Dr. Ashour Ahmed, one of the first doctoral students of the Interdisciplinary Faculty at University of Rostock, previously tutored by Prof. Oliver Kühn, Theoretical Physics (left) and Prof. Peter Leinweber, Soil Science (right) now has defended his Habilitation Thesis in the discipline of Physical Chemistry. He did very successfull investigations in the frame of InnoSoilPhos project that was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Germany) for a period of nine years. Dr. Ahmed disclosed fundamental insights into interactions of phosphate compounds with organic molecules and mineral surfaces in soil by using a broad range of computational chemistry methods. His researches layed a basis for a more sustainable use of phosphate fertilizer, mobilizing soil phosphate reserves and designing new phosphate fertilizers from recycled materials.