RosAlInt ― Rostock Alumni International
Internationale Alumni Workshops

Dr. Leonie Schoelen started work as a consultant for GIZ German International Cooperation, with her first assignment in India, in the field of renewable energy, before continuing in a rural electrification programme in Benin after her Bachelor’s and Master’s qualifications in Politics and Society, International Relations and Peace and Conflict Studies at the Universities of Bonn/Germany, NUI Maynooth/Ireland and St Andrews/Scotland. She also supported the establishment of the Pan-African University Institute of Water and Energy Sciences (including Climate Change) (PAUWES) in Algeria in the capacity of Student and Academic Affairs from 2014 to 2016, and the PAU Rectorate in Cameroon in terms of strategic planning, monitoring and reporting, quality assurance, and financial sustainability in 2020. At present, she supports the processes of teaching and learning quality as a GFA Consulting Group team member.

Schoelen is also a member of numerous international academic societies in higher education studies and research, among them the African Network for Internationalisation in Education (ANIE) and the Comparative International Education Society (CIES). Since the beginning of 2021, she has been PostDoc fellow researching higher education internationalisation policies and practices at the Strategic Initiatives and Partnerships Office, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town, South Africa, and continues to work as a freelance instructor and lecturer for the German Federal Academy of International Cooperation (AIZ, part of GIZ).

Prof. Marek Lommatzsch studied Human Medicine at the FU Berlin and the University of Freiburg from 1994 to 2001. He completed his Medical Thesis on the role of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in internal organs and in allergic inflammatory processes of the lung at Charité in Berlin in 2000 with summa cum laude. From 2003 onwards, he has been working as a doctor in the Department of Pneumology of the Universitätsmedizin Rostock. Since 2007 he also has been working as the Internal Medicine Specialist. One year later, he received his postdoctoral qualification (habilitation). In 2011, he was honoured with the research award for “allergen-specific immunotherapy” of the “Deutsche Gesellschaft für Allergologie und klinische Immunologie (DGAKI)”. Lommatzsch has been a Subspecialist in Allergology since 2012 and was appointed Associate Professor of the Universitätsmedizin Rostock in 2013. He became the President of “Deutscher Lungentag” (German Society for Lung Health) in 2016 and is a member of “Deutsche Gesellschaft für Pneumologie und Beratungsmedizin (DGP)” and the “European Respiratory Society (ERS)”.

Prof. Inna Sokolova has been studying the adaptations of marine organisms to environmental stressors and the effects of environmental change (both natural and anthropogenic) on marine populations. She has been Professor and Chair of Marine Biology at the Institute for Biological Sciences at the University of Rostock since 2016. Sokolova studied Biology and Parasitology at St. Petersburg (Leningrad) State University, Russia, and received her PhD in Zoology from the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1997. From 1999 to 2001, she was an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven. She was Professor at the Department of Marine Biology of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA, from 2011 to 2016. Prior to that, she was already working as Assistant and Associate Professor at the Department of Biology of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA, since 2002.

Dr. Ludmila Lutz-Auras studied Political Sciences, Slavonic Studies, and Modern European History at Rostock University and Lomonosov University in Moscow from 2002 to 2007. Subsequently, she worked as a Research Assistant and produced her PhD on the Collective Memory of the Great Patriotic War in the Russian Federation, which she completed in 2012, and was awarded the Joahim Jungius Prize. Since 2007, Lutz-Auras has also been the Editorial Director of the Academic Yearbook of Rostock University. In 2018, she was appointed Ambassador of Heat (VNG AG “Verbundnetz der Wärme” integrated network of heat). She is a member of several associations, among them the German Society for Eastern European Studies, the German-Russian Partnership e.V. (deputy chair) as well as the ALUMNI Association of Political Sciences Rostock.

Prof. Nikolai Kornev worked, prior to that, as a Research Associate in the Department of Technical Thermodynamics at Rostock University. From 2000 to 2002, he was the Head of Department and Professor at the University of Maritime Engineering, St. Petersburg, Russia. He studied at the University of Marine engineering, St. Petersburg, Russia, from 1977 to 1984, and obtained his PhD in 1988. Subsequently, he worked as a Research Assistant and Lecturer at the University of Maritime Engineering St. Petersburg, Russia, from 1988 to 1998, including a research period at the Korea Research Institute of Ship and Ocean Engineering in 1995. He completed his postdoctoral qualification (habilitation) in 1998. In addition, Kornev has been Visiting Professor for the Innovatec Programme of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) since 2002.

Dr. Miguel Angel Latouche was Professor and Member of the Academic Committee at Universidad Central de Venezuela for the Graduate Programme in International Relations (Subjects: Negotiation and Decision-Making Theory) from 2005 to 2015. He received his PhD on Public Dilemma and Cooperative Solution from Universidad Central de Venezuela in 2009, and was also a Fulbright Scholar from 2007 to 2009. From 2008 to 2017, he acted as Director for the Social Communication School at Universidad Central de Venezuela. He obtained his postdoctoral research diploma in the field of co-operative solutions to N-game dilemmas at the Centre for Postdoctoral Research (CIPOST) at Universidad Central de Venezuela in 2013. Latouche is currently Invited Professor under the Phillipp Schwarz Initiative of the Humboldt Foundation at the Institute of Politics of Rostock University.

Siddarth Marwaha also worked as Research Assistant at the Institute for Communications Engineering and the Institute for Applied Microelectronics & Data Technology at Rostock University in 2018. He also acted as the representative of the International Department where he coordinated with different departments and organised events and activities to promote diversity. Currently, he is working as a Research Associate at the Technical University Braunschweig and has been pursuing a PhD in Electrical Engineering since April 2021. This is concerned with machine learning based optimisation of energy-efficient wireless networks. In general, Marwaha is interested in a combination of communication engineering and artifical intelligence, and is open to opportunities that aid in increasing his knowledge in these two fields.

Dr. Dmitrijs Dmitrenko joined it in 2015 as a Doctoral Researcher and an Associate Tutor, working on Olfactory Interaction in an Automotive Context. He was promoted to the position of Teaching Fellow in 2018 and to the position of Lecturer in 2021. Dmitrenko received his MSc in Visual Computing from the University of Rostock, Germany in 2010 and his BEng in Computer Science from Riga Technical University, Latvia, in 2007. He started his professional career with an internship on Augmented Reality at Carl Zeiss Industrial Metrology in Germany in 2011. Before coming to Sussex, he was employed in the German automotive industry with his core duties lying in the field of Software Development for VW and Audi. Dmitrenko has been teaching such modules as Human-Computer Interaction, Interactive 3D Programming, Informatics Project Management, Global Design Challenge, Skills for Creative Practice, Professional Skills, and Technology-Enhanced Learning Environments. His research interests are In-Car User Interfaces, Olfaction, and Human-Computer Interaction. In 2021, he received a Sussex Education Award in the Extra Mile category.

Prof. Alemayehu Gebissa holds a diploma in Agriculture and received his MSc in Amelioration from the University of Rostock in 1992. He completed his PhD in Geotechnics at Rostock University in 1997 and then was a Visiting Scholar in Geotechnics at Georgia University, USA. From 2003 to 2006, he was the Head of Department for Environmental Geotechnics and Landscape, Construction and the Institute for Environmental Engineering at the Faculty of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at Rostock University. He is also a member of numerous commissions, associations, and societies, among them, the German Society for Geotechnik e.V. (DGGT) and the Research Association for Road and Traffic (FGSC). This year, he became a reviewer for “The Ethiopian Journal of Science and Technology (EJST)” and the “International Journal of Environmenal Research and Public Health (IJERPH)” and since 2012, a reviewer for the “Journal of Horizon Research Publishing USA”.

Prof. Udo Kragl graduated from the University of Bonn in 1989 and completed his doctorate (Dr. rer. nat.) in 1992, also in Bonn. He worked as Post-Doc with the Ciba-Geigy International Research Laboratories in Takarazuka (Japan) in 1992 and completed his habilitation in Technical Chemistry at Bonn University in 1998. This year, he became the Chair of Technical Chemistry at Rostock University and, since 2003, has been the Head of Division at the Leibniz Institute for Catalysis. From 2007 to 2015, he was also Dean of the Interdisciplinary Faculty of Rostock University.

Prof. Jaeyoung Lee studied Chemical Engineering at Inha University Incheon, South Korea, from 1992 to 1998, and obtained his doctoral degree under Prof. Dr. Gerhard Ertl at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft in Berlin and the FU Berlin, Germany, in 2001. He was a Senior Scientist at the Research Institute of Industrial Science and Technology, Pohang, South Korea, and at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology in Seoul, from 2002 to 2007. From 2007 onwards, he has been Dean/Full Professor at the GIST, South Korea. His current research interests include fuel cells, water electrolysis, Li-S battery and how to create hydrogen from CO2 and ammonia. He is also a member of various different societies and institutes, among them, the Korean Institute for Chemical Engineers in Seoul, the Korean Society of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry in Seoul and the Electrochemical Society: Pennington in New Jersey, USA.

Prof. Wolfgang Schareck, a vascular surgeon, studied in Freiburg, has been a surgical consultant since 1987, and qualified as a University Lecturer in Tübingen in 1992. He joined the Medical Faculty at Rostock University in 1994. Since then, he has presided over the General, Thorax, Vascular and Transplantation Surgery Department. He has held the Chair for Vascular and Transplantation Surgery and, since 2003, has managed the Vascular Surgery Department at the University Hospital. His research focuses on transplant medicine, such as pancreas and liver transplants. To date, Prof. Schareck has sat on several different committees at Rostock University. In 2006, he was elected to the University Senate, and from 2004 to 2008, was a member and subsequent President of the Council. He was the Academic Dean and a member of the Medical Faculty Council. In 2008, he was elected as Prorector for Studies and Teaching, before being elected as Rector in 2009.

Dr. Pierre Gottschlich has also been Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Sciences at the Chair of International Politics at Rostock University since 2004. He was a visiting scholar at the School of Culture and Society and the Contemporary India Study Centre Aarhus (CISCA) of Aarhus University on three occasions – in 2012, 2015 and 2019. He studied Political Sciences, Literature and Culture of North America and Sports Sciences which concluded with his MA on “Interest Groups as Actors in the Political System of the United States of America from 1998 to 2003”. Gottschlich was also a visiting student at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, USA. In 2010, he completed his dissertation (PhD) on “The Indian Diaspora in the United States of America”. He is a member of the European Association for South Asian Studies (EASAS) and the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES), and sits on the Editorial Boards of the journals “Man in India: A Quarterly Journal of Anthropology” and “International Journal of Sociology of Culture”. Gottschlich is also a founding member of the ALUMNI Association of Political Sciences Rostock. Since 2014, he has been the Alumni representative of the Institute for Political Sciences, and since 2020, a board member of the ALUMNI Association of Political Sciences Rostock.

Liane Constantine previously worked for the International Liaison department of UMSL from 2016 to 2019, where she provided academic administrative consultancy services, focusing on coordination and management of UMSL’s cooperative activities with the Gulf University for Science and Technology (GUST) in Kuwait, and the Modern College of Business and Science (MCBS) in Oman. Also, she provided assistance with UMSL’s academic affiliation agreements and international partnerships. From 2019 to 2020, Constantine was the Assistant Director International Partnerships and Global Engagement at the UMSL Global Office. In addition, she has been the Managing Director of Encision Consultings for six years, the Owner and Business Consultant at lg-solutions, for four years, and, prior to that, she the Deputy Secretary General to ADeKo (Alumni Network Germany – Korea) for four years. She started her career working with the DAAD in Gwangju and Seoul, South Korea. Constantine holds a teaching degree in German as a Second Language and MA degree in Linguistics & Literature from Rostock University.

Michael Paulus studied German Studies, History, and Philosophy at the University of Bielefeld, and the FU Berlin and relocated to the USA in the early 90s where he studied at New York University before later teaching the Culture Programme at the Deutsches Haus at NYU, alongside his work as a journalist and translator. In 2002, he moved to Hong Kong and, five years later, to Seoul, South Korea, where he directed the respective DAAD offices, and taught at the Hong Kong Baptist University and Yonsei University, Seoul, covering the fields of European and German Studies.

Prof. Meike Klettke was the Deputy Chair of the University’s Academic Senate between 2016 and 2018. She is responsible for student mentoring within the Faculty for Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, for the Bachelor in Computer Science, the Bachelor in Business Informatics, the Computer Science teaching diploma and the vocational education for Information Technology. Her research focuses on databases and information networks. In 2020, she became an associated member of the European EU Conexus University, “The European University for Smart Urban Coastal Sustainability” with the lead partner La Rochelle Université. A full membership is pursued. She graduated and was qualified as a Professor at the University of Rostock.

Dr. Dirk Hollmann was also a visiting student at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland, from 2002 to 2003. In 2009, he completed his PhD within the working group of Prof. Matthias Beller at the Leibniz Institute for Catalysis. Subsequently, he was a Postdoc in the working group of Prof. Karl Anker Jørgensen at the Centre for Catalysis at Aarhus University, Denmark, and Research Associate for “In situ spectroscopy/ water splitting/ photocatalysis” in the working group of Prof. Angelika Brückner at the Leibniz Institute for Catalysis. Since 2016, Hollmann has been the Project Coordinator of RoHan DAAD SDG Graduate School “Catalysis as key towards Sustainable Resource Management” and Junior Research Group Leader “Sustainable Chemistry” within the research group of Prof. Kragl at Rostock University. From 2019 onwards, he has also been the Project Coordinator of “Research-based Curricula Development of Molecular and Materials Science (MoMa Vietnam)”.

Dr. Heidi Wedel has more than 19 years of experience in international science management. In 2002, she joined the DAAD, where she headed various sections, including the section “Middle East and North Africa” and later “Civil Society and Cultural Dialogue” where she was in charge of scholarships as well as of programmes such as “Higher Education Dialogue with Islamic Countries” and “Public Policy and Good Governance”. In 2011, she temporarily left the DAAD to serve as the founding Managing Director of the Global Young Academy. In September 2016, she returned and, since then, has headed the alumni section, designed a new alumni concept, managed alumni programmes and coordinated the alumni work of the DAAD. In her academic studies Wedel had a regional focus on the Middle East and North Africa, especially Turkey. After her Master’s degree in Turkish Studies, Islamic Studies and Economics from Hamburg University, she attended the postgraduate training programme for Development Cooperation at the German Development Institute (DIE-GDI) and worked as a researcher at the Centre for Turkish Stud-ies in Bonn. As an Assistant Professor of Political Sciences at FU Berlin from 1991 to 1996 she taught classes on gender in the politics of the Middle East and specially Turkey, and conducted field research for her doctoral dissertation on “Gender and Local Political Participation – Urban Migrants in Turkish Metropolises.

Dr. Thomas Lindemann completed his PhD on “Idealised Structural Unit Method for Collapse Analyses of Plate Structures under Inplane and Lateral Loads” in 2015 which he was awarded by the Georg Weinblum Foundation one year later. Since 2009, he has been working as a Research Engineer at the Chair of Ship Structures at Rostock University. He is also responsible for subject-specific courses regarding structural analyses of maritime structures in the context of the national and international Master's Degree in Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering. Since 2016, Lindemann has also been a member of the technical committee “Konstruktion und Festigkeit” of the “Schiffbautechnische Gesellschaft (STG) e.V.”.