Prof Dr Martin Kühn, previously holder of the endowed professorship for wind energy at the University of Stuttgart, has accepted the appointment to the newly created "Wind Energy Systems" endowed professorship at the Institute of Physics at the University of Oldenburg. Kühn will take up the professorship, which is made possible by the support of the state of Lower Saxony and EWE AG, on 1 April 2010. "We are delighted that we have been able to recruit this highly sought-after candidate," says Prof. Dr Dr h.c. Hans-Jürgen Appelrath, Vice President for Research. "The professorship is a crucial addition to Oldenburg's wind energy research - and in addition to the collaboration in physics, we also see excellent opportunities for cooperation with other working groups in the natural sciences and Computing Science."
Kühn has many years of experience in wind energy research. He has researched and taught at TU Delft (Netherlands) and the University of Stuttgart and is familiar with the international wind energy sector. He worked for five years as an offshore wind energy project leader in the development department of an international manufacturer of wind turbines. "In future, I would like to round off the existing university activities in Physics, Computing Science and Economics with a clear engineering profile," says Kühn. His research focus in Oldenburg is on understanding wind turbines as active elements of the physical environment and the electrical grid.
Lower Saxony's Science Minister Lutz Stratmann sees Kühn's academic appointment as a clear boost for the state in the highly competitive field of internal and external wind energy research: "With this appointment, the University of Oldenburg is further expanding its particularly attractive research and teaching profile in the field of wind energy. This will be clearly perceived both nationally and internationally, especially in neighbouring European regions."
Appelrath is pleased that the new professorship will have a positive impact on the range of courses offered in the Bachelor's, Master's and continuing education programmes as well as on the university's expanded research topics: "Our university's renowned range of courses in the field of renewable energies will soon be able to be expanded with additional courses."