Long-standing members of the Directorate Max Mühlhäuser and Ralf Steinmetz will continue to support the LOEWE Center as advisors after their retirement.
Retirement - for many people, this means withdrawing from professional life and using the newly gained time for their own interests, hobbies and family, as long as their health allows. However, the two Darmstadt professors Max Mühlhäuser and Ralf Steinmetz do not want to retire straight away. With their expertise, they will continue to support and strategically advise the LOEWE center emergenCITY, which researches resilient information and communication technologies to make cities more crisis-proof. The nine-member Directorate has therefore now appointed them as Distinguished Emeriti.
“Digital resilience is essential for our future, but is still seriously underdeveloped as a research discipline. A radical rethink is needed in people’s minds and among funding bodies. I am passionate about continuing to help shape this major rethink - and to take concrete steps,” Max Mühlhäuser says, explaining his motivation.
The computer scientist points out that despite current crises - from minor disruptions to major catastrophes - the turning point has not yet arrived in people’s minds. “For decades, electricity, internet, water, food and healthcare always seemed to work. But today we are experiencing frictions and disruptions everywhere, caused by climate events, geopolitical upheavals, hybrid warfare and terror, among other things,” Max Mühlhäuser says. Due to the massive and targeted misinformation, the spiral is turning even faster and multi-crises are increasing.
The computer scientist, who headed the Telecooperation Lab at TU Darmstadt until the end of the summer semester, will focus on promoting international cooperation at the LOEWE Centre, including the International Conference on Resilient Systems (ICRS) conference series, which is organized by renowned universities such as TU Delft and ETH Zurich. He also wants to devote himself to networking and further develop the application perspective. Max Mühlhäuser has been involved in emergenCITY since its launch. He and his team have primarily advanced research into resilience-related digital twins.
Computer scientist and electrical engineer Ralf Steinmetz, who established and headed the Multimedia Communications Lab at TU Darmstadt, will be available to emergenCITY in the future to advise on issues relating to the continuation of the center in fundamental and applied research. He will also be involved in the design of a Collaborative Research Center that is currently being developed. Ralf Steinmetz has been active at the LOEWE Center since 2021. His team has developed concepts and prototypes for networking in post-disaster scenarios using UAVs and ad hoc processes.
Ralf Steinmetz explains why he also wants to continue advancing the emergenCITY research topic:
“Resilience is undoubtedly an extremely important topic, especially in today’s world with its many global changes. What’s more, innovative technical systems and components have to evolve in increasingly complex technical environments. For me, resilience is much more than a nice-to-have and emergenCITY addresses precisely this topic.”
In addition to the important topic, the intensive interdisciplinary interaction with experts from other fields of research is exciting and forward-looking for him.
