Five Oldenburg scientists elected to DFG review boards

Oldenburg expertise for the German Research Foundation (DFG): Five scientists from the University will help shape DFG research funding in future as review board members. According to the preliminary election results, computer scientist Prof Dr Susanne Boll-Westermann, geoecologist Prof Dr Thorsten Dittmar, Slavicist Prof Dr Gerd Hentschel, biologist Prof Dr Helmut Hillebrand and physicist and medical scientist Prof Dr Dr Birger Kollmeier were able to prevail in the nationwide election. "The good performance of our scientists in the review board election shows that they enjoy a high reputation among experts and that their assessment is highly trusted," 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 review boards, the most important advisory bodies for research funding in Germany. These are the first bodies to decide, for example, whether proposals for Research Training Groups or Research Units should be recommended and thus set the research priorities in their respective subjects. In the election in November, all doctoral researchers in Germany were called upon to elect their representatives for the total of 613 places in 48 review boards. The 2016 to 2019 term of office begins next February. The elected Oldenburg academics in detail: - Prof. Dr. Susanne Boll-Westermann: Review Board Computing Science, subject: Interactive and Intelligent Systems, Image and Language Processing, Computer Graphics and Visualisation - Prof. Dr. Thorsten Dittmar: Review Board Atmospheric, Marine and Climate Research, subject: Physics, Chemistry and Biology of the Ocean - Prof. Dr Gerd Hentschel: Review Board Linguistics, subject: Individual Linguistics - Prof. Dr Helmut Hillebrand: Review Board Zoology, subject: Animal Ecology, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research - Prof. Dr Dr Birger Kollmeier: Review Board Mechanics and Constructive Mechanical Engineering, subject: Acoustics