Altynay Kambekova successfully defended her doctoral thesis on “Between Empires: Sexual Geopolitics and LGBTQ+ Activism in Kazakhstan”. Her degree was granted by the Faculty of Arts, University of Bonn. Her main supervisor was Prof. Dr. Kathrin Hörschelmann (Professor of Cultural Geography, University of Bonn) and her second supervisor was Prof. Dr. Eva Youkhana (ZEF CPC).

Fatima Salaheldin Mohamad Ali was granted her doctoral degree by the Faculty of Agricultural, Nutritional and Engineering Sciences, University of Bonn, Germany. She successfully defended her doctoral thesis on "Participatory Valuation of Forest Ecosystem Services: A Synthesis of Sub-Saharan Africa and a Case Study from Sudan".  The supervisors of her doctoral research were Prof. Dr. Lisa Biber-Freudenberger and Prof. Dr. Christian Borgemeister. Her work was tutored by Dr. Jan Henning Sommer.

ZEF alumna Rohini Mitra was awarded the "Best Dissertation Prize" by the American Political Science Association (APSA) under their Migration and Citizenship Section. The award ceremony will take place during the Annual APSA meeting in Boston, USA, September 2026. 

Jackson Elias Nzira successfully defended his doctoral thesis on "Economic Essays on Rural Labor Markets, Agricultural Policy, and Poverty Outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa". His doctoral degree was granted by the Faculty of Agricultural, Nutritional and Engineering Sciences of the University of Bonn. His supervisor was Prof. Dr. Matin Qaim (ZEF/University of Bonn), his tutor Dr. Martin Parlasca (ZEF/University of Bonn).

Maureen Nabatanzi successfully defended her doctoral thesis on "Modeling arbovirus emergence: Integrating evolution, ecology, distribution and One Health policy performance in Africa". Her doctoral degree was granted by the Faculty of Agricultural, Nutritional and Engineering Sciences of the University of Bonn- Her supervisors were Prof. Dr. Lisa Biber-Freudenberger (ZEF/University of Bonn) and Prof. Dr. Sandra Junglen (Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin).

Vincent Moseti (ZEF LAND) successfully defended his doctoral thesis on "Road infrastructure development in Kenya: Political incentives, economic responses and environmental impacts". His doctoral degree was granted by the Faculty of Agriculture, Nutrition, and Engineering of the University of Bonn. His doctoral research was supervised by Prof. Dr. Lisa Biber-Freudenberger and Prof. Dr. Jan Boerner. 

ZEF researcher Abdul Haseeb Azizi (ZEF ECOL) obtained his doctoral degree (Dr.-Ing) for his doctoral thesis on "Water and Snow Storage Dynamics in Afghanistan: Coupling Ground Observations, Remote Sensing, Machine Learning, and Hydrological Modeling". His degree was granted by the Faculty of Agriculture, Nutritional Sciences and Engineering University of Bonn, Germany.  Supervision and tutoring Abdul Haseeb's primary supervisor was Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jürgen Kusche (University of Bonn), his co-supervisor was Prof. Dr. Christian Borgemeister (ZEF, University of Bonn). His tutors were Dr.-Ing. Bernhard Tischbein (ZEF, University of Bonn) and Dr.-Ing. Fazlullah Akhtar (ZEF, University of Bonn), who also gave scientific guidance and support throughout the PhD journey.

Sara Velander (ZEF LAND) defended her doctoral thesis on “Science-Policy Interfaces Navigating Complex Governance Systems: Institutional Collaboration and Knowledge Uptake for Coherent and Sustainable Land Use” Her degree was granted by FB  06 - the Faculty of Education and Social Sciences / University of Münster under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Thomas Dietz (Primary supervisor, IfPol, University of Münster) and Prof. Dr. Christian Borgemeister (Secondary supervisor, Director at ZEF).