Prof. Dr. Lothar H. Wieler becomes the new President of the Robert Koch Institute

20.11.2014 11:06

Prof. Dr. Lothar H. Wieler becomes the new President of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). The Federal Cabinet approved the corresponding proposal from Federal Minister Hermann Gröhe today (Wednesday). The cabinet decision has been forwarded to the Federal President for signature. Prof. Dr. Wieler will take over the position on March 1, 2015. The current incumbent, Prof. Dr. Reinhard Burger is leaving for reasons of age.

Federal Minister of Health Hermann Gröhe: “I am very pleased that we have Professor Dr. We were able to win Wieler as the new head of the Robert Koch Institute. Thanks to his scientific expertise, Prof. Dr. Wieler is an internationally recognized scientist in the field of infection research. I am sure that under his leadership the RKI will continue to be optimally equipped to carry out its extensive tasks to protect the population in our country and combat national and international health threats in the future.”

Prof. Dr. Wieler received his doctorate from the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich. Since 1998 he has been a professor and currently managing director of the Institute for Microbiology and Animal Diseases at the Free University of Berlin. His scientific activities at the universities in Munich, Ulm and Gießen as well as research stays in the USA and Great Britain focused on the mechanisms of transmission of infectious agents and their disease-causing factors. Using genome analyses, he deciphers the origins and relationships of infectious pathogens, which means that outbreaks can be immediately traced and therefore contained more quickly. One of his research focuses is infections with multi-resistant bacteria, which are one of the biggest challenges in infectious medicine.