He came together with the Euro...

... and will retire on March 31, 2022, after more than 20 years in charge of the data center. The Computing Center bids farewell to its long-time director Prof. Dr. Gerhard Schneider.

After stations in Essen, Karlsruhe and Göttingen Prof. Dr. Gerhard Schneider followed the call to the University of Freiburg in 2001 and took over the professorship for communication systems at the technical faculty. In 2002 he also took over the management of the computer center. At that time, there were just four departments in the Computer Center. Under his leadership, the "E-Learning" and "eScience" departments were established in the following years, and campus management and administrative IT were brought in-house. Today, the data center comprises seven departments and approximately 120 employees.

In addition to the management of the IT Services Mr. Schneider was Vice-Rector for Knowledge Transfer and Communication Technology from 2003 to 2008 and in this function initiated many measures for the use of the then still "new media". From 2008, he was appointed CIO of the University of Freiburg. In 2018, he was elected Prorector for the second time and was responsible for the university's digital transformation until 2021.

With the pandemic situation of the last two years, Prof. Gerhard Schneider was once again allowed to make an unexpected final spurt as the university's IT manager. The task now was to organize and provide the IT infrastructure needed for the ad hoc digitization of teaching and administration: "Before the pandemic, the digitization of teaching developed slowly but steadily: in about 20 years to about 10% digital teaching. With the pandemic, it went from 10 to 100% in four weeks. That was an enormous effort on the part of everyone involved," says Gerhard Schneider.

Mr. Schneider was well-liked by the employees of the computer center as an attentive boss to whom one could personally address any concern. Social interaction with and among employees was very important to him and he was always open to initiatives to promote a good working atmosphere.

The Computing Center is now saying goodbye to its long-serving director in retirement. The employees wish him all the best for the future.

Mr. Schneider also takes this opportunity to say goodbye to all university members and staff: "I ask all users of the services to continue to place their trust in the staff and the acting management of the Computing Center".