New professors appointed in 2021

Prof. Sebastian-Edgar Baumeister
(Faculty of Medicine)

Sebastian-Edgar Baumeister has been at the Faculty of Medicine since February 2021. He wrote his doctoral and habilitation theses at the University of Greifswald in the field of population-based epidemiology. Before he moved to Münster, Baumeister headed the “Epidemiological Statistical Methods” working group at the Chair of Epidemiology at the University of Munich at UNIKA-T Augsburg. Further stages in his career were at the Technical University of Munich, the University of Regensburg and the Department of Health Policy and Management & Department of Family Medicine at the University of California in Los Angeles. His current focus of research is on the impact of physical activity on psychiatric, cardiometabolic and cancerous diseases, as well as the effects on pulmonary diseases and cancer of taking cannabis. At the Centre for Dental, Oral and Maxillo-Facial Surgery he is investigating causal determinants of periodontitis and is developing data-assisted decision support systems in the treatment of periodontitis.

Prof. Benedikt Berger
(School of Business and Economics)

Benedikt Berger has been at the School of Business and Economics since October. He studied communication and media management at the Business and Information Technology School in Iserlohn and management at the University of Mannheim. After his studies he moved to the University of Munich, where he worked as a research associate and wrote his PhD. Before switching to Münster he was an Akademischer Rat at Munich University.

Benedikt Berger's research interests can be divided into two major areas. The first concerns digital products and services and digital transformation, taking the media industry as a particular example. He is looking into how companies can successfully transform what they offer by establishing new products, services and business models. In his second area of research, he is studying the use, development and management of IT systems on the basis of artificial intelligence (AI). The increasing efficiency of AI-based systems has important consequences not only for companies but also for private and professional users. His aim is to understand these consequences and, by doing so, make a contribution to AI-based systems which are conducive to business and user-oriented.

Prof. Benjamin Bomfleur
(Faculty of Geosciences)

Benjamin Bomfleur has been a professor at the Institute of Geology and Palaeontology since October 2020. He studied in Münster, where he also wrote his PhD thesis on plant fossils from the Antarctic. After working as a postdoc at the University of Kansas, USA, and at the Museum of Natural History (Naturhistoriska Riksmuseet) in Stockholm, Sweden, he returned to Münster and took up the position of leader of a team of junior researchers in the field of palaeobotany within the framework of the German Research Foundation’s Emmy Noether Programme.
Some of the topics which Bomfleur focuses on in his research are terrestrial palaeo-ecosystems at high latitudes and their importance for the evolution of plants, as well as the systems, biology and ecology of palaeozoic and mesozoic plants. He also investigates unusual fossil preservation, fossil curiosities and the history of the development of ferns. Some of the places that expeditions have taken him to are Jordan, western Australia, Argentina, the Canadian Arctic and the Antarctic.

Prof. Tobias Brandt
(School of Business and Economics)

Tobias Brandt has been at the School of Business and Economics since July. After taking his degree in Economics at the University of Freiburg, he gained his PhD there in Business Information Systems. Before taking up his appointment in Münster, he was an Associate Professor in Rotterdam.

The main focus of his research is digitalization in towns and cities and in municipal life – in other words, “smart cities” and “smart regions”. He studies in particular how urban data can be used to make municipal services more efficient and to observe cities more closely and gain a better understanding of how they develop. One main objective here is to increase people’s quality of life. In his work, Brandt concentrates primarily on the issues of energy and mobility. He makes extensive use of social media data in order to better understand tourism in cities. His work also covers the digitalization of local government and the education sector. As someone who founded a start-up, he is particularly pleased at the close link between the professorship and the REACH OUT Start-up Center at the University of Münster. Together with cooperation partners, the Center provides support for anyone interested in founding a start-up in the German-Dutch border region, and helps them to put their plans into practice and drive the transfer of business ideas into practical life.

Prof. Stephan von Delft
(Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy)

Stephan von Delft has been Professor of Chemistry and Entrepreneurship at the Institute of Business Administration within the Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy since October 2020. His professorship is being funded jointly by the Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy and the REACH – EUREGIO Start-up Center. He is also part of the Recycling, Sustainability and Life Cycle Analysis team at the international research school BACCARA at the MEET Battery Research Centre. Von Delft graduated in Chemistry and Business Studies at the University of Münster, where he also gained his PhD in 2014. After various positions abroad, including the Universities of Amsterdam and Glasgow, he returned to Münster.
His research is at the interface between entrepreneurship and strategy. For example, he is studying the question of how chemical and pharmaceutical companies can successfully develop new digital business models. He is also looking into the transformation of chemical and pharmaceutical companies and the design of sustainable business models for the recycling economy. He acts as a consultant to specialists and managers in established companies on these and other strategic topics, and he is also a mentor for start-ups. Outside his work, van Delft has been involved in voluntary work for the Federal Agency for Technical Relief (Technisches Hilfswerk, THW) for the past 15 years – for which he was awarded the “Münster Nadel” badge for exemplary civic engagement.

Prof. Dr. Markus Dertwinkel-Kalt
(School of Business and Economics)

Markus Dertwinkel-Kalt has been working at the Centre for Applied Economic Research since October. He studied mathematics, physics, philosophy and German at the University of Düsseldorf, where he also gained his PhD. He then taught and researched at the University of Cologne and the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management. Further steps in his career took him to the Norwegian School of Economics, the Central European University in Budapest, Royal Holloway College in London and Oxford University. Before being appointed to Münster he was a professor at the University of Constance.

His main field of research is Salience Theory, a psychology-based theory which attributes many deviations from rational behaviour to the limited attention paid by decision-makers. Why do people repeatedly fall for bait offers? Why do they prefer to buy discounted products? Why do they like deferring costs into the future? And why do they like taking certain risks – whether in games of chance or in planning a career – and avoiding other risks, for example by taking out overpriced insurance policies? Salience Theory can provide answers to these and many other questions. Dertwinkel-Kalt is also working on digital economic issues such as market definition in digital markets or the economic implications of geo-blocking.

Prof. Daniel Frischemeier
(Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science)

Prof. Daniel Frischemeier has been working at the Institute for the Didactics of Mathematics and Computer Science since April. He studied Mathematics and Physics at the University of Paderborn, where he completed his PhD in 2016. After this, he took up a deputy professorship at the University of Munich. Frischemeier returned to his alma mater in 2018 as a research associate at the Institute of Mathematics. Before becoming a professor at Münster he worked for a year as a lecturer at the Institute for Development and Research in Mathematics Education (IEEM) at the Technical University of Dortmund.
The focuses of his research include the design and testing of teaching and learning environments, as well as the qualitative analysis of cognitive processes both in children at primary school level and in trainee teachers in the field of stochastics. He also undertakes research in the field of designing, testing and evaluating teaching materials on the topics of data science and civic statistics. Handling data competently and having an understanding of statistical presentations and indicators are important, says Frischemeier. He adds that with his research work and the teaching materials he develops, he wants to make his contribution to showing that primary school children can develop data competence at this early age.

Prof. Stephan Hailfinger
(Faculty of Medicine)

Stephan Hailfinger has been a professor at the Faculty of Medicine since November 2020. He teaches Biochemistry and Immunology and also works at Medical Clinic A at Münster University Hospital. Hailfinger studied Biochemistry at the University of Tübingen. After graduating he moved to the University of Lausanne, where he took his PhD within the Immunology and Cancer Programme. After this, he stayed at Lausanne as a postdoc. Before moving to the University of Münster, he carried out research at the Interfaculty Institute of Biochemistry in Tübingen into how immune cells are activated and how they can be influenced externally. His team received funding from the University’s “Future Concepts” programme, and in 2015 there was additional funding from the German Research Foundation through the Emmy Noether Programme.
Immune cells have the ability to use their receptors to recognize bacteria, viruses, parasites or even tumour cells. Stephan Hailfinger is researching into how these receptors pass on the signals into the cell and how the cell activates itself as a result. The proteins which play an important role in transmitting these signals may be interesting target structures for new medicines. This is important not only for autoimmune diseases such as psoriasis or multiple sclerosis, but also for haematological diseases. One focus is B-cell lymphomas, in which mutations in these receptors or in the signalling proteins have frequently been identified.

Prof. Hans-Joachim Hein
(Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science)

Hans-Joachim Hein has been Professor of Theoretical Mathematics since October 2020. He researches into differential geometry and partial differential equations. After studying in Gießen and Bonn, he gained his PhD at Princeton University, USA. After that, he undertook research as a postdoc for three years at Imperial College, London. His first permanent position was at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Nantes, France. In 2014 he returned to the USA, where he was appointed Assistant Professor – first at the University of Maryland, then at Fordham University in New York, where he eventually held the Kim B. and Stephen E. Bepler Chair as Associate Professor.

Prof. Gustav Holzegel
(Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science)

Gustav Holzegel has, since November 2020, been a professor at the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, where he holds an Alexander von Humboldt professorship. Holzegel is one of the world’s leading experts in the field of the General Theory of Relativity. After graduating in Physics from the University of Kaiserslautern, he gained his PhD in 2008 at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge. After this, he undertook research at Princeton University in the USA. From 2012, Holzegel worked at Imperial College, London, where he was made professor in 2018. For his contributions to a mathematical understanding of black holes, he was awarded the London Mathematical Society’s Whitehead Prize in 2016, the University of Cambridge Adams Prize in 2018 and the Blavatnik Award in 2019. He is an investigator at the “Mathematics Münster” Cluster of Excellence in the research focuses “Spaces and Operators” and “Models and Approximations”.

Prof. Till Ischebeck
(Faculty of Biology)

Till Ischebeck took up his Heisenberg Professorship of Green Biotechnology at the Institute of Biology and Biotechnology of Plants in September. The professorship is being funded initially by the German Research Foundation. After studying biochemistry at the University of Berlin, he took his PhD in Göttingen. After a two-year research stay in Vienna, he returned to Göttingen to gain his habilitation. Before taking up his appointment in Münster he worked as a junior group leader at the University of Göttingen.

Since taking his intermediate diploma, Ischebeck has been researching into vegetable fats, which are a main component of cellular membranes, but which also have functions as signalling molecules and energy storers. In recent years, oleosomes have been his main area of research. Oleosomes store the oil in plant seeds, for example, but are also involved in warding off stress factors such as heat or pests. Ischebeck aims to use the knowledge he has gained from basic research to modify the function of oleosomes, enabling them to synthesise and store renewable raw materials which are currently produced from crude oil or, cost-intensively, in fermenters. Till Ischebeck grew up just 900 metres away from his new place of work, and, after 21 years, he is delighted to be returning to Münster – where his father was Professor of Mathematics.

Prof. Isa Jahnke
(Faculty of Educational and Social Science)

The focus of Isa Jahnke’s work is digitalisation in teaching. She studied social sciences at the University of Wuppertal and took her PhD at the University of Dortmund. After her time as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Bochum, further steps in her career took her to the University of Florida and Umeå University in Sweden. Before she took up her appointment in Münster in July, she was a professor and the director of the Information Experience Lab at the School of Information Science & Learning Technologies at the University of Missouri-Columbia in the USA.

Isa Jahnke’s research falls into three main areas. Firstly, she is researching into digital didactic designs, which comprise scopes for action for teachers to promote learning methods in digital learning processes. A further focus is on the learning experience method, which is a research approach from the USA dealing with changes to teaching and learning environments and processes as a consequence of digitalisation. And, in addition, she is researching sociotechnical-pedagogical fitness for purpose – which looks primarily at digital learning applications. The objective of this professorship is to set up a Digital Learning Experience & Active Design Lab (Digital LEAD Lab) as a central point of contact for digital education at Münster University. The central research aim is a continuous improvement of digital learning.

Prof. David Kerr
(Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science)

Since January, Prof. David Kerr has been teaching and carrying out research at the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science. After his studies in Canada at the University of Waterloo and the University of Toronto – where he also gained his PhD – he taught at Texas A&M University, the University of Tokyo, the ENS de Lyon in France and the University of Rome I. Research stays took him to Austria, Sweden, China, Spain and the UK. He already knew the University of Münster from his time as Alexander von Humboldt research fellow in 2003-2004. Kerr’s research focuses on ergodic theory and operator algebras.

Prof. Ingo Klitzsch
(Faculty of Protestant Theology)

Ingo Klitzsch has been teaching and researching at the University of Münster since October as an expert on systematic and historical theology. He studied Protestant theology at the Augustana Seminary in Neuendettelsau, Bavaria, as well as at the Universities of Heidelberg, Jena, Erlangen and Jerusalem. He did his training in the Protestant Church of the State of Bavaria and took his PhD in Jena, where the University awarded him its doctoral prize for his study on Peter Abelard. He later gained his habilitation at the University of Tübingen. For his habilitation treatise on the subject of “Redaction and Memoria: Images of Luther from his Table Talk”, the Luther Society awarded him the Luther Prize 2020. Before he took up his appointment in Münster, Klitzsch was deputy professor at the University of Bonn.

For Ingo Klitzsch, the specific contextualisation of historical events and processes is important, as are questions relating to theology and piety – in their ecumenical and interdisciplinary breadth. His research focuses not only on the Reformation, but also on the Middle Ages. His current research projects include preparing a new, computer-assisted edition of Luther’s Table Talk and a closer study of the so-called Carolingian Renaissance from the point of view of church history and historical theology.

Prof. Hubert Krenner
(Faculty of Physics)

Hubert Krenner has been a professor at the Institute of Physics since April. He studied at the Technical University of Munich, where he also gained his PhD with a dissertation on experimental semiconductor physics. After this, he did research for two years at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) as an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation postdoc. After his stay in the USA, Krenner worked as an assistant at the Chair of Experimental Physics at the University of Augsburg. He then moved to the University of Munich to take up a deputy professorship, after which he returned to the University of Augsburg to head an Emmy Noether team of junior researchers. Before moving to the University of Münster he spent seven years as Professor of Nanophotonics and Nanomechanics at the University of Augsburg.
In his team, Krenner uses nano-soundwaves, so-called surface acoustic waves, which are suitable for precision control and examination of nanostructures on a chip. As a result, the team is able to generate frequencies on a chip in the gigahertz range. This is a principle which is also used by transmitter/receiver components in smartphones or WiFi routers. The research focus is primarily on underlying phenomena in quantum mechanics. The team examines, for example, whether the three “elementary particles” in solid-state physics can be connected with one another. Krenner is investigating how soundwave quanta or phonons can be specifically utilized. The team has, for example, already succeeded in “mixing” individual light quanta, photons, with phonons in a targeted way by means of a single artificial atom in a semiconductor chip. This opens up the possibility of developing so-called hybrid quantum technologies which use soundwaves to transmit information.

Prof. Aleksandra Kwiatkowska
(Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science)

Since October, Aleksandra Kwiatkowska has been a professor at the Institute of Mathematical Logic and Basic Research and at the “Mathematics Münster” Cluster of Excellence. She studied at the University of Wrocław in Poland and gained her PhD at the University of Illinois in the USA. After three years as a postdoc at the University of California in Los Angeles and a year as Hausdorff Fellow at the University of Bonn, she taught and researched in Münster and at the University of Wrocław.
Aleksandra Kwiatkowska is working on the structure and dynamics of separable, completely metrizable topological groups. Her research borders on topological dynamics, Ramsey Theory, descriptive set theory and model theory. At the Cluster of Excellence she is a member of the research focus team “Groups, model theory and sets”. At the Collaborative Research Centre “Geometry: Deformations and Rigidity” she is working on her own project concerning the rigidity of group topologies and universal minimum flows.

Prof. Friederike Malorny
(Faculty of Law)

Friederike Malorny, who is an expert on civil law, labour law and social law, studies at the Bucerius Law School in Hamburg and the Institut d’études politiques (Sciences Po) in Paris. While she was writing her PhD at the Bucerius Law School she was a research associate at the Chair of Civil Law, Labour Law and Civil Procedure. Her doctoral thesis was awarded the KLIEMT.Labour Law Dissertation Prize and the Dissertation Prize of the Hamburg Labour Law Association.

The focuses of the research undertaken by Friederike Malorney, who has been at Münster University since August, include legislation on collective agreements and labour disputes, as well as that relating to medicine and health. At the University of Münster, Malorney’s focus is not only on research but also on interactive teaching – receptive to digitalisation – and on the use of innovative teaching methods.

Prof. Rainer Mehren
(Faculty of Geosciences)

Since April Prof. Rainer Mehren has been teaching at the Institute for the Didactics of Geography within the Faculty of Geosciences. After his training as a teacher of Geography, Biology and Social Sciences at the University of Münster, Mehren gained his PhD in 2006 with a dissertation on “Young People’s View of Globalization – Theoretical Bases and Empirical Studies”. After this he undertook research as a postdoc in Münster until 2008.
In 2008 Mehren was appointed Professor of the Didactics of Geography at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. In 2014 he moved to the University of Gießen. In Münster he is carrying out research into how complex, controversial challenges of the 21st century – e.g. migration, climate change and the scarcity of resources – can be dealt with in an appropriate way in geography lessons. Particular research focuses are systemic thinking and forming ethical judgements. Another research focus is on transfer.

Prof. Silke Mende
Faculty of History / Philosophy

Prof. Silke Mende has been teaching at the Department of Modern and Contemporary History since April 1. She studied Modern History – focusing on Contemporary History, Medieval History and Political Science – at the University of Tübingen and in Aix-en-Provence in the south of France. Before being appointed to her position in Münster, she was until March the deputy Director of the Marc Bloch Centre in Berlin and Professor of European History at the Department of History at the Humboldt University of Berlin. After graduation, Mende gained her PhD in Tübingen with a dissertation on “Not right, not left, but at the front: a history of the founding members of the Green Party.” Besides research stays at the German Historical Institute (DHI) in Paris, and at the Centre d'Histoire de Sciences Po, likewise in Paris, Mende was until 2017 a research associate and lecturer at the Department of Contemporary History at the University of Tübingen. She gained her habilitation in Modern and Contemporary History in Tübingen in 2018. After this she worked as a research associate at the Munich-Berlin Institute of Contemporary History and then took on a deputy professorship at the Europa University in Flensburg. Her research and teaching cover the 19th to the 21st centuries. Her focuses are on the history of Germany, France and western Europe. She is particularly interested in histoire croisée and in new imperial history, as well as the history of democracy and parliamentarism in Europe.

Prof. Chiranjib Mukherjee
(Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science)

Chiranjib Mukherjee has since January been Professor of Probability Theory at the Institute of Mathematical Stochastics. From April 2017 to December 2020 he taught and researched at the University of Münster as an Associate Professor of Probability Theory. Mukherjee studied Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science at Chennai Mathematical Institute in Chennai, India. After graduation he moved to the University of Leipzig to gain his PhD there. After this he worked as a postdoc at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, at the Technical University of Munich and at the Weierstraß Institute of Applied Analysis and Stochastics in Berlin. Before his appointment in Münster he was Visiting Assistant Professor at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University in New York. Mukherjee is carrying out research into probability theory in the natural sciences and the interaction between probability theory and other topics in mathematics. One topic that crops up frequently in his research, and which links up many sub-areas, is that of “large deviations”. The theory of large deviations deals with the occurrence of improbable events and supplies a mathematical theory which has numerous applications both inside and outside mathematics.

Prof. Jens Niebaum
(Faculty of History / Philosophy)

Prof. Jens Niebaum has been teaching Art History since October 1 at the Faculty of History / Philosophy. He studied Art History, History and Classical Archaeology in Bonn, where he also gained his PhD in 2007. After this he held an associate professorship financed by the Max Planck Institute and divided his time between the Institute of Art History in Münster and the Bibliotheca Hertziana, which is the Max Planck Institute for Art History in Rome. After this, Niebaum worked as a research associate at the “Religion and Politics” Cluster of Excellence at the University of Münster and took on two deputy professorships at the University of Bonn. His most important area of research is the history and theory of architecture in the Early Modern Period, together with its many interrelationships with other arts and fields of knowledge; the focuses are on the renaissance in Italy and on architecture around 1700 from an international perspective. The Research he is currently engaged on concerns the relationship between three elements in the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period: architecture and the visual arts, rule legitimized by the church, and piety. He also undertakes research into architectural knowledge cultures and ‘Theory of Practice’ in the Pre-Modern Period. “I’m particularly looking forward to working at a university which, unlike most others, combines a broad range of subjects and subject cultures – which is itself something which can certainly no longer be taken for granted – with a great tradition of interdisciplinary research. This engenders space for new questions and projects which will be a pleasure for me to become involved in,” he says.

Prof. Christophe Nihan
(Faculty of Protestant Theology)

Christophe Nihan, who has been working in the Department of Old Testament Studies since April, studied philology, philosophy and Protestant theology at the Université de Lausanne. After gaining his PhD in Lausanne he remained there, working at the Chair of Old Testament Studies. He later moved to the University of Geneva, where he worked as a senior assistant and lecturer and research fellow at the Chair of Old Testament Studies there. Before his appointment to Münster, Nihan spent 12 years at the University of Lausanne as a professor at the Chair of Old Testament Studies and the History of Israel. His dissertation on the subject of “Leviticus and the Composition of the Pentateuch” won the international John Templeton Award for Theological Promise in 2010.

Christophe Nihan researches on the origins and transmission of Old Testament texts – especially of the Pentateuch and the prophets. How did this ancient literature arise? In which periods and in which social, political and religious mechanisms? He is studying, in particular, the priestly traditions of the Pentateuch. Another of his focuses of research relates to the various aspects of the cult of Israel in the 1st millennium before Christ. Nihan also undertakes research into the transformations of the religion of Israel after the exile, or Babylonian captivity, and the way in which such transformations were included and reproduced in the Old Testament texts  

Prof. Philipp Schäpers
(Psychology and Sport Science)

Philipp Schäpers has been a professor since April at the Institute of Psychology within the Faculty of Psychology and Sport Science. After his studies at the University of Münster he gained his PhD at the Freie Universität Berlin with a dissertation on “Situational Perception in Situational Judgment Tests”, which received an “honorable mention status” from the European Association of Psychological Assessment. After this he worked as a postdoc, researching and publishing at Singapore Management University. Before moving to Münster, Schäpers worked as a postdoc at the Chair of Psychological Assessment, Differential and Personality Psychology in Berlin.
His research focuses are divided into “personnel selection and suitability assessments”, “entrepreneurship and the ‘DNA’ of a company” and “experimental validation of psychological testing procedures and examinations of the underlying processes”. He has worked as a consultant for management assessments and, at the same time, for start-ups on questions relating to human resource management. “I’m looking forward to being able to help and advise young entrepreneurs through my work at the Euregio Start-up Center ‘REACH’,” he says.

Prof. André Schlichting
(Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science)

Since November André Schlichting has been Professor of the Dynamics of Complex Systems at the Institute of Analysis and Numerics. During his studies of Applied Mathematics at the Bergakademie Freiberg Technical University, he spent time at the University of Pavia in Italy. He gained his PhD at the University of Leipzig. Further stages in his academic career were the University of Bonn, where he gained his habilitation, and RWTH Technical University Aachen. His research focuses include partial differential equations and numerical and stochastic analysis. He concentrates on the quantification of the dynamic behaviour of complex systems, which are often motivated by a physics- or engineering-related background. Schlichting is an investigator at the “Mathematics Münster” Cluster of Excellence, in the research focus “Models and Approximations”.

Prof. Silvia Schultermandl
(Faculty of Philology)

Silvia Schultermandl has been a professor since April, holding the Chair of American Studies at the Department of English. After graduating in English Studies, American Studies and Media Studies at the University of Graz, she also gained her PhD there. Afterwards, she researched and taught in the USA: at Rutgers University in New Jersey, at the University of Tennessee and at Williams College in Massachusetts through the Fulbright Programme. After returning to Austria, Schultermandl took up the position of Associate Professor at her alma mater.
She is especially interested in literary and cultural studies, in particular American literature from the late 18th century until the present time, with a focus on Ethnic American Studies and Transnational American Studies. “What is especially fascinating,” she says, “are texts which question familiar family concepts and see kinship as a social activity – as is often the case in narratives on transnationality, migration, colonialism and slavery.” Before she came to the University of Münster she was Associate Professor of American Studies at the University of Graz.

Prof. Dr. Nina Springer
(Fachbereich Erziehungswissenschaft und Sozialwissenschaften)

Since October, Nina Springer has been focusing on research in the field of journalism at the Institute of Communication Science. She studied journalism at the University of Munich, where she also gained her PhD. As a post-doc she spent a winter semester as a guest at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. After this, she took up an appointment as Senior Lecturer at Södertörn University Stockholm. Before her appointment to Münster, she was already an associate professor there for two years.

In her research and her teaching, Nina Springer deals with empirical social sciences journalism and digital communication. She combines traditional professional, audience and impact research with one another. Her focus in her work is on interdisciplinary and comparative features, along with an holistic approach which studies not only journalists as autonomous individuals who are embedded in editorial contexts, but also the effectiveness of the production of journalistic statements.

Prof. Helena Stehle
(Faculty of Educational and Social Sciences)

Since October 2020, communication specialist Prof. Helena Stehle has been teaching and researching at the Department of Communication (IfK). After graduating in communication science and gaining her PhD at the University of Hohenheim, she also attained her habilitation there on the identity and role of journalism in a digital media world in the eyes of the public. Before her appointment in Münster she taught at the Universities of Hohenheim and Tübingen and at the University of Education in Schwäbisch Gmünd. Research stays and scholarships took her to Manchester Business School in the UK and the University of Jyväskylä in Finland. Her research focuses include not only strategic communication and communication in organizations, but also discourses on environmental and energy-related topics, digital (in)visibility and online journalism. At Münster, and working with the Universities of Erfurt and Tübingen, she coordinates the new joint project being funded by the Federal Ministry of Research and entitled “Journalists and their public in the digital age”. In addition, she is actively involved in academic self-governance at the University of Münster – not only in the Rectorate Committee for Academic Personnel Development, but also as a member of the Ethics Committee at the Department of Communication and in the Master’s Degree Selection Committee there.

Prof. Karolina Urton
(Faculty of Education and Social Sciences)

Karolina Urton has been at Münster University since April, working on her research focus of schoolteaching and inclusive education. After studying Psychology at the University of Berlin, she gained her PhD at Potsdam University with a thesis on inclusion as a development task for schools. Before taking up her appointment in Münster, she taught at the University of Cologne at the Chair of Conception and Evaluation of School Support with a Focus on Learning. In addition, she held deputy professorships at the Universities of Münster, Wuppertal and Paderborn. As a research assistant, one area she worked in was at the “Languages of Emotion” Cluster of Excellence at the University of Berlin. From 2009 to 2017 she worked as a school psychologist for the Düsseldorf region, based in the local education authority of the district of Mettmann.  

How can inclusion succeed in schools? What helps students to participate in school life and develop their academic skills? These are the central questions in Urton’s research. Her focus is on the development of inclusive schools and teaching. In particular, she is studying the development and the effects of the school and classroom climate at inclusive schools, as well as social participation and learning development within a heterogeneous student composition. She is looking at how teaching and individual development at an inclusive school can be designed so that students, with the resources they have, and with their requirements, can benefit. This goes beyond the curriculum and concerns, just as much, students’ socio-emotional development. A further area of Urton’s research is multi-professional collaborations at inclusive schools and teachers’ intentions to implement inclusive teaching.

Prof. Julian Varghese
(Faculty of Medicine)

Julian Varghese has been a professor since January at the Institute of Medical Informatics within the Faculty of Medicine. Parallel to studying Medicine at the University of Münster, he studied Computer Science at Hagen Open University. After taking his master’s degree at Imperial College London, he returned to Münster in 2013 to work as a research associate at the Institute of Medical Informatics.
Varghese gained his PhD at Münster in 2015, and in 2016 he became head of the “Digital Health” working group. He was presented with the Rolf Hansen Memorial Award by the European Federation for Medical Informatics for his work on data collection for leukaemia. One focus of his research work is the development of artificial intelligence systems for research into movement disorders, as well as the development and analysis of semantic data models for medical research. Working with the Neurological Clinic at Münster University Hospital, for example, he developed a smart device system which investigates Parkinson’s disease diagnostics using smartwatches and artificial intelligence. In addition to heading the “Digital Health” working group, Varghese is joint leader of the “Teaching Medical Informatics in Medicine” working group. This group works on digital competences and medical informatics content in medical studies.

Prof. Ricarda Vulpius
(Faculty of History/Philosophy)

Ricarda Vulpius has been teaching Eastern European and East-Central European history at the Department of History since October. She read Eastern European history, philosophy, political science and Slavonic studies at the University of Freiburg, at the State University of Irkutsk, at the University of Berlin and at the College of Europe in Natolin, Warsaw. Vulpius took her PhD at Berlin University and gained her habilitation at the University of Munich. Other career steps took her to the Universities of Berlin and Munich, to Russia, the Ukraine and the USA. She is a founding member of the German-Ukrainian Commission of Historians. Before taking up her appointment in Münster, she was a lecturer at the University of Berlin.

The focus of Ricarda Vulpius’ research is on Russian and Ukrainian history in the 17th to the 21st centuries.

Prof. Martin Watzinger
(School of Business and Economics)

Since February Prof. Martin Watzinger has held the new Chair of Economics, with particular emphasis on the Economics of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, at the School of Business and Economics. Before moving to Münster he was a lecturer at the University of Munich. Watzinger graduated in Business Studies at the University of Tübingen, and he gained his PhD at the University of Munich. He was a visiting academic at the Universities of Stanford, Boston and Harvard, and at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). Since 2020 he has been working as an external academic at the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR).
In his research he analyses the impact of competition policy and economic policy on innovation and entrepreneurship. He is currently studying the end of the telecommunications company AT&T in 1984, which was the biggest corporate break-up in the history of the USA. In another project he is examining what value basic research has for innovation in companies.

Prof. Frank Zimmermann
(Faculty of Law)

Since December, Frank Zimmermann has been Professor of German and European Criminal Law, including Challenges in Criminal Law posed by Digitalization, at the Institute of Criminology. He graduated from the University of Augsburg and gained his PhD at the University of Munich with a dissertation on “Conflicts Relating to Penal Power in the European Union” – for which he received the Dissertation Prize of the Munich Lawyers’ Society in 2014 and the Faculty Prize awarded by the Faculty of Law at the University of Munich, likewise in 2014. The subject of his habilitation at Munich University was “The Impunity of Political Decisions in a Liberal, Democratic State Based on the Rule of Law.” Before he moved to Münster, Zimmermann held a deputy professorship in Criminal Law at the University of Frankfurt/Main.