Prof. Dr.-Ing. Johann-Dietrich Wörner

Johann-Dietrich Wörner was born in Kassel in 1954. He has been Chairman of the Executive Board of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) since 1 March 2007.

He studied civil engineering at the Berlin Institute of Technology and Darmstadt Technological University, from where he graduated in 1985. In 1982, he left for a two-year study leave to Japan, investigating earthquake safety. Until 1990 Wörner worked at the engineering office of König und Heunisch. In 1990 he returned to Darmstadt Technological University, where he took over as Head of the Testing and Research Institute. Before being elected President of Darmstadt Technological University in 1995, he filled the position as Technical Director of the Institute for Glass Construction, and Dean of the Civil Engineering Faculty.

Wörner was honoured with a series of prizes and awards such as the Prize of the Organisation of Friends of Darmstadt Technological University for 'outstanding scientific performance'. He was also appointed to the Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and is a representative of the Technical Sciences Section of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. Wörner has received honorary doctorates from the State University of New York (USA), the technological universities of Bucharest (Romania) and Mongolia, the Saint Petersburg University for Economics and Finance (Russia), and École Centrale Lyon (France).

Wörner is also a member of various national and international supervisory bodies, advisory councils and committees. He is a member of the board of École Centrale Paris and École Centrale Lyon, the Convention for Technical Sciences (acatech) and the supervisory board of Röhm GmbH, to name just a few. Furthermore, he was appointed to the "Projektgruppe Energiepolitisches Programm" (PEPP) expert group of the German Government.