69 Notable Alumni of Ruhr University Bochum [Sorted List]

Norbert Lammert

Born in: Germany
Years: 1948-.. (age 76)
Occupations: politicianuniversity teacher
Biography: Norbert Lammert is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He served as the 12th president of the Bundestag from 2005 to 2017.

Reinhard Marx

Born in: Germany
Years: 1953-.. (age 71)
Occupations: writertheologianCatholic priestuniversity teacherLatin Catholic bishop
Biography: Reinhard Marx is a German cardinal of the Catholic Church. He serves as the Archbishop of Munich and Freising. Pope Benedict XVI elevated Marx to the cardinalate in a consistory in 2010.

Svenja Schulze

Born in: Germany
Years: 1968-.. (age 56)
Enrolled in Ruhr University Bochum: In 1996 graduated with Magister Artium
Occupations: ministerpolitician
Biography: Svenja Schulze is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). She serves as Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development in the cabinet of Olaf Scholz. Schulze has been serving as member of the German Bundestag since 2021, representing North Rhine-Westphalia.

Erwin Sellering

Born in: Germany
Years: 1949-.. (age 75)
Occupations: politician
Biography: Erwin Sellering is a German politician. He served as the 4th Minister President of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern from 2008 to 2017.

Katrin Suder

Born in: Germany
Years: 1971-.. (age 53)
Enrolled in Ruhr University Bochum: Graduated with Doctor in neuroinformatics; Graduated with Bachelor of Arts in theatre studies and German-language literature
Occupations: LGBTQI+ rights activistphysicistbusiness consultant
Biography: Katrin Suder is a German physicist and management consultant who served as State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Defense in the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2014 to 2018.

Bernd Baumann

Born in: Germany
Years: 1958-.. (age 66)
Occupations: economistpolitician
Biography: Bernd Baumann is a German politician of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) and chief whip of the AfD Group who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Hamburg since 2017.

Jhy-wey Hsieh

Born in: Taiwan
Years: 1955-.. (age 69)
Enrolled in Ruhr University Bochum: 1982-1987 graduated with doctorate
Occupations: diplomatuniversity teacherpolitician
Biography: Shieh Jhy-wey is a Taiwanese politician and diplomat who is currently the Taiwanese Representative to Germany, serving since August 2016. Previously, he served as director-general of Government Information Office from 2007 to 2008.

Melanie Raabe

Born in: Germany
Years: 1981-.. (age 43)
Occupations: journaliststage actorwriterscreenwriter
Biography: Melanie Raabe is a German novelist and journalist.

Maximilian Reinelt

Born in: Germany
Years: 1988-2019 (aged 31)
Enrolled in Ruhr University Bochum: Studied medicine
Occupations: rower
Biography: Maximilian Reinelt was a German rower and physician. He won a gold medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics, and a silver medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics, as well as two World Championships and four European Championships. In 2016, he was awarded the Silbernes Lorbeerblatt, Germany's highest sports award.

Sadeq Tabatabaei

Born in: Iran
Years: 1943-2015 (aged 72)
Enrolled in Ruhr University Bochum: Graduated with Doctor
Occupations: university teacherfaculty membertelevision presenterwriterpolitician
Biography: Sadeq Tabatabaei was an Iranian writer, journalist, TV host, university professor at the University of Tehran and politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister from 1979 to 1980. He was also Deputy Minister of the Interior and oversaw the referendum on establishing an Islamic Republic in March 1979. He was Iran's Ambassador to West Germany from 1982 until 1986.

Zdzisław Krasnodębski

Born in: Poland
Years: 1953-.. (age 71)
Occupations: politicianuniversity teachersociologistphilosopher
Biography: Zdzisław Marek Krasnodębski is a Polish sociologist, social philosopher, publicist and professor at the University of Bremen (Germany), who has been a Member of the European Parliament since the 2014 election.

Sylvia Löhrmann

Born in: Germany
Years: 1957-.. (age 67)
Occupations: politician
Biography: Sylvia Löhrmann is a German politician of the Green Party.

Jamiri

Born in: Germany
Years: 1966-.. (age 58)
Occupations: graphic designerillustrator
Biography: Jamiri is one of the most recognized comics artists in Germany.

Hartmut Neven

Born in: Germany
Years: 1964-.. (age 60)
Enrolled in Ruhr University Bochum: In 1996 graduated with doctor rerum naturalium
Occupations: artificial intelligence researchercomputer scientist
Biography: Hartmut Neven is a scientist working in quantum computing, computer vision, robotics and computational neuroscience. He is best known for his work in face and object recognition and his contributions to quantum machine learning. He is currently Vice President of Engineering at Google where he is leading the Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab which he founded in 2012.

Ali Atalan

Born in: Turkey
Years: 1968-.. (age 56)
Occupations: politician
Biography: Ali Atalan is a Kurdish-German politician of Yazidi faith. He is a former member of the Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia with Die Linke in Germany, and the Turkish Parliament with the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).

Andreas Floer

Born in: Germany
Years: 1956-1991 (aged 35)
Occupations: university teachertopologistmathematician
Biography: Andreas Floer was a German mathematician who made seminal contributions to symplectic topology, and mathematical physics, in particular the invention of Floer homology. Floer's first pivotal contribution was a solution of a special case of Arnold's conjecture on fixed points of a symplectomorphism. Because of his work on Arnold's conjecture and his development of instanton homology, he achieved wide recognition and was invited as a plenary speaker for the International Congress of Mathematicians held in Kyoto in August 1990. He received a Sloan Fellowship in 1989.

Oliver Wittke

Born in: Germany
Years: 1966-.. (age 58)
Enrolled in Ruhr University Bochum: Studied geography and economics
Occupations: politiciangeographer
Biography: Oliver Wittke is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

Hans-Paul Bürkner

Born in: Germany
Years: 1952-.. (age 72)
Occupations: international forum participantchief executive officer
Biography: Hans-Paul Bürkner is a German management consultant serving as a managing director and Senior Partner, as well as Global Chair Emeritus of the Boston Consulting Group. Bürkner served as President & CEO from 2004 to 2012, and was the first European chief executive in the firm's history.

Daniel Jasinski

Born in: Germany
Years: 1989-.. (age 35)
Occupations: discus thrower
Biography: Daniel Jasinski is a male discus thrower from Germany. He won the Olympic bronze medal in 2016. It was an unexpected first medal in a major championship.

Sonja Zekri

Born in: Germany
Years: 1967-.. (age 57)
Occupations: journalist
Biography: Sonja Zekri is a German journalist and author. Her topics are Near East, Eastern Europe, culture and religion, among others.

Andreas Zick

Born in: Germany
Years: 1962-.. (age 62)
Occupations: social psychologistuniversity teacherpsychologistpeace and conflict researcher
Biography: Andreas Zick is a professor of Socialization and Conflict Research at Faculty of Education Science, Bielefeld University.

Andrew Ullmann

Born in: United States
Years: 1963-.. (age 61)
Enrolled in Ruhr University Bochum: In 1974 studied medicine
Occupations: politician
Biography: Andrew John Ullmann is a German physician and politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Bavaria since 2017.

Ralf Brauksiepe

Born in: Germany
Years: 1967-.. (age 57)
Enrolled in Ruhr University Bochum: 1986-1990 studied economics
Occupations: economistpolitician
Biography: Ralf Brauksiepe is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Between 1998 and 2018, he served as a member of the Bundestag.

Max Lucks

Born in: Germany
Years: 1997-.. (age 27)
Occupations: politician
Biography: Max Lucks is a German politician of Alliance 90/The Greens who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag in the 20th Bundestag that has been elected in the German federal election on 26 September 2021.

Peter Trawny

Born in: Germany
Years: 1964-.. (age 60)
Occupations: phenomenologistuniversity teacherphilosopher
Biography: Peter Trawny is a German philosopher and professor at the University of Wuppertal.

Joachim Erwin

Born in: Germany
Years: 1949-2008 (aged 59)
Occupations: politicianlawyer
Biography: Joachim Erwin was a German politician and the Mayor of Düsseldorf from 1999 until his death in 2008. He was born in Stadtroda, Thuringia, Germany.

Jochen Borchert

Born in: Germany
Years: 1940-.. (age 84)
Occupations: politicianfarmer
Biography: Jochen Borchert is a German politician and member of the CDU. He was minister of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection in Chancellor Helmut Kohl's cabinet from 1993 to 1998. From 1980 to 2009 he was a member of the Bundestag.

Kai Gehring

Born in: Germany
Years: 1977-.. (age 47)
Enrolled in Ruhr University Bochum: 1998-2004 graduated with Diplom in social science
Occupations: sociologistpolitician
Biography: Kai Gehring is a German politician of the Green Party who has been serving as a Member of the German Parliament since 2005.

Wolfgang Kubin

Born in: Germany
Years: 1945-.. (age 79)
Occupations: writeruniversity teacherpoetsinologisttranslator
Biography: Wolfgang Kubin is a German poet, essayist, sinologist and translator of literary works. He is the former director of the Institute for Oriental and Asian Studies at the University of Bonn, Germany. Kubin has frequently been a guest professor at universities in China, for instance at Beijing Foreign Studies University, but also in Madison, Wisconsin, and in Jerusalem. Since 1989, Kubin has been the editor of the journals ORIENTIERUNGEN: Zeitschrift zur Kultur Asiens and Minima sinica: Zeitschrift zum chinesischen Geist.

Dagmar Freitag

Born in: Germany
Years: 1953-.. (age 71)
Occupations: politician
Biography: Dagmar Freitag is a German teacher and politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who served as a member of the Bundestag from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia from 1994 to 2021.

Katharina Müller

Born in: Russia
Years: 1995-.. (age 29)
Occupations: ice dancer
Biography: Katharina Müller is a retired German competitive ice dancer. With her skating partner Tim Dieck, she is a two-time German national champion and has won many senior international medals, including two silver medals on the ISU Challenger Series and three gold medals at the German NRW Trophy. They have represented Germany at the European and World championships.

Matthias Hauer

Born in: Germany
Years: 1977-.. (age 47)
Enrolled in Ruhr University Bochum: 1998-2003 studied jurisprudence
Occupations: politicianlawyer
Biography: Matthias Hauer is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia since 2013.

Michael Ristow

Born in: Germany
Years: 1967-.. (age 57)
Occupations: internistuniversity teacherphysician
Biography: Michael Ristow is a German medical researcher who has published influential articles on biochemical aspects of mitochondrial metabolism and particularly the possibly health-promoting role of reactive oxygen species in diseases like type 2 diabetes, obesity and cancer, as well as general aging due to a process called mitohormesis.

Sebastian Siebrecht

Born in: Germany
Years: 1973-.. (age 51)
Occupations: chess player
Biography: Sebastian Siebrecht is a German chess grandmaster. He earned the FIDE master title in 1993, followed by the International Master title in 1996. He was awarded the grandmaster title in 2008 after achieving five norms.

Martin Grötschel

Born in: Germany
Years: 1948-.. (age 76)
Occupations: university teachermathematician
Biography: Martin Grötschel is a German mathematician known for his research on combinatorial optimization, polyhedral combinatorics, and operations research. From 1991 to 2012 he was Vice President of the Zuse Institute Berlin (ZIB) and served from 2012 to 2015 as ZIB's President. From 2015 to 2020 he was President of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BBAW).

Jens Geier

Born in: Germany
Years: 1961-.. (age 63)
Occupations: historianpoliticianconsultant
Biography: Jens Geier is a German politician who has been serving as a member of the European Parliament since 2009. He is a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, part of the Party of European Socialists.

Jens Seipenbusch

Born in: Germany
Years: 1968-.. (age 56)
Occupations: politicianphysicist
Biography: Jens Peter Seipenbusch is a German politician and physicist who was leader of the Pirate Party Germany.

Gerhard Hirschfeld

Born in: Germany
Years: 1946-.. (age 78)
Occupations: university teacherhistorian of Modern Agehistoriancontemporary historiansocial historian
Biography: Gerhard Hirschfeld is a German historian and author. From 1989 to 2011, he was director of the Stuttgart-based Bibliothek für Zeitgeschichte / Library of Contemporary History, and has been a professor at the Institute of History of the University of Stuttgart since 1997. In 2016 he also became a visiting professor at the Institute for International Studies, University of Wuhan/China.

Wolfgang Ernst

Years: 1959-.. (age 65)
Occupations: historianmedia scholaruniversity teacher
Biography: Wolfgang Ernst is a German media theorist. He is Professor for Media Theories at Humboldt University of Berlin and a major exponent of media archaeology as a method of scholarly inquiry.

Dietrich Braess

Born in: Germany
Years: 1938-.. (age 86)
Occupations: university teacher
Biography: Dietrich Braess is a German mathematician. He is known for Braess's paradox, which deals with traffic equilibrium. Braess' focus has centered on numerical treatment of elliptical differential equations and nonlinear approximation theories.

Elisabeth Niggemann

Born in: Germany
Years: 1954-.. (age 70)
Occupations: librarian
Biography: Elisabeth Niggemann is a German librarian specializing in the digitization of cultural heritage resources. From 1999 to 2019, she served as the Director General of the German National Library.

René Röspel

Born in: Germany
Years: 1964-.. (age 60)
Enrolled in Ruhr University Bochum: 1988-1993 graduated with diploma
Occupations: politician
Biography: René Röspel is a German biologist and politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who served as a member of the Bundestag from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia from 1998 to 2021.

Christian Keysers

Born in: Belgium
Years: 1973-.. (age 51)
Occupations: university teacherneurologistneuroscientist
Biography: Christian Keysers is a French and German neuroscientist.

Irmtrud Wojak

Years: 1963-.. (age 61)
Occupations: historian of Modern Agehistorian
Biography: Irmtrud Wojak is a German historian. From the end of March 2009 until November 2011, she was the founding director of the Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism.

Klaus Segbers

Born in: Germany
Years: 1954-.. (age 70)
Occupations: scientistuniversity teacherpolitical scientist
Biography: Klaus Segbers is a German political scientist and professor for International Relations and East European Studies at Freie Universität Berlin. He is also the founder and director of the Center for Global Politics at Freie Universität Berlin, which offers four distinct graduate study programs designed for professionals and young leaders. His research interests include theories of international relations, transformations in the former Soviet Union, international political economy, and globalization.

Kai Twilfer

Born in: Germany
Years: 1976-.. (age 48)
Enrolled in Ruhr University Bochum: Studied economics
Occupations: entrepreneurwritermerchant
Biography: Kai Henrik Twilfer is a German merchant and author.

Hans-Wolfgang Arndt

Born in: Czech Republic
Years: 1945-.. (age 79)
Occupations: university teacherjurist
Biography: Hans-Wolfgang Arndt is a German lawyer, professor for tax law and former president (rector) of the University of Mannheim from 2001 to 2012. Previously he was professor for tax law at the Department für Rechtswissenschaften (department of law) at the University of Konstanz.

Gordon Kampe

Born in: Germany
Years: 1976-.. (age 48)
Occupations: composer
Biography: Gordon Kampe is a German composer and academic teacher.

Wolfgang Leidhold

Born in: Germany
Years: 1950-.. (age 74)
Occupations: painteruniversity teacherphilosopher
Biography: Wolfgang Leidhold is a German political scientist, philosopher and artist. He works as a full professor at the Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences of the University of Cologne, with a focus on political theory and the history of ideas. The scope of his work ranges from the Paleolithic to the present day. Since the 1980s he has been exploring the history of experience and its transformations. He recently published the results of his research in The History of Experience: A Study in Experiential Turns and Cultural Dynamics from the Paleolithic to the Present Day (New York, NY, 2023). The main focus of his artistic work is painting and drawing. His works have been exhibited in the US and Germany.

Gerhard Klimeck

Born in: Germany
Years: 1966-.. (age 58)
Occupations: physicistinventoruniversity teachernon-fiction writer
Biography: Gerhard Klimeck is a German-American scientist and author in the field of nanotechnology. He is a professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Marc Degens

Born in: Germany
Years: 1971-.. (age 53)
Occupations: writer
Biography: Marc Degens is a German novelist, essayist, short-story writer, and musician.

Christine Lang

Born in: Germany
Years: 1957-.. (age 67)
Occupations: university teacheracademic
Biography: Christine Lang is a German microbiologist and entrepreneur.

Benedikt Jahnel

Born in: Germany
Years: 1980-.. (age 44)
Occupations: pianist
Biography: Benedikt Jahnel is a German jazz pianist, composer, bandleader and mathematician.

Claudia Lux

Born in: Germany
Years: 1950-.. (age 74)
Occupations: librarian
Biography: Claudia Lux is German librarian and the Member of the National Committee of International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions.

Barbara Lison

Born in: Poland
Years: 1956-.. (age 68)
Occupations: librarian
Biography: Barbara Lison is a German librarian. She has led the Bremen public library service for thirty years. She led the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) from 2021 to 2023 stressing open-access and fair copyright.

Gabriele Klein

Born in: Germany
Years: 1957-.. (age 67)
Occupations: university teachersociologistwriter
Biography: Gabriele Klein is a sociologist, dance theorist and professor at the University of Hamburg.

Ulla Burchardt

Born in: Germany
Years: 1954-.. (age 70)
Occupations: politician
Biography: Ursula "Ulla" Burchardt is a German politician and member of the SPD.

Sylvie Paycha

Born in: France
Years: 1960-.. (age 64)
Enrolled in Ruhr University Bochum: Graduated with doctorate
Occupations: university teacherphysicistmathematician
Biography: Sylvie Paycha is a French mathematician and mathematical physicist working in operator theory as a professor at the University of Potsdam. She has chaired both European Women in Mathematics and L'association femmes et mathématiques.

Klaus Rohde

Born in: Germany
Years: 1932-.. (age 92)
Occupations: biologistuniversity teacher
Biography: Klaus Rohde is a German biologist and parasitologist at the University of New England (UNE), Australia. He is known particularly for his work on marine parasitology, evolutionary ecology, zoogeography, phylogeny, and ultrastructure of lower invertebrates.

Magdi Youssef

Born in: Egypt
Years: 1936-.. (age 88)
Biography: Magdi Youssef is an Egyptian professor of comparative literature and culture studies. He has taught at various universities in Europe and Egypt until his retirement. Al-Ahram (according to the Middle East Institute the equivalent of the New York Times in the Arab World) called Youssef “the renowned culture critic.” He is widely noted in the Arab world for his analytic interventions that focus on cultural alienation and unequal exchange in the sphere of culture. His book Critical Battles received wide attention. Youssef has contributed to the proceedings of comparative literature congresses in Latin America, Asia, Europe and the US., and to such journals as Al-Hilal, the International Journal of Middle East Studies (Cambridge Univ. Press) and Theatre Research International (Oxford Univ. Press). He is also the founding president of the International Association of Intercultural Studies (IAIS) and still actively involved in theoretical debates related to intercultural relations and comparative literature.

Michael Bach

Born in: Germany
Years: 1950-.. (age 74)
Enrolled in Ruhr University Bochum: 1970-1972 graduated with Vordiplom
Occupations: researcher
Biography: Michael Bach is a German scientist who researches ophthalmology, clinical electroencephalography, clinical electroretinography, visual acuity testing, and visual perception. Bach is the creator of website Optical Illusions & Visual Phenomena, which began receiving over two million hits a day in 2005.

Michael Bruse

Born in: Germany
Years: 1969-.. (age 55)
Occupations: geographer
Biography: Michael Bruse is a German geographer and professor for geoinformatics at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. He specializes in research on urban microclimate/climatology with a methodical focus on numerical simulation. Besides his scientific work he developed the micro-climate model ENVI-met. and is founder of the company ENVI-met GmbH. ENVI-met is a holistic three-dimensional non-hydrostatic model for the simulation of surface-plant-air interactions not only limited to, but very often used to simulate urban environments and to assess the effects of green architecture visions.

Claus O. Wilke

Born in: Germany
Years: 1972-.. (age 52)
Occupations: evolutionary biologistuniversity teacherbiologist
Biography: Claus O. Wilke is a computational and evolutionary biologist and chair of the Department of Integrative Biology at University of Texas at Austin, where he is the Dwight W. and Blanche Faye Reeder Centennial Fellow in Systematic and Evolutionary Biology, and currently holds the Joseph J. & Jeanne M. Lagowski Regents Professorship in Molecular Bioscience.

Frank Leymann

Born in: Germany
Years: 1957-.. (age 67)
Occupations: researcher
Biography: Frank Leymann is a German computer scientist and mathematician. He is professor of computer science at the University of Stuttgart, Germany, and director and founder of the Institute of Architecture of Application Systems (IAAS).

Hans Joachim Schliep

Years: 1945-.. (age 79)
Occupations: theologian
Biography: Hans Joachim Schliep is a German Lutheran theologian, pastor and author. From 1990 to 1999 he was director of the Amt für Gemeindedienst (English: Office for Community Service, since 2002 Haus kirchlicher Dienste of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Hanover), and by May 2000 the commissioner for the environment (German: Umweltbeauftragter) of the Church of Hanover and the Confederation of Protestant Churches in Lower Saxony. From 1999 to 2008 Schliep was the first pastor at the Kronsberg Church Centre and founder of the congregation at the Expo-neighbourhood in Kronsberg, Hanover, Lower Saxony, Germany.

Bernhard H. Bayerlein

Born in: Germany
Years: 1949-.. (age 75)
Occupations: historianromanist
Biography: Bernhard H. Bayerlein is a German professor, historian and honorary senior researcher at the Ruhr-University Bochum. His work includes the study of transnational communism, the history of social, political and cultural movements, and of the labour movement, as well as Portuguese and Spanish studies and comparative politics, including semi-presidentialism.

Slowtide

Born in: Germany
Years: 1981-.. (age 43)
Occupations: singer-songwritercomposerrecord producersingermusician
Biography: Kevin Werdelmann, also known by his stage name Slowtide, is a German songwriter and musician.

Katharina Kohse-Höinghaus

Born in: Germany
Years: 1951-.. (age 73)
Occupations: chemistresearcher
Biography: Katharina Kohse-Höinghaus is a German chemist.

Nina Berova

Occupations: chemist
Biography: Nina D. Berova is a Professor of Chemistry at Columbia University. She is recognised as a world leader in stereochemistry and chiroptical spectroscopy. Her contributions include the development of porphyrin tweezers. She was the 2007 winner of the Società Chimica Italiana Chirality Medal.