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New Foundation “Chance for a New Life” Sponsors Medicine and Refugee Projects

The purpose of the new “Iris and Hartmut Jürgens Foundation Chance for a new Life” is to support medical diagnostic research for refugees and give them the chance of a new life. The foundation initiators Iris Spiegelhalter-Jürgens and Hartmut Jürgens and Dr. Martin Mehrtens, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the University of Bremen Foundation recently finalized the Statutes and Trustee Agreement. The newly set up foundation is a sheltered foundation under the umbrella of the University of Bremen Foundation.

When asked how they came to the idea of forming a foundation, Iris Spiegelhalter-Jürgens and Hartmut Jürgens answer, “We were also given the chance for a new life – this was a gift which at the same time spawned an obligation to help others”. Hartmut Jürgens was closely associated with the University of Bremen for more than three decades before a life-threatening lung disease forced him to stop work – with little hope of recovery. However, thanks to an organ donation and with the help of modern medicine, at the last moment a lung transplant saved his life. Even though he must still take great care of his health, today Hartmut Jürgens is once again able to lead an active private and professional life. It was this borderline experience combined with a mutually held sense of responsibility that motivated the couple to set up the new Foundation.

Iris Spiegelhalter-Jürgens und Hartmut Jürgens explain the purpose of the foundation as follows: “There are so many circumstances like illness, accidents or war that rob people of their future prospects and endanger their very lives. We hope that our foundation will offer people a way out of their dilemma and a chance to regain quality of life”. Quite often this can be accomplished as result of advances in medicine and technological development, but above all it comes from engaged individuals and their commitment to social and humanitarian action. The Rector of the University of Bremen and member of the Board of Trustees, Professor Bernd Scholz-Reiter, shows himself moved by this: “To turn the shared experience of such a difficult phase in life into a positive outlook on the future is illustrative of Iris und Hartmut Jürgens’ deep moral integrity. The University of Bremen can count itself lucky in being able to lend its support to the new sheltered foundation”. Specifically, the foundation’s initiators want to sponsor research on computer-aided organ transplants, developing innovative aids for people with disabilities, initiatives in support of inclusion in education, and projects designed to integrate refugees into German society.

Hartmut Jürgens has been closely attached to the University for many years. In 1983 his doctoral thesis on mathematics was supervised by Professor Heinz-Otto Peitgen. He then became leader of the computer physics laboratory “Dynamic Systems”, which gained worldwide attention for its contributions to chaos theory. As co-author of numerous books on the topic of chaos theory and fractals he also made a name for himself in the international scientific community. For twenty years he was deputy leader of the CeVis institute embedded in the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science. Jürgens was influential in building up the MeVis Institute (today Fraunhofer MeVis), and for ten years he was a managing partner of the University spin-off enterprise MeVis-Technology (today MeVis Medical Solutions AG).

For more information on this topic, feel free to contact:
University of Bremen
Transfer & External Partners
Educational Cooperation Projects & Foundations
Dr. Christina Jung
Phone: +49 421-218-60336
e-mail: christina.jungprotect me ?!vw.uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de
www.uni-bremen.de/ExP

www.uni-bremen.de/universitaet/foerderer-partner.html

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Mit ihrer Stiftung wollen Iris Spiegelhalter-Jürgens und Hartmut Jürgens für möglichst viele Menschen die Chance auf ein neues Leben ermöglichen.