On November 27th, EMTHERA scientists enjoyed a wonderful day with Pascale Cossart from Institut Pasteur, Paris & EMBL, Heidelberg with numerous scientific discussions between our guest and our PhD candidates, postdocs and PIs. In addition, our community had the chance to listen to her lecture on "Raising a bacterium to the rank of a model system: the Listeria paradigm". The day culminated in a ceremonial event, the Dies academicus, where Pascale Cossart was awarded the honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Medicine of Goethe University Frankfurt. The day was rounded off with a dinner among colleagues in a relaxed atmosphere and a lively exchange on current research projects. We congratulate Pascale Cossart on her honor and thank her for her visit.