World Wide Alumni neWs Announcements

In early March, I was invited to participate in the Leuphana Sustainability Summit 2012 which was held in Lüneburg. Therefore, I took the opportunity to do a brief visit to Dortmund and exchange two impressions. Firstly, I was motivated to share my personal experience over the last three years as a regional planning practitioner. Secondly, I have presented a proposal for a 2013 Conference where six former SPRING students are aiming to discuss a relevant urban planning topic. Since January 2009, I have been working as a regional planner in the Regional and Land Use Planning Department of the government planning institution of Guatemala. As a member of an enthusiastic, young and inter-disciplinary team the working experience gave us the opportunity of proposing innovative ways for addressing regional planning. Perhaps the most important achievements were on the one hand the technical and political coordination among govern-ment institutions, private sector and local civil soci-ety representatives, and on the other hand the em-phasis that was settled on the territorial dynamics and its relation with local development indicators. However, the biggest challenge that these plans are facing nowadays is the efficient link between strategic multi-institutional plans and individual in-stitutional budget. As a former SPRING student, and being aware that my personal contribution is only part of a wider professional team contribution, I am very happy of having the opportunity to propose new ways of addressing human development challenges.

On February 14th the Federal Foreign Minister Dr.

Guido Westerwelle inaugurated the German House of Science and Innovation (DWIH) in Sao Paulo. The University Alliance Metropolis Ruhr (UAMR) will also have an office there. Westerwelle emphasized the importance of Brazil as a location for science and technology because the Sao Paulo region has the most German research companies outside of Ger-many. Westerwelle refers to the DWIH in Sao Paulo as the foundation for further German-Brazilian co-operations and in this regard particularly acclaimed the special program Ciencias sem Fronterias (CsF, science without frontiers) launched by the Brazilian government. This program enables 10,000 Brazilian students and scientists to come to Germany within the next three years. In connection with the Csf, the universities of the University Alliance Metropolis Ruhr (UAMR) currently offer the most scholar-ships in all of Germany. Besides the focus Brazil, the universities of the Ruhr Metropolis are actively engaged in other countries of Latin America, among them Chile, Argentina, Columbia, Ecuador and Peru. DAAD president Prof. Margret Wintermantel, who came to Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro together with the delegation of the German Foreign Mini-ster, praised the engagement of the UAMR in Latin America as exemplary. The UAMR office in Sao Paulo is the branch of the UAMR liaison office ConRuhr Latin America in Rio de Janeiro. This liaison office is organizationally attached to the DAAD. Coordinators of ConRuhr Latin America are the scientists Prof. Christoph Käppler (director) and Dr. Stephan Hollen-steiner (office management).

sPrinG Alumni Julio estrAdA tu With neW AGency in BrAzil: visits dortmund uAmr office oPens in sAo PAulo

2012 ruhr felloWshiPs: heidi in GermAny

Growing up in Las Vegas, Heidi’s father always told her about the superb quality of German technolo-gy and engineering skills. Maybe it was exactly this love for German engineering which inspired him to give his daughter such a traditional German name. Heidi Lim is a sophomore in Environmental Engi-neering and Environmental Public Policy at Harvard University in Boston. She has never been outside of the United States, which makes her stay in the Ruhr Area as a Ruhr Fellow even more unique. Heidi is one of ten students from top universities in the USA who received the opportunity to get to know Germany and especially the Ruhr Area in a new program sponsored by the Initiativkreis Ruhr called the Ruhr Fellowship. The participants were chosen among 40 applicants from Harvard University, Princeton University, the MIT and the University of Pennsylvania. The partici-pants of this program attend an academic-cultural summer school in June and then apply their freshly learned German in a one-month internship in July in one of the member companies of the Initiativkreis Ruhr. The academic program has been arranged this year by TU Dortmund University and includes a Ger-man language and culture course, a lecture series, excursions to area companies and visits to seve-ral engineering faculties at TU Dortmund University as well as visits to the Universities of Bochum and Duisburg-Essen. Some of the highlights have been the visit to the working coal mine Auguste Victoria in Marl, guided company tours at ThyssenKrupp and Evonik, as well as a guided tour of the SIGNAL IDUNA Park, home of the 2012 German national soccer champions, BVB. The program is rounded off by dis-

cussions with leading German managers/CEOs, who give the participants an inside view into the different Ruhr Area companies. Heidi will be working with the Ruhrverband in Essen, her fellow participants are working at Vaillant (Remscheid), Evonik (Marl), Thys-senKrupp (Essen), Deutsche Bank (Essen), SMS Sie-mag (Düsseldorf) and Klöckner & Co. SE (Duisburg). Heidi’s impressions and thoughts are reflected in her blog which is available on the International Office’s website (http://www.aaa.tu-dortmund.de). From the joy of eating to the extreme heat one kilometer under the earth’s surface, Heidi is taking the reader along on her “wild ride” as a Ruhr Fellow (see page 2). Her weekly blogs will be posted throughout the summer. The Ruhr Fellowship is set to be extended for another two years, so check back again in the fall for the new call for applications.

Welcome message // Best of heidi‘s ruhr fellow Blog

federal President visits tu dortmund university // events on campus

visitors from Poland and virginia // five years of uAmr!

sPrinG Alumni visits dortmund // uAmr office opens in sao Paulo

2012 ruhr fellowships: heidi in Germany

InternatIonal alumnI newsletter

A summer tu rememBer

international alumni newsletter 07/2012international alumni newsletter 07/2012 5 6

imPrint neWsletterPublished by tu dortmund universityinternational office, emil-figge-str. 61 44227 dortmund | Germany

edited by Anna-Julia toll+49(0)231-7556351annajulia.toll@tu-dortmund.de www.aaa.tu-dortmund.de

facebook -> tu dortmund Alumni international

translations by tammy Kirchner

Photos: Jürgen huhn, Anne Weber, heidi lim

layout: it & medien centrum

thanks to dAAd for supporting this publication

June 2012

march 2012 february 2012

technische universitätdortmund

Alumni international

Welcome back!

On and around campus

Conferences

World Wide News

Announcements

World Wide News Announcements

on And Around cAmPusWelcome BAcK! conferences, cooPerAtions And co.

For the 28th year, Hochschulsport TU and the FH Dortmund held the Campus Run for associates and friends of both universities this May. 1300 runners stayed on campus despite humidity and rain and completed one of the four events. The Math Tower Run was the first event of the evening, but the most popular events this year were the 5K and the 10K runs. A longstanding tradition of the CampusLauf is the costume prize. This year, the group of runners from Biological and Chemical Engineering won with their performance in Mario and Co. costumes. A storm front delayed the start of the race, yet many fans stayed on campus to cheer on the 2,5K run as well as the other races.

The 2nd summer festival (Sommerfest) was cele-brated at the university this June. The sun and the activities made the event a real success this year. Hundreds of students came with their friends and families to enjoy the sun and the activities around the Mensa and the Martin-Schmeißer-Platz. The choir “a chorus time” and six other bands, each playing a different style of music, performed for the visitors. International students organized a culinary trip around the world, and no wish for food was left ungranted. In addition to food from Syria, China, Mongolia and many other countries, one faculty even sold vegan food. At the end of the day, the Sonnen-deck arranged a public viewing of the semi-final game between Italy and Germany. And though Ger-many lost, the party went on long after the football-game was over.

The summer couldn’t have started any better this year. BVB Dortmund won two titles: The German soc-cer championship as well as the “DFB Cup”. This great success turned the whole city into a black-and-yellow party zone for weeks. But this was not this summer’s only highlight. TU Dortmund University had the honor of welcoming Federal President Joachim Gauck who attended the annual general assembly of the German Research Association in the Audimax (page 3). The university was also happy to receive many internatio-nal guests in the past few months: Delegations from all over the world, including Poland, Thailand and the USA visited Dortmund. In addition, exchange students with the International Summer Program (ISP) started their personal Dortmund experience in June. Stu-dents from countries like the United States, Mexico, Brazil and Japan enjoyed two months filled with aca-demic courses, excursions and cultural experiences. More-over, the “Ruhr Fellowship” program kicked off in June. Ten students from American Ivy League schools have been given the opportunity to familiarize themselves with industry and higher education in the Ruhr Area. On campus, a number of exciting events spiced up the daily business. The second “Sommer-fest” took place at the end of June and featured acti-vities, music, performances and food for every liking. Another more sporty event was the annual “Campus Run” at which runners from all over the region com-peted in 2.5, 5 and 10 K runs. A lot of things were and are going on at TU Dortmund University. Let us know what’s going on in your part of the world and share your stories. Have a great summer!

Two exchange projects started in 2010 brought international students to the TU Dortmund University campus this spring. A group of senior students came from Poland and a group of students and professors from Virginia enlivened the campus for more than a week together. The bilateral senior student exchange between the University of the Third Age in Poznan and TU Dortmund University puts focus on cooperation and shared experiences between the students and their instructors. The exchange is made possible by the Stiftung für deutsch-polnische Zusammenarbeit (Foundation for German-Polish Cooperation) and sent Dortmund students to Poznan in September 2011. The Polish students visited TU Dortmund University from May 21-25. As a part of the visit, the students went to a lecture on care and gainful employment and visited sites in Dortmund, Hattingen, and Cologne.

The exchange with Virginia brings an interdiscipli-nary group of students to Germany for two weeks every year. The focus of the SW Virginia International Business Study in Germany exchange is exposing the Virginian students to Germany’s culture and business environment. The students take classes with TU Dortmund University students in the first week, offering both groups a chance to compare experiences and learn from one another. In addition to classes, the 23 students and professors visited museums including the DASA and the Zeche Zollern. In the second week, the students traveled to Stutt-gart and then Strasbourg to see the home of the European Parliament.

On July 4th, 2012, Federal President Joachim Gauck and Federal Minister of Education Annette Schavan visited TU Dortmund University to attend the festivities for Prof. Matthias Kleiner, the current president of the DFG (German Research Associati-on). It was the Federal President’s very first visit to a German university since his election this March. This visit filled the Audimax with politicians, professors, and other researchers from the area.

Before the ceremonial act, the annual assembly of the DFG elected a new president, Prof. Strohschnei-der of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, who will succeed Prof. Kleiner starting in January 2013. After a welcome address by Prof. Kleiner and TU Dortmund University’s Rector Prof. Gather, Federal President Joachim Gauck gave an official speech in which he underlined the importance of a lively dis-cussion and exchange between society, researchers, and politicians.

The festivities continued with a reception in the mensa. Guests there heard a speech by the Federal Minister of Education Annete Schavan. Music then rounded out the evening with performances by the Dortmund Wind Ensemble (Dortmunder Bläseren-semble), Maria Gnann and Christina M. Stahl (recor-der), Ricarda Reinsch (cello), and Philipp Quirin (harp-sichord) as well as the TU Dortmund University’s Chamber Choir. The music and the reception after the event were enjoyable and many people went home thinking about Gauck’s suggestion that researchers should speak out more in politics.

Heidi Lim, a Ruhr Fellow from Havard, has set up a blog to share her experiences in the Ruhr Area during her 2 month stay. Read more to learn about her „best of“ from weeks 1 to 3 (see page 6).

Week 1: “On the train ride to Dortmund, I got a taste of what was to come: this was not the Germany I expected. The weekdays included our very first lessons in German, a couple of lectures, and a tour of Thyssen Krupp, ma-jor producer of iron and steel (not just elevators). It was really an incredible engineering feat happening right before our eyes, and was only the first of rarities we would encounter.“

Week 2: “Tuesday brought one of the most anticipated events of the entire Fellowship: the trip to Bergwerk Augu-ste Victoria and RAG Marl, one of Germany‘s last remai-ning active coal mines. Usually, the 2,000 people allowed to tour the mines each year are company executives, so it was a complete honor to go on the tour, let alone get so close to the actual operations. (...) When we were back on top of land, we were covered in black coal dust and dirt, yet, our hosts insisted we eat dinner first. If we were dressed like miners, we were going to eat like them, too.“

Week 3: “When I think of Germany, I think of the color green. Nearly everywhere the grass grows thick and the trees are abundant. I also think of Germany as not just literally green, but also good at being „green.“ I knew Europe was forward-thinking when it came to being environmentally-friendly, but it‘s another thing to actual-ly be here and see it firsthand. Besides the smaller cars, the wind turbines, and the charge for plastic bags at the grocery store, there are a couple more things that make Germany greener than The States...”

The Universitätsallianz Metropole Ruhr, or UAMR (University Alliance of the Ruhr Metropolis), turned five on March 12, 2012. There was great reason to celebrate the signing of the cooperation agreement in 2007 and the cooperation between the Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, and the University of Duisburg- Essen. The celebration took place on May 30, 2012. Through the grouping of their strengths, these three Ruhr Area universities are contributing to a great atmosphere for research of the highest quality and a new era for the German research landscape. Rivalries have a long tradition in the Ruhr Area, not only when it comes to football. The philosophy of UAMR proves that there is ano-ther option:a balance of competition and coope-ration. Although the universities are still separate entities, they initiate cooperative projects whenever it makes sense. These joint projects provide stu-dents with previously unimaginable opportunities. Such a strong alliance between universities cannot be found anywhere else in all of Europe. More than 1100 professors and almost 7000 researchers at the three universities are already taking advantages of the synergy. Funding for the cooperation comes from the Mercator Foundation, which also opened the Mercator Research Center Ruhr (MERCUR) toge-ther with the three universities. UAMR also coope-rates with universities around the world by means of their liasion offices called ConRuhr. The 2012 Funding Atlas from the German Research Founda-tion (DFG) shows the Ruhr Area as the sixth highest ranking research region in Germany.

in Brief: events on cAmPus By lArissA PluschKe

Dear international alumni anD frienDs, visitors from PolAnd And virGinA five yeArs of uAmr!federAl President visits tu BloG sPot: Best of heidi‘s ruhr felloW BloG

international alumni newsletter 07/2012 2 3 4international alumni newsletter 07/2012 international alumni newsletter 07/2012

June 2012

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Welcome back! On and around campus Conferences