As part of the 15th International Conference of Higher Education “UNIVERSIDAD 2026,” which took place in Havana from February 9 to 13, 2026, Prof. Dr. Ludger Wessjohann was awarded an honorary doctorate “Doctor Honoris Causa” from the University of Havana. In recognition of his more than 25 years of service to the academic and scientific development of this university, Ludger Wessjohann is the second German university professor to receive this award in the 300-year history of the University of Havana.

As keynote speaker and one of the German project managers of the DAAD program “GLACIER – German Latin American Center of Infection & Epidemiology Research & Training”, he will present the scientific results of this consortium and its impact on bilateral cooperation with Latin America.

The University of Havana was founded in 1728, making it the oldest university in Cuba and one of the oldest on the American continent. The laudatory speech in the historic Aula Magna was given by Prof. Daniel Garcia Rivera, who received his doctorate in the Department of Bioorganic Chemistry in 2007 and has since regularly visited the institute as a guest scientist. Daniel Garcia Rivera is now director of the Laboratory for Synthetic and Biomolecular Chemistry at the University of Havana.

Thanks to the long-standing collaboration with the University of Havana, more than 20 Cuban students have completed their doctoral theses in Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Ludger Wessjohann’s research group, successfully defended them, and are now recognized scientists on an international level.