Welcome to the University Council of the University of Bonn

Dr. Georg Schütte (Chair)

Dr. Georg Schütte has been a member of the University Council since 2023. From 2009 to 2019, he was State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. He has been Secretary General of the Volkswagen Foundation since 2020 and was appointed to its Board of Directors in March 2025.

Dr. Katrin Vernau (Vice Chair)

Dr. Katrin Vernau has been Deputy Chair of the University Council since 2013. She was Chancellor of the University of Ulm (2002 to 2005) and the University of Hamburg (2006 to 2012). From 2015 to 2024, she was Administrative Director of Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln (WDR) and has been Director General of WDR since 2025.

Prof. Dorothee Dzwonnek

Honorary Professor Dorothee Dzwonnek has been a member of the University Council since 2013. She was Secretary General of the German Research Foundation (DFG) from 2007 to 2018 and holds an honorary professorship at the German University of Administrative Sciences in Speyer since 2017.

Dr. Hubertus Hille

Dr. Hubertus Hille has been a member of the University Council since 2025. He was responsible for fundamental issues of economic policy and bureaucracy reduction at the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce in Berlin (2006 to 2008) and from 2008 to 2012 he was Managing Director for Economic Policy and Metropolitan Development at the Frankfurt am Main Chamber of Industry and Commerce. He has been Managing Director of the Bonn/Rhine-Sieg Chamber of Industry and Commerce since 2012.

Dr. Nora Kalbarczyk

Dr. Nora Kalbarczyk has been a member of the University Council since 2025. From 2017 to 2021 she was Head of the Middle East Department and from 2019 Deputy Secretary General at the Catholic Academic Exchange Service (KAAD). She has been Secretary General of KAAD since March 2021.

Dr. Claudia Lücking-Michel

Dr. Claudia Lücking-Michel has been a member of the University Council since 2018. She was a member of the German Bundestag from 2013 to 2017 and has been the managing director of AGIAMONDO, the personnel service of German Catholics for international cooperation, since 2018.

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Hermann Parzinger

Professor Dr. Hermann Parzinger has been a member of the University Council since 2025. He was President of the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin from 2003 to 2008 and was President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation in Berlin from 2008 to 2025. Since 1996, he has held an honorary professorship at the Institute for Prehistoric Archaeology at Freie Universität Berlin.

Isabel Pfeiffer-Poensgen

Isabel Pfeiffer-Poensgen has been a member of the University Council since 2023. She was Minister for Culture and Science in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia from 2017 to 2022. She is Chairwoman of the Board of Trustees of the Peter and Irene Ludwig Foundation.

Ilona Schmiel

Ilona Schmiel has been a member of the University Council since 2013. She was artistic director and managing director of the Beethovenfest Bonn from 2004 to 2014 and has been artistic director of the Tonhalle Society Zurich since 2014. She teaches as a guest lecturer at the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin since 1996.

Prof. Dr. Britta Klagge (Second Vice Chair)

Professor Dr. Britta Klagge has been a member of the University Council since 2023. She has been Professor of Geography at the Department of Geography at the University of Bonn since 2012.

Prof. Dr. Stefan Müller

Professor Dr. Stefan Müller has been a member of the University Council since 2019. He is the founding director of the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, established in Leipzig in 1996. Since 2008, Prof. Müller holds a chair at the Hausdorff Center for Mathematics at the University of Bonn and is speaker of the Collaborative Research Center "The Mathematics of Emergent Effects".

Prof. Dr. Karoline Noack

Professor Dr. Karoline Noack has been a member of the University Council since 2023. She has been Professor of Ancient American Studies and Ethnology since 2009 and spokesperson for the Transdisciplinary Research Area Present Pasts since 2019.

Prof. Dr. med. Markus Nöthen

Professor Dr. Markus Nöthen has been a member of the University Council since 2023. He is Director of the Institute of Human Genetics at Bonn University Hospital and Managing Director of LIFE & BRAIN GmbH. He is also a member of the steering committee of the transdisciplinary research area Life and Health.