Press Releases
16.12.2020
New Dean heads Science Faculty
Faculty council votes for biochemist Thilo Stehle to succeed Wolfgang Rosenstiel; “A researcher with an excellent reputation and extensive committee experience”
The Faculty of Science at the University of Tübingen has a new Dean: biochemist Professor Thilo Stehle. The Faculty council elected 58-year-old Stehle on Wednesday to succeed Professor Wolfgang Rosenstiel, who passed away in August. The University president, Professor Bernd Engler, praised Stehle as an exceptionally distinguished researcher with international experience, saying “In Thilo Stehle, we once more have a researcher with an excellent reputation and extensive committee experience at the helm of Tübingen's largest faculty.” Engler added that “his track record as a scientist in Germany and abroad, his rich experience in academic administration, and also his skills in dialogue and balance make him an excellent choice for this important office.”
Stehle, who has been at the University of Tübingen since 2004, said after the election that the faculty faces immense challenges. For example, he said, it is necessary to support and further develop the three Tübingen clusters of excellence in such a way that the University's excellence status can be sustainably secured in 2025. As further goals, the new dean cited improved strategic planning, better supervision of doctoral students and increased internationalization with regard to both students and researchers. The new dean will take office on April 1, 2021.
“We are still losing too many promising young researchers to industry and other non-university institutions, and to institutions abroad,” Stehle said. At the same time, he added, it remains difficult for early-career researchers from abroad to gain a foothold in Germany. “Here I see a great need for action. We need to think about concepts that offer promising researchers even better prospects at an early career stage.”
Professor Thilo Stehle was born in Stuttgart in 1962. After studying chemistry at the University of Freiburg, Stehle received his doctorate in structural biology there in 1992 and then went to the USA. Until 1997, he conducted research as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University. He then worked as an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School until 2004. Since 2004 he has been Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Tübingen, and since 2005 he has also been Associate Professor at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, USA.
Since his appointment to a Tübingen professorship, Stehle has had a leading role in many collaborative research projects. Currently, he is one of the project leaders in the Cluster of Excellence "Control of Microorganisms to Fight Infections" (CMFI) and spokesperson of the DFG Research Group 2327 ViroCarb, which investigates the role of glycans in viral infections. He is also involved in collaborative projects of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Stehle has been involved in academic administration for many years. For example, he was director of the Interfaculty Institute of Biochemistry from 2005 to 2016 and vice dean of the then Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy from 2007 to 2009. Since 2016, he has also served as Vice Dean for Research at the Faculty of Science.
Contact:
Dr. Karl G. Rijkhoek
University of Tübingen
Public Relations Department
Phone: +49 7071 29-76788
karl.rijkhoek@uni-tuebingen.de