Since December 1, 2025, Professor Dr. Sascha Klee has headed the Computational Medicine Group at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Informatics at TU Ilmenau.

Prof. Klee completed his studies in electrical engineering in Ilmenau and then earned his doctorate in the field of neuroscience, i.e. research into the nervous system and the brain. During his time as a post-doctoral researcher, he conducted research into opto-neurological rehabilitation, among other things. This involves using special optical imaging principles to support neurological functions in patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a common disease of the retina. Another focus of his work was the evaluation of multimodal medical data, in which information from different information domains such as image, measurement and clinical data are analyzed together.

From 2016, Prof. Klee established new methods for processing sensor data as a junior professor of optoelectrophysiological medical technology. These sensor systems record electrical and optical signals from the body and are used in particular to study the human visual system, i.e. vision.

In 2021, Prof. Klee accepted a professorship in biostatistics and data science at the Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences in Austria. There, he developed models for the further use of complex, multidimensional clinical data in order to tailor medical decisions more closely to individual patients - a central approach to personalized medicine.

Prof. Klee now wants to continue this research in Ilmenau and specifically expand it to include new issues in which medical data is used proactively, for example for more efficient diagnostics or better planning of therapies:

The subsequent use of existing clinical data to gain new insights into disease progression or the effectiveness of therapies has been insufficiently researched to date. The methods often do not go beyond the calculation of simple quality assurance measures. I am very much looking forward to making a contribution to more efficient medicine by developing complex models.

Since December 1, 2025, Professor Bing Li has headed the Resource-Efficient Artificial Intelligence Group at Technische Universität Ilmenau.

His academic career began in 2010 with his doctorate at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). After his habilitation at TUM, Prof. Li was private lecturer at the Chair of Design Automation at TUM from 2018 to 2024. In July 2024, he moved to the University of Siegen as a junior professor, where he headed the Chair of Digital Integrated Systems until November 2025.

His research at TU Ilmenau focuses on high-performance and energy-efficient circuits and systems for AI algorithms, applications of artificial intelligence in circuit and system design and the development of new architectures for AI solutions with a special focus on hardware.

Prof. Li has already made a good start at TU Ilmenau:

TU Ilmenau is one of the best technical universities in Germany. The research atmosphere is open and collegial. The faculties work closely together to advance cutting-edge research and pioneering technologies that will enable the next technological and economic innovations.

According to him, the interdisciplinary research on energy-efficient green electronics and AI systems is particularly noteworthy:

I am very much looking forward to researching future energy-efficient AI systems together with internationally leading colleagues at TU Ilmenau - an endeavor that requires close collaboration from hardware to computer systems and applications.

Since January 1, 2026, Professor Hannes Scheibe is heading the Precision Engineering Group at Technische Universität Ilmenau.

After his studies of automotive engineering and mechanical engineering at the TU Ilmenau, Hannes Scheibe received his doctorate on the topic of "Active-adaptive polishing tools for production of rotationally symmetric aspheres" at the TU Ilmenau in parallel to his work as a development engineer at Carl Zeiss Jena GmbH. In 2018 he became teamleader of Optics Technology Development and was head of the Technology Development Group from 2021 on at Carl Zeiss Jena GmbH.

The mechanical engineer has also been contributing his experience in science and industry internationally as a member of the Scientific Committee of the European Society for Precision Engineering (EUSPEN) since 2019 and as a member of the Industrial Advisory Board of the Center for Freeform Optics (CeFO) since 2021.

At TU Ilmenau, Prof. Scheibe would like to continue ongoing research on precision weighing technology, as well as nanopositioning and nanomachining in cooperation with the Institute of Process Measurement and Sensor Technology, among others:

Furthermore, I see great potential in the research and development of technologies for low-particle assembly and low-particle alignment as well as low-emission machining in order to fulfil current and future requirements of high-performance optical systems.

Prof. Thomas Sattel, Dean of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at TU Ilmenau, is convinced:

With his scientific and industrial expertise according to the motto 'Optical technologies meet precision engineering', Prof. Scheibe perfectly complements our department’s strategy of resource-efficient precision engineering.

The university professor would like to pass on his enthusiasm for these topics to the next generation of future engineers in particular:

I am passionate about machines, technologies and challenging topics. A technically outstanding education may enable to solve technical problems - but in combination with passion, technical solutions will be mature and far more sustainable.

Since May 1, 2025, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Florian Römer is heading the newly created Group of Signal Processing for Intelligent Sensor Systems at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology at TU Ilmenau.

Prof. Römer studied computer engineering at the TU Ilmenau and at McMaster University in Canada. After graduating in 2006, he completed his doctorate at the Communications Research Laboratory Group at TU Ilmenau and subsequently taught and researched as a postdoc in the university's Electronic Measurements and Signal Processing Group EMS. He received the EURASIP Best Dissertation Award for his research in 2013 and was a Carl Zeiss Postdoctoral Fellow from 2016 to 2017. He gained international scientific experience at the Technion in Haifa (Israel) and at the Federal University of Ceará (UFC) in Brazil, among others.

In 2018, Prof. Florian Römer moved to the Fraunhofer Institute for Nondestructive Testing IZFP, where he established the junior research group "Signal Processing for Material Data Acquisition with Intelligent Sensor Technology "(SigMaSense") as group leader. As Chief Scientist, he is also responsible for the area of applied AI, signal processing and data analysis.

At TU Ilmenau, the scientist is dedicated to the development of novel architectures for sensor-based data acquisition and processing, with a particular focus on ultrasound imaging, process monitoring in manufacturing and AI-supported signal processing. Other topics include assistance systems for manual inspection processes, remote inspection, methods for signal reconstruction and the systematic use of AI for data analysis and knowledge acquisition.

Prof. Florian Römer is also involved in several scientific committees. He is a (Senior) Area Editor on the Editorial Board of the IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing since 2020, was an elected member of the Technical Area Committee Signal Processing for Multisensor Systems of EURASIP from 2019 to 2024 and is the Co-Head of the Thuringia Working Group of the DGZfP (German Society for Non-Destructive Testing) since 2023.

Prof. Römer lives with his family in Ilmenau, is married and has three children. In his free time, he is involved in music and is the second chairman of the Ilmenau Bach Choir, among other things, and his hobbies include nature, photography and music.

Since December 1, 2024, Prof. Dr. Gerrit Köchling has headed the newly created Group of Finance at the Department of Economic Sciences and Media at TU Ilmenau.

Prof. Köchling completed both his Bachelor's and Master's degree in Business Mathematics at TU Dortmund University. As the best student in his year, he gained a profound insight into mathematical models and their application in the world of finance. At the same university, he completed his doctorate in finance with distinction. His dissertation, in which he dealt with market efficiency and risk management, was honored with the dissertation prize of the Faculty of Economics at TU Dortmund University.

Prof. Köchling gained international experience during a research stay at Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, where he worked intensively on sustainable finance.

With the establishment of the new Group of Finance at TU Ilmenau, Prof. Köchling aims to shape both research and teaching in an innovative way. He is particularly concerned with corporate finance, i.e. the financial management and decision-making of companies. A particular focus is on financial markets and ESG (environmental, social and governance). His aim is to inspire students with enthusiasm for current issues in the world of finance and at the same time provide them with sound methodological and analytical skills.

Prof. Dr. Jana de Wiljes has headed the new Mathematics of Data Science Group at the Department of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at TU Ilmenau since October 2023. Her academic career began with a doctorate in the field of machine learning at the specialized area of mathematics at Freie Universität Berlin. For her dissertation on data-driven discrete spatiotemporal models, she was awarded the Tiburtius Prize for doctoral students at Berlin universities for outstanding dissertations. Since June 2017, she has been Principal Investigator of various projects on data assimilation within a Collaborative Research Center funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). In June 2022, Prof. de Wiljes was awarded the title of Dosentti (lecturer) in mathematics in the field of machine learning - comparable to a German habilitation - by the Department of Engineering at Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology in Finland.

Prof. de Wiljes' research work focuses primarily on sequential learning - a method that makes it possible to make reliable predictions even with little data. This includes the theoretical investigation and uncertainty quantification of existing techniques, the development of new and advanced algorithms for Bayesian inference, and the application of state-of-the-art methods to real-world data in areas such as climate and space weather modeling. In particular, she develops methods for high-dimensional, nonlinear and nonstationary inverse problems and analyzes them for stability and accuracy. In addition, she deals with supervised and unsupervised machine learning and reinforcement learning, especially in connection with the optimization of therapies and the identification of causal links in medicine. In addition to her professorship at TU Ilmenau, Prof. de Wiljes also holds a visiting professorship at the Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology.

The Equal Opportunities Officer at TU Ilmenau, Dr. Katja Tonisch, has been unanimously re-elected by the Senate for a further term of office. Over the next three years, she will continue to represent the interests of equal opportunities at the university.

In accordance with Section 6 ThürHG, the Equal Opportunities Officer works towards achieving the constitutionally guaranteed equality of opportunity between the sexes and supports the university in creating equal development opportunities for all persons and reducing existing disadvantages. "In principle, any member of TU Ilmenau can turn to me with gender equality issues," explains Dr. Tonisch. The spectrum of concerns ranges from strategic issues such as the implementation of the gender equality plan and support with recruitment procedures to advice on gender equality aspects in scientific applications and personal support.

Dr. Tonisch has set herself a number of goals for her new term of office. For example, she would like to further strengthen transparency and fairness in appointment procedures and increase the proportion of female professors at TU Ilmenau:

The seal of approval from the German University Association confirms that TU Ilmenau is already very well positioned in these aspects of appointment procedures. Nevertheless, increasing the proportion of female professors remains an important goal for the coming years.

The Equal Opportunities Officer has resolved to better address the increasing proportion of international female students through targeted, English-language courses. Another aim is to make young men more aware of traditional equality issues such as the compatibility of career and family and to encourage them to actively include their role as fathers in their life planning.

The creation of equal opportunities, collegial cooperation and respect for all people regardless of their social and ethnic background, their religious beliefs and their sexual orientation is a central motif of an open-minded campus community, which I will work towards.

The Diversity Officer at TU Ilmenau, Andrea Krieg, has been unanimously re-elected by the Senate for a further term of office. Over the next three years, she will continue to represent the interests of diversity at the university.

Andrea Krieg, who has been the Diversity Officer at TU Ilmenau since the position was introduced in 2018, will continue her work over the next three years. The election was made by the Academic Senate at the suggestion of the Presidential Board and was confirmed unanimously.

As Diversity Officer, Andrea Krieg represents the interests of all members and affiliates of the university, regardless of ethnic origin, gender, religion, disability, age, gender identity or sexual orientation. In coordination with other representatives, such as the Equal Opportunities Officer and the Representative for Severely Disabled Persons, she helps to shape teaching, study and working conditions. She also works to eliminate existing disadvantages and advises those affected.

Andrea Krieg has set herself ambitious goals for her new term of office:

I want to help ensure that TU Ilmenau remains an open-minded place where a non-discriminatory university culture is practiced.

One focus of her work will be to make barriers visible and support their removal in order to create inclusive conditions that enable all members of the university to work and study healthily and successfully. She sees particular challenges in promoting a sense of community and living diversity:

How do we create good integration for all members of the university? And how can the values of our university's mission statement be experienced in daily practice? I want us to consciously grow as a community. This can be achieved through respectful, appreciative interaction, active non-judgmental listening, participatory discussion processes and a sense of community.

Thomas Helbig has been the Advisor for Technology and Research at the Ilmenau Interactive Immersive Technologies Center (I3TC) since October 1, 2023. As an infrastructure unit of TU Ilmenau, the I3TC Center is assigned to the Institute for Intelligent and Interactive Immersive Media and Technologies (I4MT). The core of the technology center is formed by the laboratories for augmented, mixed and virtual reality and the TU Ilmenau media laboratory, which are being built in the new computer center (Grace-Hopper-Bau). This will create an environment for top-class research and teaching in the field of interactive immersive media at the TU Ilmenau.

After studying mechatronics at the TU Ilmenau, Thomas Helbig worked for over eleven years as a research assistant at the Biomechatronics Group in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He is therefore very familiar with the structures at TU Ilmenau and can draw on a wealth of experience in applying for and carrying out scientific projects. The graduate engineer is also familiar with working in interdisciplinary teams. Over the years, his scientific activities have focused in particular on people, their senses, how they move and how they can be supported technically.

In his role as Advisor for Technology and Research, Thomas Helbig acts as an interface between the management and all scientific and technical staff at the I3TC. In addition to providing purely organizational support to the center's management, he is the point of contact for questions relating to the technical and content-related design of the center. He supports the networking of I3TC members, organizes events such as colloquia or study information days and helps to develop courses at the I3TC. He is also responsible for the external presentation of the center and in this role will work together with the Division of Marketing and Communication at TU Ilmenau and offer guided tours of the I3TC. Thomas Helbig is particularly interested in using the I3TC and the I4MT to help make the TU Ilmenau attractive to both future students and researchers.