New Dean for the IUB School of Engineering and Science

On 1 October 2005 the physicist Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Bernhard Kramer takes on the position of Vice President and Academic Dean of the IUB School of Engineering and Science. He succeeds Prof. Dr. Gerhard Haerendel who led the school since 2000 and was vital in its design and set-up.

[ Sep 29, 2005]  The internationally renowned physicist Bernhard Kramer takes on his tasks at IUB after more than 35 years of fundamental research and teaching, especially focussing on theoretical and nanostructure physics. An important stage of his scientific career, which he started with his doctoral degree in physics from the University of Marburg in 1969, was his 15-year activity as director of the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt in Brunswig. There he also headed the research group “Fundamental Physics” while at the same time holding a professorship at the University of Dortmund. The author of more than 250 science papers and 10 books has extensive international experience as visiting professor at various universities in Great Britain, Italy, Japan and the United States. Before joining IUB he held a professorship in theoretical physics at the University of Hamburg where he led the physics department as spokesperson and dean between 1995 and 1998. He received several NATO awards for his organisation and teaching activities as part of NATO Advanced Study Institutes. In 2003 the Chemnitz Universitiy of Technology awarded him with his honorary doctoral degree.

“In its first five years, the IUB School of Engineering and Science has presented an impressive dynamic start by initiating a complete program of modern, innovative undergraduate courses and the first graduate programs. Also the research is in very good shape,” Professor Kramer commented the start in his new position. “In the future it will be important to even further improve the schools strengths by concentrating on its fields of excellence and the positioning of IUB as an elite institution in research and teaching, nationally as well as internationally.”

Professor Dr. Gerhard Haerendel, founding dean of IUB’s School of Engineering and Science, wished his successor the best of luck in the continuation of his tasks. “I am proud to hand over a fully functional school, which is well equipped with excellent labs and provides 90 percent of its teaching based on IUB resources.” According to Haerendel his greatest challenge had been to develop the expertness for the broad spectrum of disciplines included in the school to be able to recognize potential for excellence. “I consider it my greatest success that the school with its current size of more than 50 professors and additional lecturers functions as one unit as conceptually intended at IUB without fragmentation into departments. I also tribute this to the young faculty, enthusiastically committed to research, teaching and good internal communication.”

Gerhard Haerendel had taken on his position as IUB dean in fall of 2000 after almost 40 years in space research. His career is marked by leading positions in numerous international boards and institutions of his field. Most notable were his many years as director of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Munich between 1972 and 2000. Between 1994 and 2002 he was president of the international Committee on Space Research (COSPAR). He has been co-director of the Skinakas observatory in Crete for almost ten years and president of the European Space Science Committee since 2003. Since 1987, Gerhard Haerendel has been teaching as professor at the Technical University at Brunswig and also was visiting professor at the US universities of Iowa and Berkeley. He received numerous international awards and is author of over 250 publications.