2012
Prof. Dr. Michael Vellekoop
Faculty 1 – Physics/Electrical Engineering
Michael Vellekoop has been Professor of Micro- and Nanotechnology at the Institute of Microsensors, Actuators and Systems in the Faculty of Physics / Electrical Engineering since March. Born in the Netherlands, he completed his doctorate in 1994 at the TU Delft on integrated ultrasonic sensors. In 1988 Vellekoop was co-founder and until 1996 managing director of the sensor-producing company Xensor Integration. He then returned to the University of Delft to set up a research group in the field of "sensors for liquids".
After his move to the Chair of Industrial Sensor Systems at the Vienna University of Technology in 2001, he worked on developing "lab-on-a-chip" sensor systems that yield biochemical or biomedical information.
In Bremen, Vellekoop is building a new research group that, in cooperation with other disciplines such as biotechnology and medicine, is developing new approaches for miniaturized measuring systems in the field of life sciences. His research interests include microfluidics, opto-fluidics and sensor technology.
Prof. Dr. Tim Wehling
Faculty 1 – Physics/Electrical Engineering
Since January Tim Wehling is Junior Professor of Theoretical Physics in the Faculty of Physics / Electrical Engineering. Wehling studied physics at the Universities of Göttingen and Hamburg. After research stays at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Wehling received his PhD in 2010 on impurity effects in nanoelectronic systems. He then conducted research at the University of Hamburg on the electronic properties of novel materials, such as graphs.
In Bremen, he will build up the working group "Theory of condensed matter electronic structure". The research focuses on the investigation of correlated nanosystems: In many materials, the mutual repulsion of the electrons causes them to perform a strange "dance" around each other. Understanding such electron behavior is central to the prediction of material properties, such as electrical conductivity, and presents a major challenge in theoretical physics.
Prof. Dr. Maarten Boersma
Faculty 2 – Biology/Chemistry
Maarten Boersma has been Professor of Experimental Coastal Research in the Department of Biology at the University of Bremen since April. Born in the Netherlands, he studied biology at the University of Utrecht and earned his doctorate in 1994 at the University of Amsterdam on "Seasonal dynamics of Daphnia species in a shallow lake". As a post-doc, he moved to the Max Planck Institute for Limnology in Plön. He then researched here as a scientific assistant on the different appearances of water fleas. In 2001 he habilitated at the University of Kiel on the same topic. After this, Boersma moved to the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Biologische Anstalt Helgoland. In 2007 he received an unscheduled professorship at the University of Kiel.
In Bremen, the marine scientist deals with the experimental analysis of food network relationships in coastal seas. His special focus is on the interactions between small algae and their grazers
Prof. Dr. Peter Spiteller
Faculty 2 – Biology/Chemistry
Peter Spiteller has been Professor of Instrumental Analysis in the Faculty of Biology / Chemistry since January. He studied chemistry at the University of Bayreuth and completed his doctorate in 2001 at the LMU Munich on biosynthesis and structure elucidation of fungal ingredients. After postdoctoral studies in Seattle, USA, he habilitated in 2009 at TUMünchen on the chemical ecology of higher fungi. In 2010 he moved to a professorship for organic chemistry at the University of Freiburg.
Spiteller investigates how fungi can defend themselves against competitors and parasites. The focus is on the question of why fungi produce certain drugs and secondary metabolites. He tries to isolate bioactive natural products from fungi and to elucidate their structures, since new natural products are in great demand for the development of new crop protection agents and pharmaceuticals. In Bremen, Spiteller will continue to expand its research into chemical ecology and natural products chemistry.
Prof. Dr. Michael Beetz
Faculty 3 – Mathematics/Computer Science
Since May, Michael Beetz, one of the most prominent German robotics researchers, has taken up the position of Professor of Artificial Intelligence in the Department of Mathematics / Computer Science. Beetz previously worked in the research group "Autonomous Intelligent Systems" at the Technical University of Munich. Rosie and James are the names of the two robots who learn everyday household chores. What is child's play for children is a huge challenge for robotics.
In the coming months, Beetz will set up his own laboratory at the Technology Center for Computer Science and Information Technology (TZI) in the Faculty of Mathematics / Computer Science in Bremen, bringing with it a team of scientists. He sees the uniqueness of his research approach in the connection of the ranges cognition and artificial intelligence (AI). That's why Beetz also switched from Munich to Bremen. In the AI working group at the TZI he wants to use the synergies with the already established research in the field of artificial intelligence
Prof. Dr. Görschwin Fey
Faculty 3 – Mathematics/Computer Science
Görschwin Fey took over the professorship for "Reliable Embedded Systems" in the Faculty of Mathematics / Computer Science on March. Ths is a co-operation professor, which is connected with the direction of the department for avionics systems in the institute for space systems of the German center of aerospace e.V. (DLR).
After studying computer science, Fey became a research associate at the University of Bremen in 2002. He received his doctorate in 2006 with a dissertation on "Robustness and Usability in Modern Design Flows" in the area of design automation for hardware software systems. In 2007/2008 he held a visiting professorship at the University of Tokyo (TODAI) and from 2010 until In 2012, she led a DFG-funded junior research group as part of the Emmy Noether program at the University of Bremen.
As part of the cooperation professorship, Fey will combine the research topics of verification, synthesis and reliability of embedded systems with the practical aspects of data processing and communication on board satellites.
Prof. Dr. Gabriel Zachmann
Faculty 3 – Mathematics/Computer Science
Gabriel Zachmann has been a professor in the Faculty of Mathematics / Computer Science since June. He represents the fields of computer graphics, virtual reality and visual computing.
Zachmann studied computer science at the TU Darmstadt. He completed his Diplom thesis as a guest at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) in Illinois, USA. In 2000 he received his doctorate from the TU Darmstadt. While working on his PhD, he worked at the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics. He then moved to the University of Bonn to take over the lead of a research group sponsored by the DFG for new methods of interaction for virtual prototyping. Subsequently, Zachmann worked for seven years at the TU Clausthal, where he built the working group for computer graphics.
In Bremen, he wants to use the excellent environment in the areas of computer science, natural sciences and engineering to promote research on virtual simulation and interaction.
Prof. Dr. Claus Braxmaier
Faculty 4 – Production Engineering
In July, Claus Braxmaier became Professor of Space Technology at ZARM in the Department of Production Engineering at the University of Bremen in cooperation with the DLR Institute for Space Systems. At ZARM, he heads the "Key Technologies for Space" department and at the DLR Institute, the "System Enabling Technologies" department.
Born in southern Germany, he studied precision engineering at the University of Furtwangen and then physics at the University of Konstanz. The topic of his PhD thesis with Jürgen Mlynek on "Fundamental Tests of Physics using Ultrastable Optical Oscillators" accompanies him today. Whereas in the past terrestrial tests of relativity in the laboratory were based on length and clock comparisons, today it is space-bound experiments that verify Einstein's theory of relativity with ever-higher accuracies. After completing his doctorate, he worked for five years on the program at Astrium, Friedrichshafen in the field of scientific missions for gravitational wave research. In 2005 he was appointed professor at the University of Konstanz. In parallel, he set up the "Lab for Enabling Technologies" in cooperation with Astrium Friedrichshafen to develop missing key technologies for new scientific missions.
His current activities focus on the space-compatible development of high-precision laser measurement technology, frequency references and inertial sensors, as well as investigations on structural materials, assembly and connection technologies for optics and μN engines. The aim is to develop payloads for scientific missions in cooperation with the ZARM group around Claus Lämmerzahl. An important step in this development are preliminary experiments in the drop tower.
Prof. Dr. Thomas Hochrainer
Faculty 4 – Production Engineering
Thomas Hochrainer has been Junior Professor of "Material Mechanics / Computational Material Modeling" at the Department of Production Engineering at the University of Bremen since March.
After studying techno-mathematics at the University of Karlsruhe, he worked there as a research assistant at the Department of Materials Mechanics. In 2006, Hochrainer earned his doctorate "with distinction" on "Evolving systems of curved dislocations: mathematical foundations of a statistical theory". He then moved to the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Mechanics in Freiburg as a research assistant, where he took over the co-leadership of the joint project "Computational Mechanics of Polycrystals, CMCn" run by the Fraunhofer and the Max Planck Society. He also headed industrial damage development projects in metal forming. In 2010, he moved to Florida State University in Tallahassee, USA, as a Research Scientist.
In Bremen Hochrainer works in the field of micromechanics of deformation and damage as well as the application of micromechanics to
Prof. Dr. Angelika Humbert
Faculty 5 – Geosciences
Angelika Humbert has been working as a professor of ice modeling in the Faculty of Geosciences at the University of Bremen and the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven since April. Bremen University is currently the only university in Germany to teach glaciology. Humbert completed her studies of physics at the TU Darmstadt. In 2005 she did her doctorate in glaciology there. Afterwards, she was employed at the TU Darmstadt and the University of Münster as a research associate with a focus on Antarctic Antipodes. In 2010 she started a professorship at the University of Hamburg and set up a working group on glaciology at the Cluster of Excellence "Climate System Analysis and Prediction".
At the University of Bremen, Humbert teaches glaciology and theoretical glaciology. In addition, she heads the ice modeling working group at the AWI. With her team, she will simulate in numeric models the dynamics of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheet, their ice streams and glaciers, as well as the adjacent ice shelf and the calving of icebergs.
Prof. Dr. Andreas Lüttge
Fachbereich 5 – Geowissenschaften
Andreas Lüttge has been a professor at MARUM and the Faculty of Geosciences since July. There he represents the field of mineralogy. Lüttge studied in Braunschweig and Tübingen, where he earned his doctorate in 1990 and habilitated in 1995. He then went to Yale University on a scholarship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and in 1999 he accepted a call to Rice University in Houston. He was there until his move to the Bremen Geosciences and Chemistry.
In research, Lüttge deals with the physico-chemical interactions between solids and aqueous solutions. The quantification of these processes plays an important role in geosystems and many problem areas of modern industrial societies, e.g. in terms of water quality or storage of highly radioactive waste. In Bremen, Lüttge wants to establish an internationally competitive laboratory for surface investigations in close cooperation with the colleagues of MARUM and the Faculty.
Prof. Dr. Heiko Pälike
Faculty 5 – Geosciences
Heiko Pälike has been working as a professor of paleoceanography at the MARUM Research Center in the Geosciences Department since July.
Prior to coming to Bremen, he was a professor at the National Oceanography Center at the University of Southampton. He moved to the Hanseatic city after 18 years abroad, studying and completing his PhD in Cambridge and London, postdoctoral studies in Stockholm, Sweden and eight years at the University of Southampton.
His research focuses on the reconstruction of the climate history of the past 66 million years based on the geochemical analysis of deep-sea core samples. Mainly through the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program, he spent almost a full year on several expeditions on research vessels - from the North Pole to the Pacific. According to Pälike, Bremen not only draws him by being an excellent research and teaching environment, but also the distinction of being a university of excellence.
Prof. Dr. Michal Kucera
Faculty 5 – Geosciences
Michal Kucera has been Professor of Micropaleontology / Paleoceanography in the Faculty of Geosciences at the University of Bremen since April. After studying geology and paleontology at the University of Prague, he was awarded a doctorate in 1998 on the evolution of marine microfossils at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. He then researched at the University of California, USA on the interaction of climate change and planktonic evolution. In 2000 he became a lecturer at the Royal Holloway University in London, where he developed new methods for the reconstruction of the sea temperature. Kucera was appointed to a professorship in London in 2004. In the same year he followed a call to Tübingen.
In his research, Kucera is concerned with the emergence of marine microplankton biodiversity and its fossil record for deciphering climatic and oceanographic processes. In Bremen, he wants to advance the research on the diversity and ecology of foraminifera, their reaction to environmental stress in the geological past and their importance for the development of plankton in global climate change.
Prof. Dr. Florian Möslein
Faculty 6 – Law
Florian Möslein has been a professor in the Faculty of Law since November, where he represents the areas of civil law, international commercial and corporate law.
Möslein studied law in Munich, Paris and London after completing a banking apprenticeship. At the same time, he completed his studies in business administration at the University of Augsburg and the FernUniversität Hagen. At the University of Hamburg, he earned his doctorate in 2007 with a thesis in the field of corporate and capital market law. Before completing his habilitation in 2011, he worked as a research assistant at HUBerlin, interrupted by a one-year residency as a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence. Möslein completed his habilitation on "Dispositive Law - Purposes, Structures and Methods". Before moving to Bremen, he held an assistant orofessorship in Corporate Law at the Law School of the University of St. Gallen.
Prof. Dr. Moritz Renner
Faculty 6 – Law
In October, Moritz Renner took over a professorship for transnational economic law and business law theory in the Faculty of Law. He is one of the seven outstanding scientists who in 2012 were awarded Lichtenberg Professorships by the Volkswagen Foundation. Renner earned his doctorate in Bremen. For his dissertation, he was awarded the Bremer Studienpreis sponsored by the unifreunde in 2010 and the Deutsche Studienpreis awarded by the Körber-Stiftung in 2011. From 2007 to 2009 he worked as a research associate at the Bremen Collaborative Research Center "Transitional Statehood". Before receiving his Lichtenberg professorship, Renner was a research associate at HUBerlin.
With a team of lawyers, economists and sociologists, in Bremen the lawyer wants to analyze which changes the law is experiencing through the globalization of the economy. The goal is to develop the foundations of transnational business law.
Prof. Dr. Julia Lossau
Faculty 8 – Social Sciences
Reinforcement for the Department of Social Sciences: Since October, Julia Lossau has been Professor of Human Geography with a focus on urban geography at the Institute of Geography. After completing her doctorate at the University of Bonn, she worked as a Marie Curie Fellow at the University of Glasgow, England on "Rebuilding the living city: urban planning and public art". From 2003 to 2005 Julia Lossau was employed at the Department of Geography of the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg. This was followed by a junior professor of cultural geography at the Department of Geography of the Humboldt University.
At the University of Bremen, Julia Lossau intends to establish a high-performance focus "urban research / urban studies" in the medium term through interdisciplinary and international cooperation.
Prof. Dr. Rebekka von Mallinckrodt
Faculty 8 – Social Sciences
As of April, Rebekka was appointed Professor of Early Modern History by Mallinckrodt. The Rhineländer studied German literature, history and philosophy in Tübingen, Rome and Bonn. At the Augsburg Research Training Group "Knowledge Fields of the Modern Age" she received her doctorate on Cologne lay brotherhoods in the age of confessionalization.
In 2001 she worked as a research associate at the Max Planck Institute for History in Göttingen. In 2005, she was appointed to a junior professorship at the FU Berlin, where she worked - interrupted by a research year in Paris - until her appointment in Bremen. Mallinckrodt has been awarded several scholarships and prizes. She is a member of the Junge Akademie at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.
Her research focus is the history of the body, especially the instrumental and experimental use of the body. In Bremen, Rebekka von Mallinckrodt wants to deal with postcolonial history and the repercussions of the colonial process on Europe.
Prof. Dr. Martin Nonhoff
Faculty 8 – Social Sciences
Martin Nonhoff has been junior professor for "political theory" at the Institute for Intercultural and International Studies in the Faculty of Social Sciences since April. After studying political science, modern history and economics, he became a research associate at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in 1999. In 2003 he moved to the Center for Social Policy at the University of Bremen.
He completed his doctorate in 2005 with a dissertation on "Political Discourse and Hegemony: The Project Social Market Economy". Since 2007, he has been a member of the Collaborative Research Center "Transitional Statehood" at the University of Bremen. His research focuses on political theory of the present, political history of ideas and political discourse research.
Prof. Dr. Stefanie Averbeck-Lietz
Faculty 9 – Cultural Studies
Since March, Stefanie Averbeck-Lietz has been a professor of communication and media studies with a focus on media change at the Center for Media, Communication and Information Research in the Faculty of Cultural Studies. In 2000 she earned her doctorate at the University of Münster; In 2008 she habilitated at the University of Leipzig with a study on the development of French communication theories.
After working in journalism, postdoctoral studies at the University of Paris and working as a research assistant at the University of Leipzig, she most recently worked there as a university lecturer. She took guest and interim professorships at the Universities of Zurich and Münster as well as teaching assignments in Weimar and Friborgwahr.
Her areas of specialization include the transformation of communication and media ethics in digital and transcultural societies, the history of ideas in communication and media theory in international comparison and the corresponding method development. Together with Professor Hartmut Wessler (University of Mannheim), she heads the Section "International and Intercultural Communication" at the German Association for Journalism and Communication Studies.
Prof. Dr. Kerstin Radde-Antweiler
Faculty 9 – Cultural Studies
Kerstin Radde-Antweiler has been a junior professor in the Faculty of Studies in Religion and Religious Education in the faculty of Cultural Studies since January. Her central research focus is the topic "Religions on the Internet and in Virtual Worlds". After studying Protestant theology in Bielefeld and Heidelberg, she earned her doctorate at the University of Heidelberg. The dissertation on "Ritual Design in the World Wide Web" was prepared in the Heidelberg Collaborative Research Center "Ritual Dynamics". In addition, Kerstin Radde-Antweiler worked on "Religions in Virtual Worlds". In 2008 she moved to the Institute for Studies in Religion and Religious Education at the University of Bremen as a research associate.
As a junior professor, she would like to build up the research focus "religion and modern mass media" in connection with the "Center for Media, Communication and Information Research".
Prof. Dr. Marcus Callies
Faculty 10 – Linguistics and Literary Studies
Marcus Callies has been Junior Professor of English Linguistics at the Faculty of Linguistics and Literary Studies of the University of Bremen since April. He studied English and history in Marburg and London from 1993 to 2000. From 2000 to 2008 he was a research assistant in Marburg. There he wrote his doctoral thesis in 2006 on the "Use of linguistic means of expressing information in advanced German learners of English". In 2008 he moved to Freiburg. Shortly thereafter, he was appointed to a junior professor of English linguistics in Mainz, where he worked until March 2012.
Callies explores linguistic variation in native and non-native varieties of English using large digital text corpora. In the project "Lexiko-grammatical Variation in Advanced Learners' Vocations" he will build a computerized text corpus for empirical research on certain aspects of scientific writing in the foreign language. Other projects focus on grammatical innovation and variation in modern-day English as well as language contact and language comparison issues.
Prof. Dr. Nicole Marx
Faculty 10 – Linguistics and Literary Studies
Nicole Marx took over the professorship for German as a Second Language / German as a Foreign Language in the Faculty of Languages and Literary Studies in October.
Born in Canada, she studied at the University of Alberta, Edmonton and Philipps University Marburg. At the TU Darmstadt she did her PhD on German as a foreign language / German as a second language. After working as a teacher in the field of German as a Foreign Language in Darmstadt and as Academic Supervisor for German Linguistics / Language Didactics at the University of Münster she was until coming to Bremen a professor for language teaching / German as a foreign language at the University of Paderborn. Her main areas of expertise include multilingualism research, the methodology and didactics of foreign and second language education, and cross-lingual learning.
In Bremen, she wants to advance the research of multiple language acquisition and (educational) linguistics for schoolchildren with migrant backgrounds.
Prof. Dr. Sven Nickel
Fachbereich 12 – Erziehungs- und Bildungswissenschaften
Sven Nickel has been a professor of language and literary didactics in elementary and primary education at the Department of Education and Educational Science since May.
He earned his doctorate in 2003 at the University of Bremen with a thesis on child literacy and orthography acquisition. Most recently, he was junior professor at the FU Berlin since 2008, where he was responsible for projects of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research on so-called functional illiteracy and family literacy. His specialties include reading socialization in the family, school promotion of reading, language education and literacy in elementary education and dealing with linguistic diversity.
In Bremen, Nickel wants to provide students with concrete experience in language, reading and writing as part of a teacher-oriented teacher training program. At the center of his current research is the extension of family literacy approaches.