Welcome to the 2021 Academic Anniversary Celebration!

The Rector, Professor Manfred Bayer, the Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs, Professor Wiebke Möhring, the Vice-Rector for Research, Professor Nele McElvany, and the Chairman of the Society of Friends of TU Dortmund University, Guido Baranowski, will honor the award winners and invite you to discover the exciting contributions of our award winners. 

In the form of slides, you will learn more about the topics that the award winners dealt with in their master's theses and dissertations. Experience the diversity of the research topics that our year's best and our dissertation awardees have worked on and explored.

Let the laudations of this year's teaching award winners put you in a festive mood and learn more about their special commitment.

Enjoy reading, listening and experiencing!

Dear award winners,
dear colleagues,
dear students,
dear friends of the TU Dortmund,

I would have liked to avoid that this greeting reaches you once again away from the Auditorium Maximum. This year, we had long hoped that we would be able to hold the Academic Anniversary Celebration at least in a limited and test-proofed framework, but the high incidences during these weeks speak a different language.

It is fortunate that, after three digital semesters, the winter semester was able to start on campus again in parts - and yet there was nowhere near as much presence as we would have liked and would have liked to have made possible. The rectorate is also aware that digital exchange is no substitute for on-site contact, even if it is safer in individual cases. And a written greeting is no substitute for an award ceremony or a joint toast. For today, I would nevertheless like to welcome you warmly to this virtual space for the Academic Anniversary Celebration: I am delighted you are here, also in honor of our university's awardees, who have achieved outstanding things despite a challenging year.

You know the difficulties of the pandemic situation of the past semesters, so I would like to keep this brief: Despite all the limitations, something made a lasting impression on me again this year, and that was the commitment of all TU members to the benefit of our university operations and the university as a place of exchange.

This is addressed to you, dear students, who have accepted the restricted teaching in large parts with understanding and enriched it with your own ideas.

It is addressed to you, dear colleagues, who have been able to achieve great successes in both teaching and research - to which I also count the master's theses of various excellent young scientists that have now been awarded.

And it is addressed to you, dear employees of the TU Dortmund University administration: Both for the benefit of digital teaching and research as well as with regard to the containment of the virus on campus, you have been tirelessly committed and have made many projects possible in the first place. These include the vaccination campaigns on campus, which complement the free PCR service offered by the Chair of Medical Physics at TU Dortmund University and the establishment and monitoring of the TU-2G check.

It is only thanks to this effort that we got through the year so that we can now be happy about successes; we recorded few COVID cases on campus and were able to facilitate events on site, many research projects were carried out and many collaborations continued. Despite all the disappointment about what could not (yet) happen: With the year that the TU Dortmund University has become older, research and teaching have developed further. We have educated excellent students - some of them are among the award winners presented on the website - and we have gained excellent scientists. Many of my colleagues have once again impressed us with their creative and popular events, as the teaching awards show. I am very pleased that we can honor these achievements, not least thanks to the generous support of the Society of Friends of TU Dortmund University. Many thanks for that!

I cordially invite you, dear readers, to browse through these pages and take a look at the awards of the year and the greetings and laudations for the occasion. They may - for the time being - be a substitute for our Academic Anniversary Celebration, even though I am already looking forward to toasting you, us and TU Dortmund University on campus.

With best regards
Manfred Bayer

Congratulations once again to all 2021 award winners! Cheers to you and enjoy your award.

Thank you to all award recipients, TU family members, and guests for sharing the Academic Anniversary Celebration with us in this way.

All the best to you and we hope that we will finally be able to celebrate the 2022 Academic Anniversary Celebration together again on campus in the Audimax!