Rik Van de Walle re-elected President and seven Directors elected

We are delighted to announce that Rik Van de Walle has been reelected as our President for a further two-year term from 2022 to 2023.

Our extraordinary thirty-fifth General Assembly also included the election of seven Directors for a four-year term from 2022 to 2025, five of whom are serving their first term.

Rik was first elected as President in October 2019, and has overseen our Work Plan from 2020 to 2021 which puts the contribution of universities of Science and Technology (S&T) to ecological, economic and social sustainability at the centre of our network.

He has also consistently championed the contribution of universities of S&T to shaping the European Research Area (ERA) and provided a voice for the reform of how researchers’ employment conditions must be improved to meet Europe’s goals.

Rik said “It is an honour to serve as President of one of Europe’s most important and influential university associations for a second term. The past two years have seen our network grow both internally, as we now reach more staff at Members than ever before, and externally as our voice has become more impactful and widely recognised.

“Today’s General Assembly marked another important milestone as we look forward to the next two years with renewed purpose and impetus. I am proud to be entrusted with the leadership of our new Board of Directors and extend my gratitude to the five departing Directors who have served our association with distinction”.

Rik will chair a Board of twelve Directors. The five newly elected Directors 2022-2025 are:

• Guillermo Cisneros (Rector Magnificus of Technical University of Madrid)
• Elvira Fortunato (Vice President for Research of Universidade NOVA de Lisboa)
• Jennifer Herek (Dean Faculty S&T of University of Twente)
• Anna Steiger (Vice President for Human Resources & Gender of TU Wien)
• Ronald Tetzlaff (Vice President International Affairs of TU Dresden)

The two Directors elected for a second four-year term are:

• Mihnea Costoiu (Rector of University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest)
• Mikael Östling (Deputy President of KTH Royal Institute for Technology)

The sitting Directors 2020-2023 who will continue their terms:

• Tim Bedford (Associate Principal Research & Knowledge Exchange of University of Strathclyde)
• Olga Mazurina (Rector’s Delegate for International Affairs of Tomsk University of Technology)
• Henrik Pedersen (Dean Faculty of IT & Design of Aalborg University)
• Roberto Zanino (Rector’s Delegate for European Relations of Politecnico di Torino)
• Marc Zolver (Vice-President for International Affairs of CentraleSupélec at Université Paris-Saclay)

We extend our gratitude to our departing Directors who are finishing their terms:

• Orla Feely (Vice President for Research, Innovation and Impact of University College Dublin)
• Thomas Hirth (Vice President for Innovation and International Affairs of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology)
• Wayne Kaplan (Pro-Vice Chancellor of Guangdong Technion-Israel Institute of Technology)
• Karel Luyben (Rector Magnificus Emeritus of Delft University of Technology)
• Maria de Fátima Montemor (Vice President for Research & International Affairs of Instituto Superior Técnico)