TU Berlin new executive board to start 1 April

Two further vice presidents were elected by the Extended Academic Senate at TU Berlin on 9 February 2022 with substantial majorities.

Christian Schröder received 44 votes in favor and 12 against with three ballot papers spoilt. As 2nd vice president, he will take up responsibility for studying and teaching, teacher education, and continuing education. 

TU professor Dr. Sophia Becker was elected 3rd vice president by 51 votes to 8 with one spoilt ballot paper.  Her areas of responsibility will be sustainability, internal communication, and transfer/transdisciplinarity. 

The Executive Board for Geraldine Rauch's upcoming term of office as president is now complete. Her team also includes TU professor Dr.-Ing. Stephan Völker, who will take up the post of 1st vice president and deputy for Geraldine Rauch with responsibility for research and appointments. Professor Völker was elected along with Geraldine Rauch in January 2022.

The period of office for the new Executive Board commences 1 April 2022.

"I am very thankful that our team is now complete and we can get started. We come from different backgrounds and disciplines and we are a young team. As such, we very much reflect the University itself. We contribute perspectives both from outside and within the University and have already held numerous talks that will form the basis of our 100 day program. On behalf of my newly elected colleagues, I would like to express my thanks for the trust placed in us as well as a fair election campaign which always remained a battle of ideas. I look forward to the official start in April 2022," says future TU Berlin president, Professor Dr. Geraldine Rauch. 

Christian Schröder

Christian Schröder studied history and mathematics at TU Berlin. He has been a member of the University's Central Teaching Committee since 2003, taking over as head of the Committee in 2008. He has also been involved in monitoring and developing the University's degree programs. A key focus of his work was establishing the Faculty of Engineering at the Turkish-German University in Istanbul.

Since 2012 Christian Schröder has been responsible for coordinating the MINTgrün pre-study orientation program, which focuses on sustainable development and is the largest program of its type in Germany. He is the spokesperson of the dghd network Orientation Study Programs in Germany, a member of the Round Table on Study Dropout, a reviewer for numerous applications for teaching innovations and teaching awards, and has published articles on various aspects of the further development of studying and teaching.

Outside of his work at the University, Christian Schröder has for many years been a voluntary trainer with Technischer Hilfswerk, a largely voluntary civil protection organization.

Sophia Becker

Sophia Becker completed her postdoc as a mobility researcher at the Institute of Advanced Sustainability Studies e.V. (IASS) from 2017 to 2019.  She studied in Münster and Paris, completing a Diplom degree in psychology. She continued her studies under the supervision of Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. Ortwin Renn at the University of Stuttgart's Chair of Sociology of Technology, Risk and Environment, where she earned her doctorate. Her dissertation titled "Individuelles Rebound-Verhalten in der Pkw-Mobilität" [Individual Rebound Behavior in Car Mobility] was published in Springer VS Verlag's series of studies on mobility and transport research.

In 2015 she completed a stay as visiting researcher at the Transportation Sustainability Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley, where her research focused on carsharing and individual life quality. She has also taught at several institutions, including the Faculty of Sustainability at Leuphana University Lüneburg, where she taught environmental psychology from 2012 to 2014. Professor Becker has been a member of the scientific advisory board and the supporting association of the professional journal GAIA - Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society since 2018. She is currently the deputy managing director of the Institute of Vocational Education and Work Studies, member of the TU Berlin Extended Academic Senate, and a member of the executive board of the Einstein Center Climate Change and Public Policy of Human Settlements.

Professor Becker's research examines socio-technical transformation processes, sustainable mobility, individual behavior change, and mobility innovation. Her work also focuses on transdisciplinary research methods.

This article was first published on 11 February by TU Berlin.