Five Oldenburg scientists elected to DFG review boards

Oldenburg expertise for the German Research Foundation (DFG): Five academics from the University will in future help shape DFG research funding as members of the expert panels. In the nationwide election – according to the provisional results – Computing Science Professor Dr Susanne Boll-Westermann, geoecologist Prof. Dr Thorsten Dittmar, Slavicist Prof. Dr Gerd Hentschel, biologist Prof. Dr Helmut Hillebrand and physicist and physician Prof. Dr Dr Birger Kollmeier were successful. “The strong performance of our researchers in the programme committee elections shows that they are held in high regard within their respective fields and that their judgement is held in great trust,” explains Prof. Dr Katharina Al-Shamery, Vice-President for Research and Transfer. Over the next four years, the five scientists will contribute their expertise to the DFG’s specialist panels, the most important advisory bodies for research funding in Germany. These panels, for example, decide in the first instance whether proposals for graduate colleges or research groups are to be recommended for further consideration, thereby setting the research priorities in their respective subjects. In the election held in November, all researchers in Germany who had obtained a doctorate were called upon to elect their representatives for a total of 613 seats across 48 scientific councils. The term of office, running from 2016 to 2019, begins next February. The elected researchers from Oldenburg in detail: - Prof. Dr Susanne Boll-Westermann: Disciplinary Panel for Computing Science, subject: Interactive and Intelligent Systems, Image and Speech Processing, Computer Graphics and Visualisation - Prof. Dr Thorsten Dittmar: Research Council for Atmospheric, Marine and Climate Research, subject: Physics, Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment - Prof. Dr Gerd Hentschel: Research Council for Linguistics, subject: Individual Language Studies - Prof. Dr Helmut Hillebrand: Zoology Division, Subject: Animal Ecology, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research – Prof. Dr Dr Birger Kollmeier: Mechanics and Mechanical Engineering Division, Subject: Acoustics