Georg Krausch from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz as new chair of German U15 and Günter M. Ziegler to take office in September
No 097/2020 from Jun 10, 2020
The members of the German U15 elected a new board. As of September 2020, Georg Krausch, the president of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, will become the new chair, taking over from Dr. h.c. Hans-Jochen Schiewer, the rector of the University of Freiburg, who served as chair of U15 the past four years. Günter M. Ziegler, the president of Freie Universität Berlin, was elected deputy chair. The term of office of the new board will begin on September 1, 2020, for two years in accordance with the articles of association.
Georg Krausch
Georg Krausch studied physics at the University of Konstanz. After completing his doctorate and acquiring his post-doctoral lecturing qualification, he was a professor of physical chemistry at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München / LMU Munich from 1996 to 1998. In 1998, he was appointed to the Chair of Physical Chemistry at Bayreuth University. In 2007 Krausch was elected president of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU). In recognition of his research work, he was appointed a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) in 2009. Since 2013, he has been a member of the German National Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech). In 2014, he was awarded the Leibniz Medal of the Academy of Sciences and Literature Mainz. As president of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Krausch was chair of the State University Presidents’ Conference for Rhineland-Palatinate and a founding director of the Mainz Research Alliance. In September 2014, he was elected deputy chair of the German U15 association of 15 large research-oriented universities. In 2020, he was appointed a full member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts.
Günter M. Ziegler
After first studying mathematics at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU Munich), Günter M. Ziegler earned his doctorate in 1987 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge (USA). Ziegler completed the habilitation process at Technische Universität Berlin, where he worked as a professor of mathematics from January 1995 through February 2011. Since March 2011 he has been doing research and teaching at Freie Universität Berlin, and since May 2017 he has also been an adjunct professor at Technische Universität Berlin. In 2006 he was in charge of setting up Berlin Mathematical School (BMS) as a joint graduate school of the three major Berlin universities. Günter M. Ziegler has been the president of Freie Universität Berlin since July 2018. He is the first spokesperson for the Berlin University Allliance, a function he has held since November 2018. Ziegler was awarded the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize of the German Research Foundation (DFG) for his research as well as the Communicator Award of the DFG and the Stifterverband für die deutsche Wissenschaft (Donors’ Association for the Promotion of Sciences and Humanities in Germany). In 2010 he was awarded an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council, and in November 2017 he was awarded the Berlin Science Prize of the Governing Mayor of Berlin. Günter M. Ziegler is a member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, a member of the German National Academy, Leopoldina, and the German Academy of Engineering Sciences (acatech), as well as a fellow of the American Mathematical Society.
About German U15
German U15 represents 15 leading research-intensive and internationally visible universities in Germany. The U15 universities educate almost one third of all German and international students in Germany. They supervise half of all doctoral projects completed in Germany. The U15 universities raise two fifths of public third-party funds for universities; in the medical sector, 60 percent.
Due to the spread of the coronavirus, all public events at Freie Universität Berlin have been canceled through July 20, 2020.
