Online autumn issue Broerstraat 5

In the online autumn issue of Broerstraat 5, María Pilar Uribe Silva talks about her passion for sustainable fashion. She investigates greenwashing in the heavily polluting and unjust fashion industry and uses AI to analyze texts on this subject worldwide. Starting from Friday, the autumn issue will also be available in English.

More research in the autumn issue:

• According to Marike Lancel, endowed Professor of Sleep and Psychopathology, people with chronic sleep problems can ‘learn how to sleep like a cat on the windowsill’ through cognitive behavioural therapy. This is a more durable and efficient solution than sleep medication.
• You can imagine the difficulty of living on Jozef Israëlsstraat as an elderly person. The Science Shop is investigating whether and how something can be done to reduce the noise pollution caused by students in the Schildersbuurt neighbourhood in Groningen.
• Tourism in Groningen, a curious paradox — ‘walking Professor’ Zef Hemel offers his take on the plans for more tourism in the province of Groningen, whose tranquillity and space he praises.
• The chips of the future — research institute CogniGron is designing chips that are many times faster and more energy-efficient than current ones. Researchers recently founded the start-up IMChip^N
• Groningers from the city and the surrounding countryside also profited handsomely from the slave trade. At the request of the Municipality of Groningen, researchers uncovered a lot about Groningen’s slavery past.
• ‘A financial ravine is looming for municipalities,’ warns Professor Maarten Allers of the research institute COELO, which has been researching municipal finances for decades.
• ‘How Van Gogh came to Groningen’, the latest exhibition at the Groninger Museum, has been curated by alumnae Mariëtta Jansen and Belle de Rode. The theme is the groundbreaking exhibition organized by Groningen students in 1896, featuring 128 works by Vincent van Gogh and its influence on De Ploeg artists and art collectors.

Of course, many alumni are also featured, such as SME Chair Jacco Vonhof in Ain Wondre Stad, development economist Robert Meins who lives in Washington, and Ana van Es who wrote the book The Baghdad-Berlin Express after years of correspondence in the Middle East. As always, there are also stories of alumni who fell in love and became a couple as UG students, wrote a book, made music, or took a surprising turn in their careers after their studies, such as the two lawyers, one of whom is a lawyer at the Zuidas and the other who started a new career as a primary school teacher.