68 Notable alumni of
RWTH Aachen University
Updated:
RWTH Aachen University is 709th in the world, 250th in Europe, and 33rd in Germany by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 68 notable alumni from RWTH Aachen University sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff.
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Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie
- Enrolled in RWTH Aachen University
- In 1962 graduated with Doctor of Engineering
- Occupations
- politicianengineer
- Biography
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Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie was an Indonesian politician and engineer who served as the third president of Indonesia from 1998 to 1999. Less than three months after his inauguration as the seventh vice president in March 1998, he succeeded Suharto, who resigned after 32 years in office. Originating from Sulawesi with Gorontalese-Javanese ancestry, his presidency was seen as a landmark and transition to the Reformation era.
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Karl Lauterbach
- Occupations
- university teacherhealth economistinternational forum participantnon-fiction writerepidemiologist
- Biography
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Karl Wilhelm Lauterbach is a German scientist, physician, and politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), who has served as Federal Minister of Health since 8 December 2021. He is professor of health economics and epidemiology at the University of Cologne (on leave since 2005). Since the 2005 German federal election, he has been a member of the Bundestag (the German parliament).
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Necmettin Erbakan
- Occupations
- university teacherpoliticianengineer
- Biography
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Necmettin Erbakan was a Turkish politician, engineer, and academic who was the Prime Minister of Turkey from 1996 to 1997. He was pressured by the military to step down as prime minister and was later banned from politics by the Constitutional Court of Turkey for allegedly violating the separation of religion and state as mandated by the constitution.
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Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim
- Enrolled in RWTH Aachen University
- Studied in 2012
- Occupations
- YouTuberscience journalistchemisttelevision presenterscience communicator
- Biography
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Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim is a German chemist, science communicator, television presenter and YouTuber. In June 2020 she was elected to the senate of the Max Planck Society.
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Jürgen von der Lippe
- Occupations
- television actortelevision presentermusicianscreenwritercomedian
- Biography
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Hans-Jürgen Hubert Dohrenkamp, better known by his stage name Jürgen von der Lippe, is a German television presenter, entertainer, actor and comedian. His stage name comes from the fact that he was born near the source of the river Lippe.
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Eike Batista
- Occupations
- businessperson
- Biography
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Eike Fuhrken Batista da Silva is a Brazilian-German serial entrepreneur who made and lost a multi-billion dollar fortune in mining and oil and gas industries. He engaged in a quest to promote Brazil's infrastructure with large-scale projects, such as the Porto do Açu.
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Hugo Junkers
- Occupations
- university teacheraerospace engineerinventor
- Biography
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Hugo Junkers was a German aircraft engineer and aircraft designer who pioneered the design of all-metal airplanes and flying wings. His company, Junkers Flugzeug- und Motorenwerke AG (Junkers Aircraft and Motor Works), was one of the mainstays of the German aircraft industry in the years between World War I and World War II. His multi-engined, all-metal passenger- and freight planes helped establish airlines in Germany and around the world.
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Inga Humpe
- Occupations
- singerfilm actorcomposer
- Biography
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Inga Humpe is a German singer, songwriter and producer. She performed with Neue Deutsche Welle bands such as Neonbabies, DÖF and Humpe & Humpe. Her sister is the singer and producer Annette Humpe, with whom she performed regularly during her career. The song "Riding into Blue (Cowboy Song)" produced by Trevor Horn became a minor hit in 1990. Later that year she released a solo studio album Planet Oz. She currently is in the band 2raumwohnung and lives in Berlin.
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Harald Krüger
- Enrolled in RWTH Aachen University
- Studied mechanical engineering
- Occupations
- chief executive officermanagerbusinessperson
- Biography
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Harald Krüger is a German manager who served as the chairman of the board of management (CEO) for BMW; he was replaced on 16 August 2019 by Oliver Zipse, after he declined to be considered for contract renewal in 2020.
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Peter Debye
- Enrolled in RWTH Aachen University
- Studied in 1901-1905
- Occupations
- theoretical physicistuniversity teacherchemistscientistphysicist
- Biography
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Peter Joseph William Debye was a Dutch-American physicist and physical chemist, and Nobel laureate in Chemistry.
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Matthias Maurer
- Enrolled in RWTH Aachen University
- Studied in 1999-2004
- Occupations
- materials scientistastronaut
- Biography
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Matthias Josef Maurer is a German ESA astronaut and Materials scientist, who was selected in 2015 to take part in space training.
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Katrin Suder
- Enrolled in RWTH Aachen University
- Graduated with Diplom in physics
- Occupations
- LGBTQI+ rights activistphysicistbusiness consultant
- Biography
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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.
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Wendelin Wiedeking
- Occupations
- business executiveentrepreneurengineer
- Biography
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Wendelin Wiedeking is the former President and Chief Executive Officer of the German car manufacturer, Porsche AG, a post he held from 1993 through July 23, 2009. He was also speaker of the company's executive committee and was a member of the supervisory board of Volkswagen AG from 2006 to 2009.
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Karl Ziegler
- Occupations
- chemistuniversity teacherengineer
- Biography
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Karl Waldemar Ziegler was a German chemist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1963, with Giulio Natta, for work on polymers. The Nobel Committee recognized his "excellent work on organometallic compounds...led to new polymerization reactions and... paved the way for new and highly useful industrial processes". He is also known for his work involving free-radicals, many-membered rings, and organometallic compounds, as well as the development of Ziegler–Natta catalyst. One of many awards Ziegler received was the Werner von Siemens Ring in 1960 jointly with Otto Bayer and Walter Reppe, for expanding the scientific knowledge of and the technical development of new synthetic materials.
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Thomas C. Südhof
- Occupations
- university teacheracademicphysicianbiochemistchemist
- Biography
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Thomas Christian Südhof, ForMemRS, is a German-American biochemist known for his study of synaptic transmission. Currently, he is a professor in the school of medicine in the department of molecular and cellular physiology, and by courtesy in neurology, and in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University.
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Sonia Mikich
- Enrolled in RWTH Aachen University
- 1972-1979 studied political science
- Occupations
- television presenterjournalist
- Biography
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Sonia Seymour Mikich is a German TV journalist.
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Ulla Schmidt
- Occupations
- politicianteacher
- Biography
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Ursula "Ulla" Schmidt is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). From 2001 to 2009 she was Federal Minister of Health in the German Government. Between 2013 and 2017, she served as Vice-President of the German Bundestag.
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Oliver Krischer
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Oliver Krischer is a German politician of the Alliance '90/The Greens who has been serving as State Minister for Environment, Nature Protection, and Transport in the government of Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia Hendrik Wüst since 2022.
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Hans Schlegel
- Enrolled in RWTH Aachen University
- 1972-1979 graduated with Diplom in physics
- Occupations
- physicistastronaut
- Biography
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Hans Wilhelm Schlegel is a German physicist, a former ESA astronaut, and a veteran of two NASA Space Shuttle missions.
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Thomas Rabe
- Occupations
- business executiveinternational forum participant
- Biography
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Thomas Rabe is a German business executive. In 2006, he was appointed to the Bertelsmann executive board, of which he has been chairman and chief executive officer since 2012. Under his leadership, the group has become more international, more digital and more diversified. In particular, he has advanced the business with music rights and the educational division. Additionally, Rabe was appointed chief executive officer of RTL Group in 2019.
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Ena von Baer
- Occupations
- politicianjournalist
- Biography
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Ena Anglein von Baer Jahn is a Chilean journalist, political scientist and former senator.
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Otto Schott
- Occupations
- glassmakerchemistinventor
- Biography
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Friedrich Otto Schott was a German chemist, glass technologist, and the inventor of borosilicate glass. Schott systematically investigated the relationship between the chemical composition of the glass and its properties. In this way, he solved fundamental problems in glass properties, identifying compositions with optical properties that approach the theoretical limit. Schott's findings were a major advance in the optics for microscopy and optical astronomy. His work has been described as "a watershed in the history of glass composition".
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Mario Theissen
- Occupations
- university teacherengineer
- Biography
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Mario Theissen is the former BMW Motorsport Director and was team principal of BMW Sauber, the company's Formula One team from 2005 until 2009, when BMW sold the team back to Peter Sauber.
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Paul Freiherr von Eltz-Rübenach
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Peter Paul Freiherr von Eltz-Rübenach was Reich Postal Minister (Reichspostminister) and Reich Minister of Transport (Reichsminister für Verkehr) of Germany between 1932 and 1937.
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Joybrato Mukherjee
- Occupations
- university teacher
- Biography
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Joybrato Mukherjee is a German professor of English Linguistics and the president of the University of Giessen. When he took office in 2009, he was the youngest university president ever appointed in Germany. In June 2019, he was elected president of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD); he took office on 1 January 2020.
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Friedrich Joussen
- Enrolled in RWTH Aachen University
- Studied engineering
- Occupations
- manager
- Biography
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Friedrich Peter Johannes Joussen is a German businessman, and the executive chairman (Vorstandsvorsitzender) of TUI Group (Touristik Union International).
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Arthur Eichengrün
- Occupations
- chemist
- Biography
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Arthur Eichengrün was a German Jewish chemist, materials scientist, and inventor. He is known for developing the highly successful anti-gonorrhea drug Protargol, the standard treatment for 50 years until the adoption of antibiotics, and for his pioneering contributions in plastics: co-developing (with Theodore Becker) the first soluble cellulose acetate materials in 1903, called "Cellit", and creating processes for the manufacture of these materials which were influential in the development of injection moulding. During World War I his relatively non-flammable synthetic cellulose acetate lacquers, marketed under the name "Cellon", were important in the aircraft industry. He contributed to photochemistry by inventing the first process for the production and development of cellulose acetate film, which he patented with Becker.
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Jesco von Puttkamer
- Occupations
- university teachernon-fiction writerwriteraerospace engineerscience fiction writer
- Biography
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Jesco Hans Heinrich Max Freiherr von Puttkamer was a German-American aerospace engineer, senior manager at NASA, and a pulp science fiction writer.
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Michael Espendiller
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Michael Espendiller is a German politician for the populist Alternative for Germany and since 2017 member of the Bundestag.
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Franz Josef Radermacher
- Occupations
- economistcomputer scientistmathematicianuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Franz Josef Radermacher is a German mathematician and economist. He is Professor of Informatics at Ulm University. He is one of the co-founders of the Global Marshall Plan Initiative that suggests a socio-ecological plan to eradicate poverty, increasing global wealth while protecting natural resources.
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Rolf Buch
- Occupations
- manager
- Biography
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Rolf Eberhard Buch is a German business executive. In 2013, he was appointed CEO of the real estate company Deutsche Annington, which, following the takeover of GAGFAH in the year 2015, was renamed Vonovia. Previously, Buch held an executive position at Arvato.
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Nienke Brinkman
- Enrolled in RWTH Aachen University
- Studied in 2016-2018
- Occupations
- long-distance runnergeophysicistmarathon runnertrail runner
- Biography
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Nienke Brinkman is a Dutch long-distance runner. She won the bronze medal in the marathon at the 2022 European Athletics Championships, which was her first international medal. Brinkman holds the Dutch national record in the event, a record she broke in only her second marathon race.
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Walter Hohmann
- Occupations
- aerospace engineerastronomercivil engineerengineerarchitect
- Biography
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Walter Hohmann was a German engineer who made an important contribution to the understanding of orbital dynamics. In a book published in 1925, Hohmann demonstrated a fuel-efficient path to move a spacecraft between two different orbits, now called a Hohmann transfer orbit. He received his Ph.D. from the RWTH Aachen University in 1920.
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Giuseppe Gabrielli
- Occupations
- aerospace engineerengineer
- Biography
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Giuseppe Gabrielli was an Italian aeronautics engineer. He is famous as the designer of numerous Italian military aircraft, including the Fiat G.50 Freccia and G.55 World War II fighters.
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Mariam Almheiri
- Years
- 1979-.. (age 45)
- Occupations
- politicianengineerinternational forum participant
- Biography
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Mariam bint Mohammed Saeed Hareb Almheiri is an Emirati politician who is currently the head of the Office of International Affairs in the Presidential Court. She previously served as the minister of climate change and environment in the United Arab Emirates until 11 January 2024.
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Jarosław Lasecki
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Jarosław Wacław Lasecki is a Polish politician, entrepreneur and manager. He was a member of the Senate of the Republic of Poland in 2005–2007 and 2011–2015. He is married and has five children.
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Kemal Şahin
- Occupations
- businesspersonentrepreneur
- Biography
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Kemal Şahin is a Turkish–German entrepreneur, a textile tycoon, and founder and CEO of Şahinler Holding. He is also an environmental activist against erosion.
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Rolf Martin Schmitz
- Occupations
- manager
- Biography
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Rolf Martin Schmitz is a German manager and the former chief executive officer (CEO) at the German utilities company RWE AG.
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Heike Walpot
- Occupations
- aircraft pilot
- Biography
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Heike John is a German retired swimmer and former astronaut candidate.
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Ursula Gather
- Occupations
- university teacher
- Biography
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Ursula Gather is a German statistician and academic administrator. From 2008 to 2020, she was rector of TU Dortmund University. Since 2013, Gather has been chairwoman of the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation.
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Rolf Widerøe
- Occupations
- physicist
- Biography
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Rolf Widerøe was a Norwegian accelerator physicist who was the originator of many particle acceleration concepts, including the resonance accelerator and the betatron accelerator.
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Lu Yongxiang
- Occupations
- politicianengineer
- Biography
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Lu Yongxiang is a Chinese mechanical engineer and politician. He served as President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Vice Chairman of the National People's Congress.
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Rudolf Henke
- Enrolled in RWTH Aachen University
- 1972-1979 studied medicine
- Occupations
- internisthematologistpolitician
- Biography
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Rudolf Paul Maria Henke is a physician and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as a member of the German Bundestag from 2009 until 2021.
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Heike Raab
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Heike Raab is a German politician (SPD), currently serving as Deputy Minister of the Interior, for Sports and Infrastructure of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
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Philipp Gruissem
- Occupations
- poker player
- Biography
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Philipp Gruissem is a German professional poker player from Krefeld.
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Herbert Mataré
- Occupations
- university teacherphysicist
- Biography
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Herbert Franz Mataré was a German physicist. The focus of his research was the field of semiconductor research. His best-known work is the first functional European transistor, which he developed and patented together with Heinrich Welker in the vicinity of Paris in 1948, independent from the Bell Labs engineers who had developed the first transistor shortly before. The final 20 years of his life Mataré split time between his homes in Hückelhoven, Germany and Malibu, California. He was born in Aachen.
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Daniela De Ridder
- Occupations
- business consultantpolitician
- Biography
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Daniela De Ridder is a German-Belgian politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has served as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Lower Saxony from 2013 until 2021 and again since May 2022.
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Georg Hamel
- Occupations
- cryptographeruniversity teachermathematician
- Biography
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Georg Karl Wilhelm Hamel was a German mathematician with interests in mechanics, the foundations of mathematics and function theory.
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Gunter Thielen
- Occupations
- manager
- Biography
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Gunter Thielen was chairman and chief executive officer of the Bertelsmann Stiftung.
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Martin C. Wittig
- Years
- 1964-.. (age 60)
- Occupations
- managerbusiness executiveinternational forum participantadvisor
- Biography
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Martin C. Wittig was the German CEO of the management consultant firm Roland Berger Strategy Consultants. He is the successor/antecessor of CEO Burkhard Schwenker. Martin Christof Wittig is married and lives with his wife and his two sons near Zurich (Switzerland).
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Gerald Teschl
- Occupations
- university teacherphysicistmathematician
- Biography
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Gerald Teschl is an Austrian mathematical physicist and professor of mathematics. He works in the area of mathematical physics; in particular direct and inverse spectral theory with application to completely integrable partial differential equations (soliton equations).
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Niklas Höhne
- Occupations
- researcherclimatologist
- Biography
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Niklas Höhne is a German scientist in the field of national and international climate policy and mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions. He is founder of the NewClimate Institute in Cologne, Germany and professor at Wageningen University.
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Wolfgang Klemperer
- Occupations
- aeronautical engineerengineeraerospace engineerglider pilot
- Biography
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Dr. Wolfgang Benjamin Klemperer was born in Dresden, Germany, the son of the Austrian nationals Leon and Charlotte Klemperer. He was in his time a prominent aviation and aerospace scientist and engineer, who ranks among the pioneers of early aviation.
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Aldo R. Boccaccini
- Occupations
- nuclear engineeruniversity teachermaterials scientist
- Biography
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Aldo Roberto Boccaccini is a nuclear engineer and material scientist. He is currently a Professor of Biomaterials and Head of the Institute of Biomaterials at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany.
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Antonia Grunenberg
- Enrolled in RWTH Aachen University
- Graduated with agrégation
- Occupations
- political scientistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Antonia Grunenberg is a German political scientist, totalitarianism researcher and an expert on the political thought of Hannah Arendt. She is professor emerita at the University of Oldenburg, where she taught as a full professor from 1998 until her 2009 retirement, and where she was director of the Hannah Arendt Centre. She is also editor of the book series Hannah Arendt Studies.
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Andreas Wallraff
- Years
- 1971-.. (age 53)
- Occupations
- researcherphysicist
- Biography
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Andreas Wallraff is a German physicist who conducts research in quantum information processing and quantum optics. He has taught as a professor at ETH Zürich in Zürich, Switzerland since 2006. He worked as a research scientist with Robert J. Schoelkopf at Yale University from 2002 to 2005, during which time he performed experiments in which the coherent interaction of a single photon with a single quantum electronic circuit was observed for the first time. His current work at ETH Zürich focuses on hybrid quantum systems combining superconducting electronic circuits with semiconductor quantum dots and individual Rydberg atoms as well as quantum error correction with superconducting qubits.
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Max Alvary
- Enrolled in RWTH Aachen University
- In 1874 studied architecture
- Occupations
- architectopera singer
- Biography
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Max Alvary, born as Maximilian Achenbach, was a German operatic tenor.
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Detlef Zühlke
- Occupations
- university teacherengineer
- Biography
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Detlef Zuehlke is a German engineer and professor.
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Gabriele Nebe
- Occupations
- university teachermathematician
- Biography
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Gabriele Nebe is a German mathematician with contributions in the theory of lattices, modular forms, spherical designs, and error-correcting codes. With Neil Sloane, she maintains the Online Catalogue of Lattices. She is a professor in the department of mathematics at RWTH Aachen University.
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Dörte Gatermann
- Occupations
- architectuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Dörte Gatermann is a German architect who is best known for designing the Triangle Tower in Cologne.
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Eckehard Schöll
- Occupations
- university teacherphysicistmathematician
- Biography
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Eckehard Schöll is a German physicist and mathematician as well as a Professor of theoretical physics at the Technical University of Berlin. He is an expert in the field of nonlinear dynamics and head of the group Nonlinear dynamics and control. His work pertains to research in the fields of mathematics and physics, particularly semiconductor physics, neurodynamics and bifurcation theory. His latest research is also related to topics in biology and the social sciences, e.g. simulation of the dynamics in socioeconomic or neuronal networks. He is one of the forerunners into the research of chimera states.
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Iwona Kozłowska
- Years
- 1970s
- Enrolled in RWTH Aachen University
- Studied in 1996-1999
- Occupations
- civil servantdiplomat
- Biography
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Iwona Kozłowska is a Polish diplomat, serving as an ambassador to Switzerland since 2020.
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Ulrike Sattler
- Occupations
- computer scientistuniversity teacherinformation scientist
- Biography
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Ulrike M. Sattler is a professor of computer science in the information management group of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Manchester and a visiting professor at the University of Oslo.
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Holger Braunschweig
- Enrolled in RWTH Aachen University
- 1988-1990 graduated with doctorate
- Occupations
- chemistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Holger Braunschweig is Head and Chair of Inorganic Chemistry at the Julius-Maximilians-University of Würzburg in Würzburg, Germany. He is best known for founding the field of transition metal-boron multiple bonding, the synthesis of the first stable compounds containing boron-boron and boron-oxygen triple bonds, the isolation of the first non-carbon/nitrogen main-group dicarbonyl, and the first fixation of dinitrogen at an element of the p-block of the periodic table. By modifying a strategy pioneered by Prof. Gregory Robinson of the University of Georgia, Braunschweig also discovered the first rational and high-yield synthesis of neutral compounds containing boron-boron double bonds (diborenes). In 2016 Braunschweig isolated the first compounds of beryllium in the oxidation state of zero.
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Wolfgang Eisenmenger
- Occupations
- university teacherphysicist
- Biography
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Wolfgang Eisenmenger was a German physicist.
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Maria Schwarz
- Occupations
- architectuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Maria Schwarz was a German architect and professor best known for her church architecture.
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Fang Weigui
- Occupations
- literary scholaruniversity teachertranslator
- Biography
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Fang Weigui is a Chinese comparative literature scholar, sinologist, and literary translator.
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Harald Pedersen
- Occupations
- entrepreneurpoliticianprofessorchemical engineermetallurgist
- Biography
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Harald Christian Pedersen was a Norwegian metallurgist.
