The Scientific Advisory Board of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
The Advisory Board is tasked with providing support in the form of external expertise to the university management on questions concerning the future and on developing the university’s scientific profile. Its functions include giving support to the University’s Presidential Committee in its research strategy, in the development of the university’s profile and in strategic measures aimed at ensuring high quality levels in research, in the support for young academics and in university governance. The Advisory Board also gives guidance to the research projects of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in the first and second funding lines within the framework of the Excellence Initiative of the federal government and the federal states of Germany. Moreover, it advises the Presidential Committee in the implementation of measures to be taken within the University’s future development programme. Currently, the Board’s supportive activities are focused on the planning, the foundation and evaluation of Integrative Research Institutes (IRI).
The Scientific Advisory Board convenes twice a year at Humboldt-Universittät for consultations with the university management. The board currently has 10 members who are respected researchers from a very wide range of disciplines or leading experts from the fields of university and scientific management.
Prof. Dr. Gerhart v. Graevenitz
Chairperson
Gerhart v. Graevenitz is Professor of Modern German Literature and Literary Studies. From 2000 to 2009 he was Rector of the University of Konstanz. His main academic focusses include the history of literature of the 17th to 19th centuries and 20th century media history.
Gerhart v. Graevenitz is a member of the ZDF Television Council and, since 2009, has been Chairman of the Scientific Board of the Martin Buber Society of Fellows in the Humanities at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He was chairman of the Rectors’ Conference of the German federal state of Baden-Württemberg.
Since April 2012 Gerhart v. Graevenitz has been Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Council.
Prof. Dr. Shalini Randeria
Deputy Chairperson
Shalini Randeria is Professor of Social Anthropology and Socialogy at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. She studied sociology and social anthropology at the Universities of Delhi and Heidelberg and continued her academic career at the University of Oxford. After taking her PhD and completing her habilitation at Freie Universität Berlin, she held professorships in Munich and Budapest before accepting her current position in Zurich. She regularly conducts empirical fieldwork in various regions of India to shed light on how societies are affected by the processes of globalisation and transnationalisation.
Shalini Randeria has served as a member of expert committees and scientific advisory boards. Since 2007 she has been a Senator of the German Research Foundation (DFG).
In April 2012 Shalini Randeria was elected Depute Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board.
Prof. Dr. Ursula Gather
Ursula Gather is rector of Technische Universität Dortmund and Head of the University President Conference in Nordrhein-Westfalen (Landesrektorenkonferenz).
As a Professor for Mathematical Statistics and industrial applications, she has done re-search on statistic model building and on robust processes in the field of quality man-agement and statistics in the industry as well as on methods for online monitoring. She was speaker of the special research field (SFB) “Reduction of complexity in multivariate data structures” at the German Research Foundation (DFG).
Ursula Gather was among others awarded the renowned Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach-price for young professors. Internationally she has worked as a visiting professor at famous universities e.g. at Yale University.
Ursula Gahter also holds a number of positions at research organisations, e.g. as head of the Mathematical Council at DFG as well as assistant head in the senate of the German Center for Aerospace (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt).
Prof. Dr. Karin Lochte
Karin Lochte is director of the Alfred-Wegener-Institute for polar and marine research since 2007 and professor for biological oceanography at the University of Bremen.
She studied biology, chemistry and oceanography in Hanover and at the University of Wales, where she earned her doctorate in marine biology in 1985. Her main field of research is microbial exchange of carbonate and azote in the sea, which is of relevance for the concentration of gases with climate effect in the atmosphere. She habilitated 1994 at the University of Bremen.
Karin Lochte acts in a number of international and national boards, e.g. as head of the Scientific Commission of Lower Saxony, as vice president of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research as well as a member of the Academy of Sciences in Hamburg and the acatech.
Dr. Inge Paulini
Inge Paulini is the Secretary-General of the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU).
Dr. Paulini holds a Diploma in Nutrition at the University of Bonn, after which she received the degree of Master of Science in Nutrition, Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Washington State University (WSU). From 1993 to 2008 dr. Paulini worked in the Umweltbundesamt (Federal Environment Agency, Berlin, Germany), heading various sections and departments.
From 2003 to 2005 Inge Paulini was a member of the National Committee for Global Change Research.
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Ernst Theodor Rietschel
Ernst Th. Rietschel is commissary for the European Union of the Executive Committee at the National Academy of Science and Engineering and was President of the Leibniz Association between 2005 and 2010. He studied chemistry in Munich and Freiburg and earned his doctorate in 1971 from the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiologie and the University of Freiburg. After a stint as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Minnesota he spent some time doing research at the Max Planck Institute before being appointed Professor for Immunochemistry and Biochemical Microbiology at the University of Lübeck in 1980. The same year, he was also appointed Director of the Research Center Borstel (now the Research Center Borstel - Leibniz-Center for Medicine and Biosciences).
Over the years, Professor Rietschel’s work has been distinguished by numerous awards including the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, first class, and an honorary doctorate in medicine from the University of Lausanne.
Prof. Dr. Jan Michael Rost
Jan Michael Rost is on the board of directors of the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems and Professor at the Institute of Theoretical Physics at Technische Universität Dresden. After studying physics and philosophy in Munich and Freiburg, he received a doctorate in physics from the University of Freiburg in 1990 and went on to earn his habilitation there in 1995. In 1996, he was awarded the German Research Foundation’s Gerhard Hess Prize for outstanding young researchers.
Since February 2012 Jan-Michael Rost is a full member of the Academy of Sciences in Saxony.
Dr. Christoph Schneider
Christoph Schneider has worked as a freelance consultant in the field of academic administration since 2006. He studied classical ancient history and ancient near eastern studies at Lausanne, Cambridge, Paris and Cologne. After receiving his PhD and working at the University of Konstanz for several years, he was appointed head of the Planning Department at the German Research Foundation (DFG) in 1973.
Dr. Schneider was founding commissioner of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin - Institute for Advanced Study and directed various departments at the German Council of Science and Humanities in the 1980s. He was head of the Scientific Affairs Department at the DFG from 1987 to 2005.
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Rüdiger Wehner
Rüdiger Wehner is Professor for Neurobiology at the University of Zurich’s Institute of Molecular Life Sciences. He studied biology and chemistry at Frankfurt University, earning his doctorate in 1967 with a dissertation on sensory physiology. After a Research Fellowship at Yale University, he became a Full Professor at the University of Zurich in 1974; he was Director of the Zoological Institute there from 1986 to 2005, after which he was Emeritus Research Professor in Zurich. His main field of research is the behavioural and neurobiology of insects.
Rüdiger Wehner is a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society and a member of the Austrian Science Council. Since 2012 he is also a fellow at the International Society for Neuroethology.
Prof. Dr. Georg Winckler
Georg Winckler was Rector of the University of Vienna from 1999 to 2011. After completing his studies at Princeton University and the University of Vienna, he received his doctoral degree from the latter in 1968. He became Full Professor of Economics at the University of Vienna in 1978 and was appointed visiting professor at universities in Austria, the US and Slovakia in the two decades that followed.
Prof. Winckler served as President of the European University Association from 2005 to 2009 and has been a member of the European Commission's European Research Area Board (ERAB) since 2008.
