MedicineChange of Dean at the Medical Faculty Heidelberg
Press release No. 101/2023
26 September 2023
Hans-Georg Kräusslich passes the office of Dean on to Michael Boutros, who in this capacity also joins the Board of Heidelberg University Hospital
The Medical Faculty Heidelberg is seeing a change of Dean. At the beginning of the winter semester, virologist Prof. Dr Hans-Georg Kräusslich is passing on the office of Dean to the genome researcher Prof. Dr Michael Boutros. In this capacity, Prof. Boutros will also belong to the Board of Heidelberg University Hospital. To mark the change in office, the Rector of Heidelberg University is hosting an academic ceremony in the Great Hall of the Old University on 29 September 2023. The Faculty Council elected Michael Boutros Dean for a period of four years. His term of office begins on 1 October.
“Hans-Georg Kräusslich has shown great commitment in promoting his scientific field − virology and infectious disease research. He has successfully advocated for the Health + Life Science Alliance Heidelberg Mannheim. And, last but not least, he has in exemplary fashion served the whole of his university: in the writing team for Excellence Initiative I, as one of the two founding directors of the Marsilius Kolleg, and as spokesperson for the Senate and as Dean of the Medical Faculty Heidelberg he has for years helped to shape Heidelberg University in the most meritorious way,” says Prof. Dr Bernhard Eitel, Rector of Ruperto Carola. As the new Dean, the Rector adds, Michael Boutros will initiate and accompany central processes in the life sciences and medicine in Heidelberg as a centre of science and research.
The Chief Medical Director and Chairman of the Board of Heidelberg University Hospital underlines that the interests of the hospital and the faculty are, in many areas, closely intertwined. “During Prof. Kräusslich’s term in office we were able to make 17 new appointments for professorships which also involve the medical direction of hospitals and departments of Heidelberg University Hospital. That is almost one third of all chief physician positions. Furthermore, the hospital and the faculty have to pull together in the preparations for the desired merger of the Heidelberg and Mannheim university hospitals. This trustworthy cooperation has worked excellently with Prof. Kräusslich and I am very grateful to him,” says Prof. Dr Ingo B. Autenrieth.
Hans-Georg Kräusslich studied medicine at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, where he also obtained his doctorate. As a postdoc he did research at the State University of New York in Stony Brook (USA) and in 1989 established his own research group on HIV at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg. In 1995 he accepted a professorship at what was then the Heinrich Pette Institute – Leibniz Institute for Experimental Virology, which he directed from 1996 to 1999. When appointed professor at the Medical Faculty Heidelberg in 2000, Hans-Georg Kräusslich became the head of virology at Heidelberg University Hospital. Since 2004, he has been Director of the hospital’s Center for Infectious Diseases. As a founding director he worked to establish the Marsilius Kolleg, which builds bridges between scholarly cultures as an Institute for Advanced Study at Ruperto Carola. The multiple award-winning virologist is Vice Chair of the Executive Board of the German Center for Infection Research, an elected member of the Leopoldina, the German National Academy of Sciences, and as of October 2023 will take up office as President of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
Michael Boutros studied biology at RWTH Aachen University and biochemistry at Witten/Herdecke University with study and research periods in New York (USA). His doctoral dissertation arose at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg. He then completed a Master in Public Administration at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Boston, supported by the McCloy Fellowship Programme, and was a Research Fellow in the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School. In 2003, the scientist moved to the German Cancer Research Center, at which he established an Emmy Noether research group. He has been head of the cooperational Division of Signaling and Functional Genomics at the DKFZ since 2008, and Deputy Scientific Director of the DKFZ since 2019. Appointed professor at the Medical Faculty Mannheim of Heidelberg University, he now belongs to the Medical Faculty Heidelberg, to which he was already coopted. In 2020, Prof. Boutros joined the two-person directorate of the Marsilius Kolleg. Elected in 2022 to the Leopoldina and to the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Michael Boutros is also one of the two Scientific Directors of the Health + Life Science Alliance Heidelberg Mannheim.
The academic ceremony on the occasion of the change in office will be opened by the Rector of Heidelberg University. The Chairman of the Board of Heidelberg University Hospital will also bring a greeting. The outgoing Dean Kräusslich will then speak on “Heidelberg Medicine 2023”, followed by a guest lecture by Prof. Dr Christopher Baum, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Berlin Institute of Health at Charité and responsible for the Translational Research portfolio on the Executive Board of Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin. Future Dean Boutros will conclude the ceremony with a “look to the future”.
Note for newsrooms
The academic ceremony to bid the present Dean farewell and welcome the future Dean of the Medical Faculty Heidelberg of Heidelberg University is to take place on 29 September 2023 in the Great Hall of the Old University, starting at 4.30 pm. Representatives of the media are warmly invited to attend and report. Please register with presse@rektorat.uni-heidelberg.de .