New Vice-Presidents take office

On 1 November, Friedrich Schiller University Jena will start with two experienced scientists as heads of two newly structured Vice-Presidencies. Educational psychologist Prof. Dr Bärbel Kracke is the new Vice-President for University Community and Engagement. Physicist Prof. Dr Thomas Pertsch is the new Vice-President for Research and Innovation. They succeed the previous Vice Presidents Prof. Dr Uwe Cantner and Prof. Dr Georg Pohnert.

President Prof. Dr Andreas Marx, who proposed the new portfolios, says about the organization of the Vice Presidencies and the persons: "I am convinced that the Executive Board is excellently positioned with the current members and these two committed individuals. The new Vice Presidencies clearly emphasise our focus for the coming years. Together with all members of the University, we will combine our strengths to lead Friedrich Schiller University Jena successfully into the future."

Vice-Presidency for University Community and Commitment

"University community and commitment are aspects of an organisation that are important to me and that I would like to work to develop further," says Professor Bärbel Kracke. "Community is about how we treat each other as members of the university," she explains. The new Vice-President wants to help ensure that all affiliates "can develop and make the best possible contribution in their studies or in their respective positions within the university's employment structure. This is only possible with mutual appreciation and respectful interaction," says the former Equal Opportunities Officer. "Engagement is primarily about how the university interacts with society." The exchange and cooperation between the university and society is already understood as a "third mission" at the University of Jena - as a third pillar alongside teaching and research. This already forms a good basis for future systematic development. "We want to make the existing activities more visible and develop and realise them more comprehensively as a third pillar," says the Professor of Educational Psychology.

Vice-Presidency for Research and Innovation

The new Vice-President's Office for Research and Innovation now combines research and the transfer of innovations achieved at the university. "This puts the application of research findings and their transfer into practice on an equal footing with basic research," explains Prof. Thomas Pertsch. "I want to create a balance between a consistent focus on excellence and a broad range of subjects and topics in order to ensure the University of Jena's competitiveness as well as its long-term stability and capacity for renewal," says Pertsch. The Professor of Applied Physics wants to achieve this by "combining a regional focus with internationalisation and cosmopolitanism". The goal of the interdisciplinary scientist is to "contribute to the further development of our university across the board", whereby for him, "board" means: all subjects, all people and status groups, all committees and also partners of the university.

In addition to the two new members, whose term of office is three years, President Prof. Dr Andreas Marx, Vice-President for Studies and Teaching Prof. Dr Karina Weichold and Chancellor Dr. Thoralf Held make up the Executive Board of Jena University.