Wolfgang A. Herrmann
Wolfgang A. Herrmann, president of the Technical University of Munich, will present the Nanovic Forum at 5 p.m. April 9 (Tuesday) in the Jordan Hall of Science at the University of Notre Dame. The lecture, titled “What is an Entrepreneurial University? A Case Study,” is free and open to the public. Gregory Crawford, William K. Warren Foundation Dean of Notre Dame’s College of Science and professor of physics, will present the introduction.
Under the direction of Herrmann, the Technical University of Munich has dramatically increased student enrollment, the number of full-time female professors and the levels of external funding. Germany’s Excellence Initiative has recognized the Technical University of Munich twice in the last decade as a University of Excellence.
Herrmann studied chemistry at the Technical University of Munich. After obtaining his doctorate at the University of Regensburg and following professorships in Regensburg and Frankfurt, he took over the TUM Chair of Inorganic Chemistry in 1985. His awards include the Leibniz Prize, the Max Planck Research Prize, the Bavarian Order of Merit, the Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art, and the Order of the Legion of Honor of the President of France. He has also received eleven honorary doctorates from German and international universities.
Appointed as president of the Technical University of Munich in 1995, Herrmann was unanimously re-elected as president in 2013. He is now the longest-serving president of a German university. In recognition of his significant achievements, Herrmann was honored as “President of the Year” from the German Association of University Professors and Lecturers in 2012.
The Nanovic Institute for European Studies established the Nanovic Forum through the generosity of Robert and Elizabeth Nanovic, in order to continue to deepen Notre Dame’s rich tradition of connections to Europe by bringing prominent figures to campus in a wide range of fields to explore, discuss and debate the most pressing questions about Europe today.
Past speakers have included Lord Patten of Barnes, Chancellor of the University of Oxford and the last British Governor of Hong Kong; Horst Koehler, former president of Germany; and Bernhard Schlink, a German novelist and constitutional court justice.
Contact: Jennifer Lechtanski, Nanovic Institute for European Studies, 574-631-3548