Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg elects three new members of the President's Office

Together with University President Marion Halfmann and Chancellor Angela Fischer, who was confirmed in office last year, they will form the President's Office of H-BRS from 1 March 2025.

President Halfmann: All three are excellently qualified

"I am very much looking forward to shaping the university together with this dedicated team and taking it forward," said President Marion Halfmann. "All three are excellently qualified for this task." The aim is to further develop teaching, maintain the university's research strength and offer students and employees good educational and working conditions. At the same time, they want to contribute with solutions to social challenges such as the shortage of skilled workers and digitalisation. The appointment of the new President's Office after the new President took office in November will be accompanied by a change in departmental responsibilities and a reduction in the size of the body. Halfmann expressly thanked the previous Vice Presidents for their outstanding work on the Executive Board.

Professors Marco Winzker (previously Vice President Studies, Teaching and Digitalisation), Remi Maier-Rigaud (previously Vice President Research and Young Academics) and Jürgen Bode (previously Vice President Internationalisation and Diversity) will return to teaching and research at H-BRS after the end of their term of office. Professor Michaela Wirtz, previously Vice President of Transfer, Innovation and Sustainability, will leave H-BRS in mid-March to become President of Landshut University of Applied Sciences.

Professor Teena Chakkalayil Hassan Vice President International Affairs and Digital Transformation

In her presentation for the position of Vice President International Affairs and Digital Transformation, Professor Teena Chakkalayil Hassan said that she wanted to improve the support services for students from abroad and establish further international partnerships. She also wants to strengthen the digital skills of all university members - especially with regard to the topic of artificial intelligence. Hassan has been a professor specialising in artificial intelligence and robotics at the H-BRS Department of Computer Science and Director of the university's Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Systems (A2S) since March 2023. She earned her bachelor's degree in computer science at Cochin University of Science and Technology (India) and her master's degree in the Autonomous Systems programme at H-BRS. She then worked as an expert in affective computing and human-robot interaction for the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and received her doctorate from the University of Bamberg. After working at the Universities of Bielefeld and Bremen, she returned to H-BRS.

Professor Peter M. Muck Vice President Learning and Teaching

In his presentation for the position of Vice President of Learning and Teaching, Professor Peter M. Muck explained how he intends to further develop teaching. Important keywords here: individual support for students, good guidance during their studies, digitalisation and innovative teaching concepts. He wants to emphasise local roots and global networking. Muck has been Professor of Business Psychology at H-BRS since July 2014 and has also been Dean of the Department of Management Sciences for almost seven years. After graduating in business administration and psychology, he completed his doctorate at the University of Hohenheim. The expert in personnel and organisational psychology then worked at the universities of Bielefeld and Giessen as well as at the Federal Employment Agency before joining H-BRS.

Professor Johannes Steinhaus Vice President Research and Transfer

Professor Johannes Steinhaus is the new Vice President Research and Transfer. In his introduction, he made it clear that interdisciplinary cooperation should play a decisive role for him. This applies within the university, but also in networking with other universities and cooperation with industry and non-university research institutions. Steinhaus has been Professor of Materials Science at Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg since October 2020 and has been Vice Dean of the Department of Applied Natural Sciences for almost two and a half years. Steinhaus studied materials engineering at H-BRS. After working for several companies, he held a teaching position at H-BRS and was Managing Director of the university's Institute of Technology, Resource and Energy-efficient Engineering (TREE). Parallel to his work at H-BRS, the expert in microplastics and plastics recycling completed a doctorate at Tomas Bata University in Zlin (Czech Republic).

The University Election Assembly is made up of members of the Senate and the University Council. There were no opposing candidates in the election of the new Vice Presidents.