 people joined us virtually from around the world and did not let the, in some cases, very early times due to time differences dissuade them from celebrating with us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also welcomed many guests of honor: Prof. J\u00fcrgen Timm and his wife, former rector of the university, Klaus Wedemeier, former mayor of Bremen, Bill Durden and his wife Elke, former president of Dickinson, and the current president John E. Jones and his wife Beth. Besides, former program directors and coordinators, many teachers of Uni Bremen and from Dickinson\u2019s German Departments, and people involved in the International Office or the Rectorate who have supported the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The celebrations started with five short welcome speeches by current and former directors and college\/university presidents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dr. Janine Ludwig (Academic Director of the Durden Dickinson in Bremen Program) \u00a9Matej Meza<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Prof. J\u00fcrgen Timm (former Rector of the University of Bremen) sporting the T-Shirt from the 10th Anniversary \u00a9Matej Meza<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Prof. Rainer Stollmann (former Academic Director of the Durden Dickinson in Bremen Program) \u00a9Matej Meza<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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former Dickinson College President Bill Durden \u201971 \u00a9Matej Meza<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Dickinson College President John E. Jones III \u201977 P\u201911 \u00a9Matej Meza<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Afterwards, we (re)connected and engaged in conversation with alumni who are \u201clive\u201d in Bremen and alumni who joined us virtually. Alumni shared anecdotes and their favorite moments of their time in Bremen or at Dickinson, and we cherished the special moments and life-long connections that were formed during this formative period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u00a9Matej Meza<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\u00a9Matej Meza<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\u00a9Matej Meza<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\u00a9Antonia Gabler<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The range of alumni attending the event covered the entire program history, with both the very first student participating in the exchange in 1985 and our current Dickinson-in-Bremen students, as well as the University of Bremen students that have just returned days ago from their exchange year at Dickinson, being present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Current Dickinson-in-Bremen students and the new Bremen-at-Dickinson students for the upcoming academic year connecting \u00a9Matej Meza<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Afterwards, we held our coffee and cake reception outside in the backyard, while we started the virtual screening of our anniversary movie<\/a> inside and for our guests in the zoom. The approximately 30min long movie presented a beautiful bag of memories with pictures, videos and impressions from student adventures over the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u00a9Matej Meza<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\u00a9Matej Meza<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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During a delicious coffee and cake reception, people (re)connected further, shared their experiences and relived favorite memories from their time in the program. \u00a9Matej Meza<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After around three hours we ended our very successful first day of the program anniversary celebrations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monday morning started with a short visit to the Dickinson Room on campus, before President Jones and his wife received a special tour through the Bremen Drop Tower, at Uni Bremen’s ZARM institute.   ZARM is an institute within the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5314,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[226790,226780],"tags":[226789,226791,226786],"class_list":["post-4223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anniversary","category-events","tag-40thanniversary","tag-alumni","tag-event"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/bremen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/bremen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/bremen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/bremen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5314"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/bremen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4223"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/bremen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4320,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/bremen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4223\/revisions\/4320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/bremen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/bremen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/bremen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}