The University of Bremen will get a new Rector. On 14th December 2011 the Academic Council of the University of Bremen elected Professor Bernd Scholz-Reiter as future Rector. In the second round of voting he received 14 of the 22 votes cast. Runner up was Professor Arnim von Gleich with seven votes; one ballot paper was deemed invalid. The third candidate, Professor Günther Zupanc, dropped out in the first round. On 1st September 2012 Professor Bernd Scholz-Reiter will take over the five-year appointment from his predecessor, Wilfried Müller, who is retiring after having been in office for ten years.
“I want to thank the members of the Academic Council for placing their trust in me. I wish the University and all of us success in the Excellence Initiative”, were Bernd Scholz-Reiter’s first words after the results of the election became known.
In his candidacy address to the Academic Council, Professor Scholz-Reiter stressed the importance of reliable financial planning for the sustainable development of the University. A crucial goal of his future work would therefore be to secure a long-term agreement with the State of Bremen involving financial guarantees. In his speech, Scholz-Reiter declared his express support for a university covering all academic fields, i.e. encompassing the humanities and the social sciences as well as the natural and engineering sciences. He said that, regardless of the outcome, he perceives the University’s participation in the Excellence Initiative to be of value in itself because the application procedure had led to intensified cooperation and exchange of ideas across all disciplinary borders within the University.
According to Scholz-Reiter, good academic teaching is not solely the responsibility of faculty: students and administrative staff also had to play their part. It is important “to work for an ongoing improvement of teaching and studies via feedback processes.” He intends to place a special focus on diversity and equal opportunity in education, especially in respect of social background. He perceives interculturality as a huge opportunity for the University. Moreover, in his view, internationalization does not preclude the University from also positioning itself within the region. Rather, both aspects are prerequisite for the University’s successful development. Bernd Scholz-Reiter expressed his commitment to a style of leadership based on participation. His leadership and communication principles comprise “trust and reliability, willingness to communicate and responsiveness, enhancing motivation and effective decision making.”
About Prof. Scholz-Reiter:
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Bernd Scholz-Reiter was appointed a professor of the University of Bremen in 2000. He holds the chair for the “Planning and Control of Manufacturing Systems” in the Department of Production Engineering. Since 2002 he has headed the Bremen Institute of Production and Logistics (BIBA), where he is responsible for the area of “Intelligent Production and Logistics Systems”. He studied Industrial Engineering at the TU Berlin, where he was awarded a doctorate in 1990. In 1994 he was appointed to his first professorship in the field of computer science for industry at the University of Cottbus. Scholz-Reiter is also active at the national level; for instance, since 2007 he has held the post of Vice President of the German Research Foundation (DFG).
