Role reversal in the FB5 deanery
With the start of the winter semester 2021/22, the leadership of the Department of Earth Sciences rotated from Dean Prof. Wolfgang Bach and Dean of Studies Prof. Dr. Cornelia Spiegel-Behnke to the newely elected team of Dean Prof. Simone Kasemann and Dean of Studies Prof. Heiko Pälike. This is a good time to recognize their activities, which are very significant for all of us:
The two previous and now deputy incumbents look back on two unexpectedly difficult but also extremely successful years: In March 2020, the Corona crisis hit our study and research operations, against which they had to intervene with unprecedented measures: Almost overnight, all face-to-face teaching was switched to distance learning; a large part of the staff had to move to the home office. Nevertheless, our five reformed geoscientific degree programs could be succesfully accredited in May 2020 by virtue of a convincing new curriculum and well-managed evaluation. When the state of Bremen launched a short-term investment program to digitize teaching in October 2020, the deanery equipped all lecture halls as well as the microscopy and field equipment with the latest digital technology within just a few weeks.
The new deans are also not going to run out of big tasks soon: the modernized study programs must now be implemented year after year - new future-oriented topics such as climate change observation and mitigation, renewable energy production and digital study skills are coming to the fore. This development must also be accompanied by a gradual strategic realignment of our faculty´s areas of expertise. We all wish you good success and stand by your side!
Further information: