Welcome Reception for Newly Appointed Faculty at Villa Denis: Networking and Inspiration for Research and Teaching

Group of professors in front of the Villa Denis

On April 15, 2026, RPTU President Malte Drescher welcomed newly appointed professors to Villa Denis. The evening, held in a relaxed atmosphere, provided ample opportunity to get to know one another personally, engage in academic discussions, and network with colleagues and nearly the entire university leadership.

In his welcoming remarks, Malte Drescher shared three pieces of advice with the newly appointed faculty members. He encouraged those present to take advantage of the current, somewhat lower student enrollment to redesign teaching. He also addressed the ongoing restructuring of the departments. This, he noted, offers a unique opportunity to respond to the changing conditions facing universities and to further develop RPTU in a forward-looking manner. With regard to research, he expressed his hope that the newly appointed faculty members would take on responsibility for key collaborative and research projects in the coming years, thereby setting the academic agenda at RPTU.

One of the highlights of the evening was the round of introductions. For this, the newly appointed faculty members had brought objects that symbolize their current research focuses. The topics ranged from school research to the recovery of resources from wastewater and the study of ultrafast processes in materials, all the way to questions of literary ownership and psychological research on lying. Malte Drescher was impressed by the diversity of the presentations, which underscored just how broad and, at the same time, innovative the research spectrum at RPTU is.

A group dinner followed by an informal discussion rounded out the event.

The following individuals attended the reception:

  • Professor Michael Bies, Humanities and Social Sciences
  • Professor Ferdinand Breit, Mechanical and Process Engineering
  • Professor Moses Ganardi, Computer Science
  • Professor Rouven Haschka, Business Studies and Economics
  • Professor Karina Karst, Education
  • Professor Carlo Morandi, Civil Engineering
  • Professor Kristin de Payrebrune, Mechanical and Process Engineering
  • Professor Nina Reinhardt, Psychology
  • Professor Laurenz Rettig, Physics
  • Professor Andreas Schneider, Mechanical and Process Engineering
  • Professor Lina Stein, Natural and Environmental Sciences
Group of professors in front of the Villa Denis