After more than four years at the University of Technology Nuremberg (UTN), Kanzler Dr. Markus Zanner will leave the UTN on 30 April 2025 and succeed Dr. Thomas Hesse as Secretary General of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation on 1 May 2025. Dr. Thomas Hesse has been Deputy Secretary General of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation since February 2011 and has assumed the office of Secretary General on an interim basis from 1 April 2024.
Dr. Markus Zanner took up his post as Kanzler of the UTN on 1 January 2021 – the day the university was officially established – and has played a key role in shaping the development of the new university. Before moving to the UTN, he was Kanzler of the University of Bayreuth and was involved in the expansion of the focus on African Sciences and the establishment of the new Kulmbach campus, among other things. Prior to this, he held various positions of responsibility in science management at the Technical University of Munich for over ten years, including as Head of the Research Promotion Department and Managing Director of the TUM Institute for Advanced Study.
Dr. Markus Zanner emphasizes: “It was a great pleasure and honor for me to accompany and shape the UTN in the exciting first years after its foundation. The collaboration with the university management and employees was always an enrichment for me. I am grateful for the many valuable encounters and the trusting cooperation with the other local universities and the numerous projects that we have realized together in Nuremberg as a center of science. I am very much looking forward to the new challenge at the Humboldt Foundation. I will remain closely associated with the UTN and the city of Nuremberg.”
Bavaria’s Science Minister Markus Blume says: “Dr. Markus Zanner is a science manager who is as experienced as he is successful. As ‘Founding Chancellor’, he has dedicated himself with great commitment to the development of UTN over the past four years and made a decisive contribution to establishing UTN as an AI university with a unique concept among Bavarian universities. I very much regret his departure, but at the same time I share his pleasure at his appointment to the responsible position of Secretary General of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. I would like to thank him warmly for his commitment to Bavaria and wish him all the best and every success in his new role.’
UTN founding president Prof. Dr. Michael Huth agrees: “In Dr. Markus Zanner, the UTN had an experienced Kanzler who, with his professional expertise, Bavarian humor and an appreciative working culture, played a key role in shaping the first years of development and the growth of the UTN’s staff. I would like to thank him warmly on behalf of everyone at UTN. ‘The Cream Always Rises to the Top,’ a saying from the USA, which means that talent, quality and excellence do not remain hidden, not even from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. We will miss Dr. Markus Zanner as a colleague and are glad that he will continue to take on responsibility for science in Germany. I wish him every success in this endeavor.’
The process of finding a successor for Dr. Markus Zanner at the UTN will begin as soon as possible.
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Profile of Dr. Markus Zanner: Download
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Head of UnitCommunication Unit
Deputy Press OfficerCommunication Unit
About the University of Technology Nuremberg
The University of Technology Nuremberg (UTN), founded in 2021, is the first newly established public university in Bavaria since 1978. The UTN is a living laboratory building a university for the age of AI and the rapidly advancing changes in technology, business and society. The UTN strives to become a strong regional force in research, teaching and transfer and an internationally leading university of the 21st century with regional roots and a global outlook.
The 37-hectare, sustainable UTN campus will form the center of the new Lichtenreuth district in Nuremberg, close to the historic city center. Around 6,000 students, 200 professors and at least 2,000 employees will study and work there. Study programs will integrate aspects of technology, liberal arts, social sciences and natural sciences to ideally prepare students for the interdisciplinary requirements of the new world of work..
After more than four years at the University of Technology Nuremberg (UTN), Kanzler Dr. Markus Zanner will leave the UTN on 30 April 2025 and succeed Dr. Thomas Hesse as Secretary General of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation on 1 May 2025. Dr. Thomas Hesse has been Deputy Secretary General of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation since February 2011 and has assumed the office of Secretary General on an interim basis from 1 April 2024.
Dr. Markus Zanner took up his post as Kanzler of the UTN on 1 January 2021 – the day the university was officially established – and has played a key role in shaping the development of the new university. Before moving to the UTN, he was Kanzler of the University of Bayreuth and was involved in the expansion of the focus on African Sciences and the establishment of the new Kulmbach campus, among other things. Prior to this, he held various positions of responsibility in science management at the Technical University of Munich for over ten years, including as Head of the Research Promotion Department and Managing Director of the TUM Institute for Advanced Study.
Dr. Markus Zanner emphasizes: “It was a great pleasure and honor for me to accompany and shape the UTN in the exciting first years after its foundation. The collaboration with the university management and employees was always an enrichment for me. I am grateful for the many valuable encounters and the trusting cooperation with the other local universities and the numerous projects that we have realized together in Nuremberg as a center of science. I am very much looking forward to the new challenge at the Humboldt Foundation. I will remain closely associated with the UTN and the city of Nuremberg.”
Bavaria’s Science Minister Markus Blume says: “Dr. Markus Zanner is a science manager who is as experienced as he is successful. As ‘Founding Chancellor’, he has dedicated himself with great commitment to the development of UTN over the past four years and made a decisive contribution to establishing UTN as an AI university with a unique concept among Bavarian universities. I very much regret his departure, but at the same time I share his pleasure at his appointment to the responsible position of Secretary General of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. I would like to thank him warmly for his commitment to Bavaria and wish him all the best and every success in his new role.’
UTN founding president Prof. Dr. Michael Huth agrees: “In Dr. Markus Zanner, the UTN had an experienced Kanzler who, with his professional expertise, Bavarian humor and an appreciative working culture, played a key role in shaping the first years of development and the growth of the UTN’s staff. I would like to thank him warmly on behalf of everyone at UTN. ‘The Cream Always Rises to the Top,’ a saying from the USA, which means that talent, quality and excellence do not remain hidden, not even from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. We will miss Dr. Markus Zanner as a colleague and are glad that he will continue to take on responsibility for science in Germany. I wish him every success in this endeavor.’
The process of finding a successor for Dr. Markus Zanner at the UTN will begin as soon as possible.
Press Photo: Download
Profile of Dr. Markus Zanner: Download
Contact
Peter Diehl
Communication Unit
Agnes Pelzl
Communication Unit
About the University of Technology Nuremberg
The University of Technology Nuremberg (UTN), founded in 2021, is the first newly established public university in Bavaria since 1978. The UTN is a living laboratory building a university for the age of AI and the rapidly advancing changes in technology, business and society. The UTN strives to become a strong regional force in research, teaching and transfer and an internationally leading university of the 21st century with regional roots and a global outlook.
The 37-hectare, sustainable UTN campus will form the center of the new Lichtenreuth district in Nuremberg, close to the historic city center. Around 6,000 students, 200 professors and at least 2,000 employees will study and work there. Study programs will integrate aspects of technology, liberal arts, social sciences and natural sciences to ideally prepare students for the interdisciplinary requirements of the new world of work..