The School of Medicine and Health Sciences at the University of Oldenburg has two new Deans: in future, the medical doctor Prof. Dr Erik Harms, Director of the University Children's Hospital in Münster until 2008, and the former State Secretary in the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science, Dr Josef Lange, will jointly head the School.
Harms is responsible for the scientific-academic area, Lange for science management. Both will take on these tasks on a temporary basis.
"I am delighted that we have been able to attract two such experienced experts to the university," explains University President Prof Dr Babette Simon. "For many years, Professor Harms has rendered outstanding services to medical education, research and research funding, including in supra-regional areas and patient care. Dr Lange has been involved in the European Medical School Oldenburg-Groningen project from the very beginning. Both have experience that is of great value to Oldenburg medicine."
Prof. Dr Erik Harms studied medicine in Tübingen and Freiburg im Breisgau, where he also gained his doctorate. In 1979, he habilitated in the subject of paediatrics at the University of Heidelberg, where he became senior physician in the intensive care unit and premature and neonatal wards at the Children's Hospital in 1982. In 1987, he accepted a professorship in paediatrics at the University of Münster and was Director of the University Children's Hospital until 2008. Harms took on numerous tasks and offices in various committees and commissions, including for the German Research Foundation (DFG) and as Vice President and President of the German Society for Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine (DGKJ).
Dr Josef Lange studied Catholic theology, history and political science at the Universities of Münster and Regensburg. He then worked at the University of Bayreuth, at the German Research Foundation and in the office of the German Council of Science and Humanities. In 1990 he became Secretary General of the German Rectors' Conference and in 2000 State Secretary to the Senator for Science in Berlin. Two years later, he moved to the Thuringian State Chancellery as Head of Department. From 2003 until his retirement in 2013, Lange was State Secretary at the Ministry of Science and Culture of Lower Saxony. He was and is a member of numerous expert commissions.
