TU Wien Informatics

20 Years

An Insightful Farewell to the Dean’s Team: Report

  • By Claudia Vitt
  • 2019-12-19
  • Faculty

We have sent off the dean and his team, who have shaped our faculty since 2016, with a special event and a keynote by James Larus from EPF Lausanne.

Farewell to the Dean’s Team at TU Wien Informatics.
Farewell to the Dean’s Team at TU Wien Informatics.
Picture: Arnold Mike / TU Wien Informatics

Hannes Werthner and his team have always been keen to create an awareness of Informatics’ all-pervasive nature beyond the confines of academia. It changes every aspect of our lives and influences us more and more as a society and as individuals. Thanks to the commitment of the outgoing dean, awareness within the faculty as well as among the wider public has been raised that we must think of Informatics not just as subject, but also in subject. This event was dedicated to Hannes Werthner and his team.

Informatics. What else?

This could be the motto of TU Wien Informatics’ parting Dean Hannes Werthner. Together with his dean’s team Uwe Egly and Gerti Kappel he actively shaped the Faculty of Informatics from 2016-2019 and was also very keen on reflecting the social and political dimension of Informatics. “We don’t have to be afraid: We are doing research and are dedicated to new knowledge - this is our responsibility at university.” He pleaded for getting in touch with political decision makers, to make them aware of new findings in research and the role of Informatics in society, as it is also expressed in the Vienna Manifesto of Digital Humanism. It stresses not only to put the humans at the centre of technological development, but also focusses on an interdisciplinary approach towards research and the challenges of digitalization.

Gerti Kappel gave a word of farewell during the event and pointed out that they lived through tough times together, fighting deadlines and sometimes contradicting each other in discussions, but always reached at a consensus in their team. Colleagues and friends came to celebrate the parting dean, his team and the outstanding successes they reached. Thank you very much for all you have achieved during your deanship!

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