2015
Prof. Dr. Ulrike Haug
Faculty 11 – Human and Health Sciences
Ulrike Haug took over the professorship for Clinical Epidemiology and Pharmacoepidemiology at the University of Bremen in September. The professorship is linked to leading the department "Clinical Epidemiology" at the Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research - BIPS. Ulrike Haug succeeds Professor Edeltraut Garbe, who exercised this dual role from 2007 until her retirement in 2015. After completing her pharmacy studies, Ulrike Haug obtained her doctorate from the University of Heidelberg. Afterwards, she remained there to research at the German Cancer Research Center and teach at the University of Heidelberg, where she habilitated in 2013. In between, she worked as an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota (USA) and completed short stays as a visiting scholar in, among other places, Rotterdam (Netherlands). One of Ulrike Haug’s main research foci is the early detection of colorectal cancer. She works on the diagnostic evaluation of test procedures as well as on the optimization and evaluation of cancer screening programs. Furthermore, she is researching cancer prevention in high-risk groups, especially in persons with a familial cancer burden. Ulrike Haug has already received several awards such as a research grant from the Dr. Mildred Scheel Foundation for Cancer Research and the Felix Burda Award in the category "Medical Prevention".
Prof. Dr. Carolin Patzelt
Faculty 10 – Linguistics and Literary Studies
Carolin Patzelt has been a Professor of Romance Linguistics / Focus on Hispanics in the Faculty of Linguistics and Literary Studies at the University of Bremen since September 2015. After studying English and Romance Studies at the Universities of Siegen and Salamanca, Carolin Patzelt received her doctorate in 2007 in Siegen with a thesis on aspect and type of action in the Spanish style. Afterwards she worked as a postdoc at the University of Hamburg in the Collaborative Research Center 538 "Multilingualism", before she went to the University of Bochum as Academic Councilor for Spanish and French Linguistics. Among other things, she was co-founder of the network "Ruhr Center for Multilingualism". After research stays in Peru, Brazil and French Guiana, in 2014 she habilitated in Bochum on migration-related language change using French Guiana’s as an example. After a spell as interim professor at the FU Berlin, she accepted the call to Bremen in the summer of 2015. Here, she is currently building a research group on the study of language contact and language conflict in modern migration societies and intends to strengthen the Faculty’s research focus "Colonial Linguistics" from a Romance perspective.
Prof. Dr. Kerstin Knopf
Faculty 10 – Linguistics and Literary Studies
With effect from 1st January 2015 Kerstin Knopf was appointed Professor for Postcolonial Literary and Cultural Studies in the Faculty of Linguistics and Literary Studies. Kerstin Knopf was a student of American/Canadian Studies as well as Spanish and Scandinavian Studies at the University of Greifswald and also spent time studying in Los Angeles (USA), Regina (Canada), and Göteborg (Sweden). In 2003 she was awarded a doctorate on the topic of indigenous film in Canada and the USA, and in 2012 she submitted a post-doctoral dissertation on 19th century Canadian Gothic Literature. She researched this topic in Regina, Toronto and Ottawa, and gained experience teaching North American literature, film and media in Greifswald, Rostock, Mainz, and Chester (USA). Her main research interests include postcolonial and indigenous studies, the African Diaspora, North American prison literature and 19th century literature, as well as feminist and gender studies. She is currently engaged in an international research project on indigenous film. In addition to this, she is working on two publication projects on “Indigenous Knowledge”. In February, Kerstin Knopf became Vice President of the Society for Canadian Studies in German-speaking countries. This interdisciplinary field of research investigates Canada-related topics from mixed disciplinary perspectives in sections such as Anglophone and Francophone language, literature and Culture, feminine and gender studies, geography, economics, and political and social science.
Prof. Dr. Eeva Sippola
Faculty 10 – Linguistics and Literary Studies
Eeva Sippola has been teaching and researching in the University of Bremen’s Faculty of Linguistics and Literary Studies as Professor for Postcolonial Language Studies since 1st January 2015. Eeva Sippola was a student of Spanish Studies and Linguistics at the University of Helsinki (Finnland) and the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain). While still working on her doctoral thesis, she was involved in editing the “Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Languages” published by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. After being awarded her doctorate in 2012 in Helsinki she worked for a tiem at the Finnland Institute in Madrid. Following this she was a post-doc in the Cognitive Creolistics Research Group at the University of Aarhus (Denmark). Her main research interests include language contact, typology and socio-linguistics in postcolonial situations, especially Pidgin and Creole Languages. Her most current research focuses on phylogenetic methods for investigating Iberian Creole languages and language ideologies in migrant groups. Eeva Sippola is Co-President of the “International Association of Postcolonial and Colonial Linguistics”, which was founded in Bremen in 2014. The association investigates the relationships between language and colonialism from historical and contemporary perspectives. It plays an important role in establishing Colonial and Postcolonial Linguistics as a new field of research in the discipline of Linguistics.
Prof. Dr. Christine Lohmeier
Faculty 9 – Cultural Studies
In the winter semester 2015, Christine Lohmeier accepted the call for the Chair of Communication and Media Studies with a focus on comparative cultural analysis. Prior to this, she had represented the professorship for two semesters. Christine Lohmeier comes to the University of Bremen after numerous international and national stations. Originally from Westphalia, she was drawn to the University of Passau to study languages, economics and cultural studies. This was followed by a masters degree in Media Research at the University of Stirling in Scotland and a doctorate at the University of Glasgow (Scotland). Christine Lohmeier subsequently taught at the University of Rotterdam (The Netherlands), before working for three years as an academic councilor at the Institute for Communication Science and Media Research at the LMU in Munich. Her research interests are international and transcultural communication, cultures of remembrance and digital practices. A further focal point is the innovative development of qualitative methods.
Prof. Dr. Ben Marzeion
Faculty 8 – Social Sciences
In September 2015, Ben Marzeion took over a professorship for physical geography in the University’s Faculty of Social Sciences, where he is responsible for the specialization in climate geography. After studying oceanography in Kiel, Marzeion earned his doctorate at the University of Bergen (Norway) on the stability of ocean circulation in the North Atlantic. A short stay at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA) was followed by a transfer to the University of Innsbruck (Austria). There he first researched at the Institute of Geography, later at the Institute of Meteorology and Geophysics, on interactions between glaciers and climate. At the center of his work is the global modeling of the dynamics of mountain glaciers. At the University of Bremen, Ben Marzeion is now focusing on the importance of glacier melt for regional sea level changes. In addition, he investigates the influence of glaciers on water availability, which - depending on the local climate, but also on the needs of the local population – is marked by substantial regional differences.
Prof. Dr. Anna-Katharina Hornidge
Faculty 8 – Social Sciences
The Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Bremen and the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Ecology (ZMT) are happy to receive reinforcement: in May 2015 the sociologist, Anna-Katharina Hornidge, joined the new professorship “Sociology of Development and Knowledge”. The scientist studied Southeast Asian Studies at the Universities of Bonn and Singapore. She was awarded a doctorate on the construction of knowledge societies. Anna-Katharina Hornidge has been managing interdisciplinary research groups on Southeast and Central Asia since 2006 at the Centre for Development Research at the University of Bonn. From 2012 until the end of 2014, she was responsible for the academic coordination of the federal competency network Crossroads Asia. Following her postdoctoral qualification in 2014, she was appointed for a fixed term to the directorate and professorship of the social sciences department at the Centre for Development Research before accepting the appointment at Bremen. She will remain associated with Crossroads Asia and the Centre for Development Research as a member of the board and senior fellow. In Bremen, Anna-Katharina Hornidge will study marine epistemologies along the equator in her team. For her this means understanding how different marine cultures of knowledge and belief systems deal with the challenges of increasing environmental change and the socio-political transformation processes.
Prof. Dr. Marius Gros
Faculty 7 – Business Studies and Economics
Marius Gros joined the Faculty of Economics in October 2015 as Professor of Finance and Accounting. After studying business administration and law, Marius Gros worked as a research assistant at the University of Frankfurt. In 2010 he received his doctorate for a comparative law study on accounting in Germany and the USA, "Implications for a purposeful further development of the German accounting concept". After this, he habilitated in 2015 at the University of Frankfurt. Subsequently, Gros worked more closely with regulators such as the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority and gained teaching experience at the Universities of Heidelberg and Frankfurt as well as at the Vietnam German University (Vietnam). His interests lie in the scientific support of current regulatory projects on auditing, corporate governance and accounting, i.e. at the interface of business and law. The focus here is on the enforcement of accounting standards and accounting for goodwill. In addition to his research projects, Gros wants to contribute in particular to the scientific exchange with the Southeast Asian region.
Prof. Dr. Thilo Kuntz
Faculty 6 – Law
In January 2015, Thilo Kuntz was appointed to a professorship in the Faculty of Law at the University of Bremen. His areas of work are: civil law, corporate law and legal theory. After studying law at the University of Giessen, he completed the Master of Laws at the University of Chicago Law School. After that, he was a research associate and academic council at the University of Giessen. In 2008, he received his doctorate with a dissertation on information sharing during buyouts under management participation. After a research stay at the Stanford Law School, he completed his habilitation in Giessen. In Bremen, Kuntz is one of the directors of the Institute of Commercial Law. His research interests are indemnity law, general contract law and corporate law. In April 2015, Thilo Kuntz received the prestigious Hochschulpreis awarded by the Deutsches Aktieninstitut. He was honored for his habilitation dissertation "Designing corporations between freedom and coercion - venture capital in Germany and the USA." The prize is endowed with 10,000 euro. In the course of his work, the law scholar has undertaken a comprehensive comparison of German law, in particular corporate law, with US law.
Prof. Dr. Marta Perez-Gussniye
Faculty 5 – Geosciences
Marta Perez-Gussinye was appointed Professor of Geophysics and Geodynamics in the Faculty of Geosciences and the Center for Marine Environmental Sciences (MARUM) at the University of Bremen in November 2015. After receiving her physics Diplom in 1996, Marta Perez-Gussinye moved to the Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research (GEOMAR) in Kiel, where she earned her doctorate in 2000 on the subject: "Continental rifting and break-up at the West Iberia margin: an integrated geophysical study". As a postdoc she worked at GEOMAR, at the University of Oxford and at the Spanish Science Council. She concentrated on investigations of lithos- and asthenospheric processes, especially in the area of continental margins. As a lecturer and research assistant at the Royal Holloway University of London in the years 2009 to 2015, she extended her research focus to the study of tectonic architecture and formation of continental margins based on seismic data and numerical modeling. In Bremen, she will now focus on the link between the onshore and offshore geology of continental margins and surface processes in respect of the potential of natural resources.
Prof. Dr. Edwin Zondervan
Faculty 4 – Production Engineering -Mechanical Engineering & Process Engineering-
In October 2015, Edwin Zondervan took up the new professorship for "Process Systems Engineering" in the Faculty of Production Engineering at the University of Bremen. In the newly founded Laboratory for Process Systems Engineering (PSE) he will conduct research on the sustainable and flexible system design of energy networks. Born in the Netherlands, he studied process engineering in Leeuwarden, Enschede and Groningen. He completed his doctoral thesis in Groningen on the topic "Modeling, Optimization and Control of Dead-End Membrane Filtration of Surface Water". Zondervan then moved to Eindhoven University, where he worked as an assistant professor in the Systems Engineering Group of the Chemical Engineering Department. Subsequently, he worked as a research associate at university laboratories in Spain, the USA and Denmark. In 2010 he joined the Polymer Reaction Engineering Group at the University of Eindhoven. Zondervan is author and reviewer for several chemical engineering magazines. One of his essays in the journal "Computers & Chemical Engineering" received the award "most cited article from 2010 to 2012". In Bremen, Zondervan will develop network modeling techniques and dynamic optimization tools and use them for the design and operation of complex energy and processing plants.
Prof. Dr. Fabio La Mantia
Faculty 4 – Production Engineering -Mechanical Engineering & Process Engineering-
In July 2015, Fabio La Mantia took over a professorship in the field of Energy and Energy Conversion Systems in the Faculty of Production Engineering at the University of Bremen. La Mantia graduated in 2004 with a Master's degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Palermo (Italy). In his work he dealt with the characterization of amorphous semiconductor materials, for which he received an award from the Italian Chemical Society. Subsequently, La Mantia obtained his doctorate on lithium-ion batteries from ETH Zurich, where he dealt with the modeling of porous electrodes for use in batteries. What was so special? La Mantia checked his results with the help of a multi-electrode design he developed. In 2008, Fabio La Mantia joined the group of Professor Yi Cui at Stanford University (California), where he was able to integrate his electrochemical knowledge in the field of materials science. From 2010 to 2015, Fabio La Mantia worked as a group leader in the field of "semiconductor and energy conversion" at the University of Bochum. Here he developed other new technologies for generating energy from salinity gradients, which can be used for the desalination of seawater and for lithium recovery.
Prof. Dr. Thorsten Dickhaus
Faculty 3 – Mathematics/Computer Science
Thorsten Dickhaus has been a Professor for Mathematical Statistics in the Faculty of Mathematics/Informatics since March 2015. Dickhaus started his academic career with vocational training to become a technical assistant in mathematics at Jülich Research Centre, completing studies in technomathematics at the technical university of Aachen / Jülich department at the same time. From 2003 to 2005, he completed a masters course in "Mathematics and Fields of Application" at the University of Dusseldorf. He gained his doctorate there in 2008 with a thesis on "False Discovery Rate and Asymptotics". Afterwards, the mathematician first worked as a PostDoc at the Technical University of Berlin and later as a Junior Professor for Mathematical Statistics at the Humboldt University in Berlin. Then Dickhaus moved to the Weierstraß Institute for Applied Analysis and Stochastics. During this time he made important contributions to the theory of multiple tests for high-dimensional, spatially and time dependent, complex structured data, as well as to simultaneous statistical inference in general, which also continues to be the focus of his research. At the University of Bremen he plans to develop a consultancy centre for statistics and take on the responsibility for jointly organising stronger links between the Institute for Statistics in the Faculty of Mathematics and the stochastics teams at the University of Oldenburg.
Prof. Dr. Mihalis Vrekoussis
Faculty 1 – Physics/Electrical Engineering
Mihalis Vrekoussis has occupies the Chair of Inverse Modeling of the Earth System in the Faculty of Physics / Electrical Engineering at the University of Bremen since July 2015. Vrekoussis studied and obtained his doctorate from the University of Crete. The title of his dissertation was “Nitrate radicals (NO3): Their role in controlling the nitrogen cycle and the oxidizing capacity of the atmosphere.” He then worked as a postdoc at the Environmental Chemical Processes Laboratory (ECPL) in Crete before coming to the Institute of Environmental Physics at the University of Bremen to do research from 2006 to 2009. In 2012, he became head of the Environmental Chemistry and Observations Laboratory (ECOL) research group at the Cyprus Institute's Energy, Environment and Water Research Center in Greece. His scientific interests in atmospheric chemistry and physics include air pollution, remote sensing, the physical and chemical properties of aerosols and radiation, investigations of sulfur and nitrogen cycles, determination of trace gases and free radicals, climatological and chemical relationships, as well as numerical simulations and data analysis.
Prof. Dr. Anna Förster
Faculty 1 – Physics/Electrical Engineering
In February 2015 Anna Förster was appointed Professor for Communication Networks in the Faculty of Physics / Electrical Engineering. Thanks to the Excellence Initiative her appointment came ahead of schedule, making it possible for her to spend some time ‘learning the ropes’ from Carmelita Görg, the Professor for Electrical Engineering she will be taking over from. Her main teaching and research interests lie in the field of sustainable communications networking with applications in sustainability, civil defense and disaster management, as well as Smart City, Smart Home and Smart Grid. Anna Förster was born and raised in Bulgaria; she studied Computer Science at the Free University in Berlin and obtained her doctorate at the University of Lugano in Switzerland. From 2010 till 2014 she worked as a research associate at the University of Applied Sciences of Southern Switzerland. At the University of Bremen she intends to pay special attention to integrating research-based learning in her teaching and research activities. To facilitate this, she will set up the "Smart Cyber-physical Systems” lab in the Faculty of Physics/Electrical Engineering, where University and school students across all disciplines will be able to implement their own applied research projects. The Faculty will be giving the lab their full support.
Prof. Dr. Tim Güneysu
Faculty 3 – Mathematics/Computer Science
Reinforcement in the Faculty of Mathematics / Computer Science at the University of Bremen: Since August 1, 2015, Tim Güneysu has been leading the research group for technical informatics with a focus on IT security. Tim Güneysu is researching new security solutions for embedded and hardware-related systems, such as the development of efficient and secure cryptographic implementations for EC cards, cell phones or electronic door openers. A particular challenge is to reconcile the high computational complexity of modern cryptography with the demands and cost pressures of embedded systems. In particular, durable systems with high demands on long-term safety, for example in satellite communications, are a central focus of research. Other areas in the focus of the research group include the development of cryptanalytic hardware systems and the development of efficient hardware-based solutions for creating true randomness and device authenticity.
Prof. Dr. Tilmann Harder
Faculty 2 – Biology/Chemistry
Tilmann Harder has been Professor of Maritime Chemistry at the University of Bremen’s Faculty of Biology / Chemistry as well as at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) since April 2015. After chemistry studies in Oldenburg, he went on to complete his doctorate there at the Institute of Chemistry and Biology of the Sea (ICBM) on the chemical analysis of marine messenger substances. After a spell as a postdoctoral researcher in Hong Kong, he was appointed junior professor environmental biochemistry at the ICBM. During this time, he established a working group to study the chemical ecology of marine organisms. In 2008, he moved to the University of New South Wales (Australia), where, as Deputy Director, he led the Center for Marine Bio-Innovation and established a broad-based research program to study environmental stress on macroalgae. He also led a research group at the Australian Institute of Marine Science to study chemical settlement signals from corals. In Bremen, he is currently building a local research group to study the reactions of marine organisms to environmental stress by means of metabolomic investigations.
Prof. Dr. Anne Staubitz
Faculty 2 – Biology/Chemistry
Anne Staubitz has been working as a professor of organic functional materials at the Institute of Organic and Analytical Chemistry in the Faculty of Biology / Chemistry at the University of Bremen since July 2015. Her areas of interest include the synthesis of semiconducting molecules and macromolecules as well as the synthesis of organic switchable materials. Anne Staubitz studied biochemistry in Tübingen and Munich and subsequently received her doctorate in the field of natural product synthesis at the University of Bristol. As a postdoctoral researcher, she changed her field to focus on inorganic main group polymers. She then took up a junior professorship in organic chemistry at the University of Kiel, where she set up her own research group. She intends to further deepen her research interests in Bremen. Bremen’s strength in the field of materials research in particular is an important anchor, and she wants to explore possibilities for cooperation with local non-university research institutes. At the university, she wants to bring in more Erasmus exchange programs, through which students can gain valuable experience abroad.
Prof. Dr. Boris Johannes Nachtsheim
Faculty 2 – Biology/Chemistry
Boris Johannes Nachtsheim has been working since October 2015 as Professor of Organic Chemistry in the Faculty of Biology / Chemistry at the University of Bremen. Nachtsheim is especially interested in the development of small organic molecules that can efficiently catalyze chemical reactions. The catalysts he develops can be used for the production of interesting biologically active compounds and other effect substances, such as emitters for organic light-emitting diodes. Another focus is on small self-assembling peptides. He investigates their role in chemical evolution; that is, abiotic processes that may have played a role on the Earth in earlier times. He then uses these peptides to produce biocompatible hydrogels. Boris Nachtsheim studied chemistry at Goethe University Frankfurt and graduated there in 2009. He then spent a year researching at Harvard Medical School in Boston, where he studied the interaction between bacteria and higher insects at the molecular level. In 2010, he accepted a Junior Professorship in Organic Chemistry at the University of Tübingen, where he laid the foundations for his current research interests.
Prof. Dr. Tanja Schultz
Faculty 3 – Mathematics/Computer Science
Tanja Schultz was appointed as Professor for Cognitive Systems in the Faculty of Mathematics/Informatics in April 2015. She sat the first state exam in mathematics and sport in 1989 before turning her attention to information science. After her degree she studied for a post doctorate in informatics at the University of Karlsruhe. She subsequently worked as a Research Scientist and Professor at the Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, PA, USA for six years. In 2007 she was offered a professorship at the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology, where she set up the Cognitive Systems Lab (CSL), as well as co-founding the Institutes for Anthropomatics and for Future Technologies. In her research, Tanja Schultz concentrates on the computer support of interpersonal communication as well as human-computer interaction on the basis of language and non-verbal communication signals. She also links computer learning techniques to innovations in bio signal processing, such as “silent speech communication” and “airwriting”. She was awarded the Alcatel-Lucent research prize in 2012 for all of her work in the field of “Humans and Technology in Communication Systems”. At the University of Bremen the computer scientist would like to further expand the focus on “Information – Cognition – Communication”. This will include setting up the biosignals laboratory where students will be able to achieve human-centred cognitive communication systems together with researchers from CSL@Uni-Bremen.
Prof. Dr. Nicole Dubilier
Faculty 2 – Biology/Chemistry
The Bremen marine scientist Nicole Dubilier was appointed Professor of Microbial Symbiosis in the Faculty of Biology / Chemistry at the University of Bremen in November 2015. Nicole Dubilier has been teaching at the University since 2012 and has now been appointed to the position of Cooperation Professor. The American-born scientist came to Germany as a teenager and studied at the University of Hamburg, where she received her doctorate in 1992. Afterwards, she spent two years at Harvard University (USA), where she discovered her passion for marine symbiosis research. After her return, she moved to the Max Planck Institute in Bremen. Nicole Dubilier has led numerous international research expeditions. In 2013, she received an ERC Advanced Grant from the European Research Council. In 2014, Nicole Dubilier received the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize for her research on symbioses between microorganisms and marine animals. She has been the Director of the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen since 2013. In addition to this, Nicole Dubilier is a project manager at MARUM, the Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen. The internationally renowned microbiologist is particularly interested in researching the diversity, ecology and evolution of symbioses between invertebrate marine animals and bacteria.
Prof. Dr. Mehul Bhatt
Faculty 3 – Mathematics/Computer Science
In 2015 Mehul Bhatt received a Junior Professorship in the field of Human-Centered Cognitive Assistance in the University of Bremen’s Faculty of Mathematics/Computer Science. He also holds an endowed professorship at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence. Mehul Bhatt studied in Mumbai, India, and graduated with a Master’s from the University of Melbourne in Australia. His doctoral research project in Computer Science, which he completed in 208, was funded with an APA Award (Australian Post-graduate Award). Bhatt started his research activities in Bremen in 2007 as a DAAD scholarship holder in the University of Bremen’s Cognitive Systems Research Group, a cooperative project involving a number of international partners. From 2011 till 2014 he worked as a project leader in the Collaborative Research Center Spatial Cognition. This was followed by research stays in Australia, New Zealand, the USA, Chile, Japan, India and Israel. At the University of Bremen he is particularly interested in various initiatives involving research-based learning, cooperation projects, and internationalization strategies. His main research interest lies at the interfaces between Artificial Intelligence, Computational Cognitive Systems and Spatial Cognition. The results of his research find applications in Geography, Robotics, and medical medical informatics. In addition to all this, Mehul Bhatt is cofounder of the DesignSpace Group, a research group which develops cognitive assistive technologies for use in architecture.