Prof. Dr. Ralph Bruder will be the new President of the University. The Senate has voted unanimously for the researcher in ergonomics and director of Institute of Human Factors and Ergonomics at the TU Darmstadt. The six-year term of office begins in August 2021.
A new president for the University of Oldenburg: Today the university’s Senate has unanimously elected Prof. Dr. Ralph Bruder (57), a researcher in ergonomics and director of the Institute of Human Factors and Ergonomics at the Technical University of Darmstadt Technical, as future president. Bruder had been recommended for election to the Senate by the selection committee. The University Council, which is required to comment on the election in accordance with the Higher Education Act of Lower Saxony (Niedersächsisches Hochschulgesetz, NHG), welcomed the Senate's decision at its meeting today. The appointment for a term of office of six years is made by the Ministry of Science of Lower Saxony. Ralph Bruder will succeed Prof. Dr. Dr. Hans Michael Piper, whose term of office ends on 31 July 2021.
University President Piper congratulated Bruder immediately after his election. He showed himself pleased that the University of Oldenburg has gained an experienced university manager for this office. He regards Bruder as well prepared for the numerous challenges in teaching, research and transfer that leading a dynamically developing university brings about.
Bruder, in a first statement, called himself “very honoured” to be elected President of the Carl von Ossietzky University. “I am aware of the great responsibility that I accept with pleasure. According to its motto ’Open to New Approaches’, the University is courageously moving forward and actively shaping the future – this is also my philosophy. I am very much looking forward to getting to know the university and the region better soon and to tackling the tasks ahead together.
Ralph Bruder, born in Bad Homburg v. d. Höhe, studied electrical and automatic control engineering at the Technical University of Darmstadt. There he also received his doctorate in 1992 and worked as a research assistant. In 1996, he joined the University of Duisburg-Essen, where he was Professor of Ergonomics in Design until 2005 and Director of the Institute for Ergonomics and Design Research which he founded. He was also founding president and until 2006 managing director of the Zollverein School of Management and Design gGmbH.
In 2006, Bruder returned to the TU Darmstadt. Since then, he has been Professor and head of the Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors. As Scientific Director, he established an umbrella organisation for young scientists. From 2014 to 2019 he was full-time Vice President of the TU Darmstadt, responsible for academic affairs and young researchers. In this function, he dedicated himself, among other things, to introducing the system accreditation of study programmes and successfully acquiring public funding for teaching. He also contributed to developing the TU Darmstadt's internationalisation strategy.
Among other things, Bruder was president of the German Society for Occupational Science, is a long-standing member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and is active in numerous other specialist bodies. He is also co-editor of the journal Applied Ergonomics and member of the Scientific Advisory Board of several national and international journals.