Lutz Schröter becomes President of the German Physical Society from 2020 to 2022
In its most recent meeting, the DPG Council elected Lutz Schröter, Industry Manager, as the future President of the world’s largest physical society with over 60,000 members. In April 2020, he will take over from Dieter Meschede, who will then take up his duties as Vice President.
Bad Honnef, 12 November 2018 – It is a custom in the German Physical Society (DPG) to elect a successor more than a year before the end of the term of office of the incumbent President in order to familiarise them with the complex and responsible work of the DPG, and thus to ensure continuity at the executive level. At its most recent meeting, the DPG Council elected Lutz Schröter as the future President of the largest physical society in the world with over 60,000 members.
The election of a new President takes place every two years. In April 2020, Schröter will take over from the current President Dieter Meschede, who, according to the statutes, cannot be re-elected. Like his predecessor, Prof. Meschede will then be Vice President for two years.
Lutz Schröter, born in 1960, studied physics at the University of Bielefeld and received his doctorate there in the field of laser spectroscopy. His professional career took him through several stages, such as the VDI Technology Centre Düsseldorf, Grünenthal GmbH in Aachen and a venture capital company in Saarbrücken to Volkswagen AG in Wolfsburg. There he now heads the project and process management of a series for the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand.
Lutz Schröter has been a member of the DPG since 1986. From 2004 to 2008 he was a member of the DPG Council – the “Parliament” of the German Physical Society – which has now elected him. From 2008 to 2012, he served a maximum of two terms on the Executive Board of the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft, responsible for Industry, Business and Professional Matters. He then spent four years on the Steering Committee of the “Welt der Physik”, an Internet platform operated by the German Physical Society together with the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and aimed at lay people interested in physics. In 2010, Schröter launched the DPG Mentoring Program. The program is aimed at all DPG members who are planning a career start in industry and commerce. In the meantime, more than 500 mentoring tandems have been formed, each of which has worked together for one year. Lutz Schröter received the DPG’s Badge of Honour in 2012 for his commitment.
