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TU Ilmenau bids farewell to Prof. Klaus Augsburg in retirement

Prof. Klaus Augsburg, Head of the Automotive Engineering Group and long-time Prorector for Science, was ceremoniously retired. The 66-year-old worked for 22 years as a scientist and in university management at TU Ilmenau.

Prof. Klaus Augsburg TU Ilmenau/Michael Reichel
Prof. Klaus Augsburg

Mobility as a research topic

After studying automotive engineering, Prof. Klaus Augsburg began his scientific career in 1977 as a scientific assistant at the TU Dresden, where he also received his doctorate in 1985. After working for almost ten years in various automotive-related companies in Germany, Augsburg returned to the TU Dresden as a scientist in 1993, until finally, in 1999, he accepted a call to become a university professor for automotive engineering at the TU Ilmenau.

Longstanding Vice-Rector for Science

In addition to his work as Head of the Automotive Engineering Group, Prof. Klaus Augsburg was Prorector for Science for 13 years from 2004 and raised around 100 million euros in third-party funding and over 500 research projects during his scientific career. It was on his initiative that the Thuringian Innovation Center for Mobility (ThiMo) was established, the largest single project in the history of the TU Ilmenau to date. The internationally positioned science and development center deals with the solution of sustainable mobility on an international level and works on the lightest possible, environmentally friendly, intelligent and complex networked vehicles of the future.

The President of TU Ilmenau, Prof. Kai-Uwe Sattler, thanked Prof. Klaus Augsburg at the farewell for his many years of commitment and successful work: "You have built up and successfully operated the Department of Automotive Engineering and the Automotive Engineering course and initiated, built up and managed ThIMo one of the largest projects at TU Ilmenau. The name Klaus Augsburg will remain associated with the subject of mobility at the TU Ilmenau."

The District Administrator of the Ilm District, Petra Enders, thanked Prof. Klaus Augsburg for the excellent cooperation when he said goodbye: "You are a person who has always thought and connected science and business together." With the words "You have helped shape the Ilm district and made it known worldwide", the district administrator presented Prof. Augsburg with a silver coin with motifs from the Ilm district in appreciation of his services.