A change of leadership at the University of Bremen: Prof.Bernd Scholz-Reiter took over the office of University Rector on 1st September 2012. He succeeds Prof. Wilfried Müller, who has steered the fortunes of the University of Bremen for the past ten years. “I am looking forward to my new duties, particularly because I know that over the next five years the University will be facing a number of challenging new developments. First and foremost, my task will be to consolidate the success of the Excellence Initiative and ensure that the University of Bremen secures a permanent place at the top of the league of German and international universities”, says Bernd Scholz-Reiter shortly before assuming office. On 14th December 2011 the University’s Academic Senate elected Scholz-Reiter, Professor of Production Engineering, to the post of (the fifth) Rector of the Bremen Alma Mater.
During his term as Rector, Prof.Scholz-Reiter will focus on securing a sound basis for future planning in the interest of the University’s sustainable development. To this end, he intends to seek a long-term agreement with the government of the Federal State of Bremen in respect of guarantees of financial support for the University. In the absence of such an assurance, there can be no certainty in the planning of degree programs and university teaching, and it will not be possible to sustain the University’ successful record for attracting third-party funding. He will concentrate his efforts equally on research as well as on academic teaching. One of Bernd Scholz-Reiter‘s proposals is to ensure ongoing improvements in the area of academic teaching and studies by means of feedback processes. He will place a high priority on diversity and equal opportunity in education, especially with regard to students from less-privileged backgrounds. In interculturality he perceives an important potential for the University’s future development. In Scholz-Reiter‘s view, internationalization and positioning the University in the surrounding region are by no means mutually exclusive. Rather, both are necessary prerequisites for successful university development.
Career history
Prof.Dr.-Ing.Bernd Scholz-Reiter has been a professor the University of Bremen since 2000. He heads the chair of “Planning and Control of Production Systems” in the Faculty of Manufacturing Engineering. From 2002 up to his appointment as Rector, he headed the Bremer Institut für Produktion und Logistik GmbH at the University of Bremen (BIBA), where he was also lead researcher in the area “Intelligent Production and Logistics Systems”. He studied Industrial Engineering and Management at the TU Berlin, where he was awarded his doctorate in 1990. In 1994 he was awarded his first professsorship; the chair of “Industrial Information Technology” at the Technical University of Cottbus, which he later left to come to Bremen. Scholz-Reiter has also held several positions in the scientific community outside the region. Among others, from 2007 until the end of 2011 he was Vice President of the German Research Foundation [Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)].
