Professorship tendering decided

Faculty of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Faculty of Humanities receive a joint W3 professorship – Faculty of Natural Sciences receives a W2 professorship

For the first time, the University Management of Chemnitz University of Technology announced a W3 professorship university-wide in the spring of 2017. The idea is to strengthen the core competencies “Materials and Smart Systems”, “Resource-efficient Production and Lightweight Structures”, and “Humans and Technology” or further research prioritization within the faculties. “We broke new ground with the call for tender. We wanted to further support our core competencies and faculty research focus, respectively, in an open, transparent, and competition-like procedure. The concepts submitted were very innovative and positive and were valued accordingly”, says University President Prof. Gerd Strohmeier.

The Faculty of Humanities and the Faculty of Behavioral and Social Sciences jointly submitted the most innovative concept. Both faculties can now establish the W3 Professorship “Prädikative Verhaltensanalyse mit besonderer Berücksichtigung von Interaktionsprozessen” together. „Among other things, the professorship will deal with the interaction of humans with smart systems such as autonomous vehicles, robot assistance, or monitoring technology placed on the body in the field of sports or medicine”, explains Prof. Josef Krems, Dean of the Faculty of Behavioral and Social Sciences. “The new professorship is supposed to combine expertise in the fields of communication science, human sciences, information and telecommunication science, media studies, sensor technology, and statistics”, adds Prof. Stefan Garsztecki, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities. The new professorship will closely work together with other faculties of Chemnitz University of Technology. Furthermore, the bachelor degree program “Computer Science & Communication Studies”, the bachelor and master degree programs of “Sensors and Cognitive Psychology” as well as the upcoming master degree program “Human Factors” will benefit from the new professorship. According to the President the professorship perfectly fits in with the proposed Cluster of Excellence “Human Factors in Technology: Mind, Movement, Embodiment” and would be the first institutional contribution of Chemnitz University of Technology to the cluster.

Additionally, the Faculty of Natural Sciences received a W2 professorship for their submitted concept. The new professorship “Angewandte Quantenchemie und Computational Chemistry” serves to balance out research competencies and to help strategically orientate the Institute of Chemistry. The professorship is aimed to further optimize computer-based quantum-mechanical processes, support the understanding of syntheses of new molecules and materials through calculation as well as predict material characteristics. “The research works linking theory and practice are extremely important for the faculty as a whole”, illustrates Prof. Michael Mehring, Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences. The new W2 professorship will also strongly contribute to the teaching of the bachelor and master degree program “Chemistry”. The teachings of the professorship will also benefit other degree programs.

The W3 and W2 professorships, respectively, are now assigned to the participating faculties. The faculties themselves are responsible for the resource equipment of the professorships.

Matthias Fejes
16.08.2017

All "University News" articles