Jun.-Prof. Hermann received a PhD from the Faculty of Agriculture in the field of farm management in 2016 and a PhD from the Faculty of Economics in the field of experimental economics in 2018, both at the University of Göttingen. His research focuses on individual decision behavior along the agricultural value chain, economic preferences and the consequences of digital transformation in agribusiness. In addition, sustainability of production systems and the effect of changing climatic conditions are research interests. A special focus is on interdisciplinary cooperation at the interface of economics and agricultural economics. In his inaugural lecture, he talked about how to accompany the digital transformation in the agriculture.
Jun.-Prof. Lemken presented his inaugural lecture on "Nudging in the Context of Nutrition Policy". For him, with regard to social acceptance, it is crucial that consumer sovereignty is preserved. Hence, nutritional policy instruments that work with little intervention depth should be used. That means not restricting options as far as possible (e.g. using education and nutritional information), before contemplating financial incentives (e.g. taxes on food presenting high external costs) or restricting choices (e.g. with product bans). Other, softer nutritional policy instruments may include the design of nutritional environments, labeling or product reformulations. Furthermore, targeted structural changes in the decision-making environment, for example through the positioning of products, in order to promote changes in eating habits without changing the freedom of choice, also present interesting alternatives.