For the new term, the University of Stuttgart has successfully recruited three distinguished external members for its University Council: Dr. Mathias Kammüller, Member of the Board at TRUMPF SE + Co. KG; Prof. Bettina Lotsch, Director of the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research and recent Leibniz Prize laureate; and Prof. Michael Totzeck, Innovation Manager at Carl Zeiss AG.
As the newly elected Chairman, Wilfried Porth expressed his gratitude to the committee for their trust and highlighted his commitment to harnessing the University of Stuttgart's immense potential. He emphasized the ambition to further enhance its research performance, as well as its impact in areas such as spin-offs and public perception.
The Rector of the University of Stuttgart, Professor Peter Middendorf, congratulated the entire Rectorate on the election and then presented the strategic goals of the university, its research profile and its structures to the existing and new members of the University Council. Particular emphasis was placed on the 'Stuttgart Way' of interconnected disciplines, a concept recently reinforced by a strong performance in the THE Interdisciplinary Ranking. Additionally, the discussion highlighted the current status of the university's application within the framework of the Excellence Strategy of the federal and state governments.
In addition to Chairman Wilfried Porth, his deputy Prof. Michael Resch, Director of the High Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (HLRS), and new members Mathias Kammüller, Prof. Bettina Lotsch and Prof. Michael Totzeck, Prof. Juliane Besters-Dilger from the University of Freiburg and the Director of the Linden Museum, Prof. Inés de Castro, will continue to be members of the University Council in the new term of office. Prof. Sibylle Baumbach from the Department of Literary Studies and Dr. Antje Lohmüller from the Institute of Technical Thermodynamics and Thermal Process Engineering are new internal members of the University Council. Christopher Behrmann, representing the student body, and Prof. Meinolf Geck from the Institute for Discrete Structures and Symbolic Computing are members of the committee for a further term of office.
At the final joint meeting of the Senate and University Council in September, the outgoing Rector of the University of Stuttgart, Prof. Wolfram Ressel, gave a heartfelt farewell to the long-serving Chairman of the University Council, Prof. Bernhard Keimer of the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, as well as to the departing Council members Dr. Susanne Becker, Prof. Lino Guzzella, Anke Kleinschmit, and Prof. Cordula Kropp, expressing gratitude for their outstanding commitment.