Executive team New Rectorate takes up its duties

Kornelia Freitag was born in Potsdam in 1958. She studied Slavic and English Studies at the University of Potsdam. After completing her PhD and following research stays at Stanford University, she obtained an habilitation degree in American Studies at the University of Potsdam. In 2002, she was appointed to the C4-professorship on “Amerikastudien/American Studies” at the Ruhr University Bochum.

From 2007 to 2009, she was Dean of the Faculty of Philology, and between 2010 and 2013, she was the spokesperson for the humanities in the Ruhr University Research School. From 2012 to 2015, she was a member of the Ruhr University Senate.

Since 1 October 2015, she has served as Vice-Rector for Academic and International Affairs at the Ruhr University Bochum. In this role, she was the spokesperson for the Vice- Rector’s Work Group for Academic Affairs, NRW, from 2018 to 2020, and has been a member of the Steering Committee of the Learning & Teaching Initiative of the European University Association since 2018.

Isolde Karle studied Protestant theology in Tübingen, Cambridge (Massachusetts/USA) and Münster. Following her first ecclesiastical examination in 1992 in Tübingen, she worked for three years as a research assistant at the Institute for Practical Theology at the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel. There, she obtained her PhD in 1996 with a dissertation on the topic of “Seelsorge in der Moderne. Eine Kritik der psychoanalytisch orientierten Seelsorgelehre” (“Pastoral Care in the Modern Age. A Critique of the Psychoanalytically Oriented Doctrine of Pastoral Care”). Following her vicariate and ordination, she obtained an habilitation degree at the Faculty of Protestant Theology at Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Bonn. Karle has been Professor of Practical Theology at the Ruhr University since November 2001. She has been university pastor since 2003 and was Dean of the Faculty of Protestant Theology from 2009 to 2011. In 2014, Isolde Karle received a call to the Humboldt University in Berlin, which she declined in 2015.

Since 2015, she has been director of the newly founded Institute for Religion and Society, and she was Ruhr University’s appointments commissioner until 2021. Since 2017, Isolde Karle has been a member of the Standing Conference for Pastoral Care in the Evangelical Church of Germany; from 2017 to 2021 she was spokesperson for the professors’ representation in the the Ruhr University Senate.

On 1 November 2021, Isolde Karle became Vice-Rector for Diversity, Inclusion and Talent Development at RUB.

Denise Manahan-Vaughan was born in Ireland and is a brain researcher. Having graduated in natural sciences at Trinity College Dublin (TCD), Ireland, she obtained her PhD in neuropharmacology at TCD at the age of 27. After her doctorate, she moved to the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology in Magdeburg and five years later obtained a habilitation degree in physiology from Otto-von-Guericke University. Following several years as a research group supervisor at the Johannes Müller Institute of Physiology at the Charité, Berlin, she accepted the appointment as Professor of Neuroscience, and Director of the newly founded "International Graduate School of Neuroscience" (IGSN) at the Ruhr University in 2003.

In 2007, she turned down calls from the University of Freiburg and University College Galway, Ireland, and accepted the the Ruhr University’s call to head the Department of Neurophysiology at the Faculty of Medicine instead. In 2010, she successfully recruited a Collaborative Research Centre (SFB 874, 2010-2022) on "Integration and Representation of Sensory Processes" and co-founded the "Research Department of Neuroscience" in the same year. Since 2017, she has been Director of the Institute of Physiology at the Faculty of Medicine. In 2006, she founded the "Network of European Neuroscience Schools", which connects graduate programmes in neuroscience across Europe, and in 2019, she founded "NeuroNexxt", a digital platform to increase the international visibility and networking of women neuroscientists.

On 1 November 2021, Denise Manahan-Vaughan became Vice-Rector for Structure, Strategy and Planning at the Ruhr University Bochum.

Günther Meschke studied civil engineering at TU Wien. There, he received his PhD in 1989 and was awarded the Max Kade Fellowship of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. In 1991 he spent one year as a research fellow at Stanford University. From 1996 to 1998, Meschke was an associate university professor at the Institute for Strength of Materials at TU Wien. In 1998, he was appointed to the Chair of Structural Mechanics at Ruhr University Bochum. From 2001 to 2004, he was executive director at the Institute for Structural Engineering at RUB and, from 2004 to 2006, dean at the Faculty of Civil Engineering. In 2012, he turned down a call to the Graz University of Technology. Günther Meschke has been spokesperson of the Collaborative Research Centre 837 “Interaction Models for Mechanical Tunnelling” since 2012 and spokesperson of the Research Department “Subsurface Modeling and Engineering” since 2014.

Since 2017, he has served in his second period of office as member of the Ruhr University’s  Senate, where he is the deputy speaker of the professors’ representation. Meschke is a member of the Austrian Science Council and of various scientific academies, including the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts, the National Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech) and the Academia Europaea.

Günther Meschke became Vice-Rector for Research and Transfer at the Ruhr University on 1 November 2021.

Martin Paul, born in Saarland in 1958, has been Rector of Ruhr University Bochum since 1 November 2021. Previously, he was President of Maastricht University in the Netherlands since 2011. Since 2016, he has been a member of the expert committee of the German Excellence Strategy. From 1997 to 2008, he was Professor and Head of the Institute for Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology at the Free University of Berlin, University Hospital Benjamin Franklin, and from 2003 at the Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin. In 2008, he accepted the appointment to the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences at Maastricht University. Before he was elected President, his roles included dean of his faculty and vice-president of the university.

As a researcher, he has contributed significantly to a large number of scientific publications; more recently he has been focussing on university strategy and creating innovative structures for research and education. His experience in management and leadership positions is longstanding and profound, proven among other things by numerous functions and memberships in academic networks.

Martin Paul studied human medicine in Heidelberg from 1978 to 1985 and received his doctorate there. He is a medical specialist in clinical pharmacology and hypertension (high blood pressure). He is married and has two adult children.

Christina Reinhardt was born in Leinfelden, Baden-Württemberg, in 1968. From 1989 to 1993, she studied geography, sociology and spatial planning at Ruhr University Bochum, where she was awarded her PhD at the Chair of Social and Economic Geography in 1998. In 2000, she took up her first job in the Ruhr University administration, developing a project to implement the State Equal Opportunities Act. From 2001, Christina Reinhardt set up and managed human resources development at Ruhr University, where she was head of the Rectorate's department "Internal Training and Consulting" from 2006. From May 2009 to November 2015, Reinhardt was Chancellor of Bochum University of Applied Sciences. She has been Ruhr University Chancellor since 1 December 2015.