Prof. Dr. Joachim Spranger is the new Dean of the Charité

Ceremonial handover of office from Prof. Pries to Prof. Spranger

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Berlin, 10 January 2023

As of January 1, 2023, Prof. Dr. Joachim Spranger has assumed the office of Dean at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin. He is thus responsible for science at Charité as a member of the Executive Board. He succeeds Prof. Dr. Axel Radlach Pries, who led the faculty’s fortunes for eight years. The ceremonial handover of office took place today.

Prof. Spranger was appointed Heisenberg Professor at Charité in 2008 and has headed the Medical Clinic for Endocrinology and Metabolic Medicine at Charité and the Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism at Labor Berlin – Charité Vivantes GmbH since 2011. On July 4, 2022, the Faculty Council elected him as the new Dean of the Faculty of Medicine for a term of five years. He thus replaces Prof. Pries, who held the post from January 2015 to December 2022 and resigned at the end of the year for personal reasons. The dean of the Charité is responsible for all matters relating to research and teaching. He is a member of the Board of Directors, chairs the Faculty Council and is also at the head of the Faculty Management. This represents the Medical Faculty of the Charité in academic matters both internally and externally. It shapes the direction and focus of research and teaching and ensures their quality. Prof. Spranger already served on the Faculty Board as Vice Dean for Studies and Teaching from 2017 to 2022.

Ulrike Gote, Berlin Senator for Science, Health, Care and Equality and Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board of Charité: “Prof. Dr. Axel Radlach Pries has had a unique impact and achieved a great deal in the past eight years as Dean of Charité. He has brought people together, won partners for Charité, and developed and implemented strategies. Berlin is grateful to him for his successes for science. I wish Mr. Pries all the best for his future tasks, for example as President of the World Health Summit. I now wish Prof. Dr. Joachim Spranger just as much success and good fortune in his new office. I am fully convinced that he will be a worthy successor. His election by the Faculty Council with an overwhelming majority is an expression of the trust that the representatives of research and teaching at Charité place in him. I am very much looking forward to working with him.”

Prof. Dr. Heyo K. Kroemer, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Charité, acknowledges Prof. Pries’ achievements as Dean: “In recent years, Prof. Pries has consistently expanded the scientific strength of Berlin University Medicine. On behalf of the entire Board, I thank Prof. Pries for his impressive achievements and his long-standing commitment to our faculty, the Berlin Institute of Health and Charité as a whole.” Prof. Kroemer further states, “With Prof. Spranger, a distinguished clinic director and excellent scientist now starts as the new dean of Charité. I am sure that he will further advance the outstanding research, the area of study and teaching as well as the cooperations of the Charité. The Executive Board wishes him a good start and much success in the tasks ahead!”

Prof. Spranger says: “Charité is an impressive institution with a large number of great scientists. I am looking forward to the upcoming work as dean and will focus on the further development of our study programs, the work with young scientists and the improvement of the research infrastructure, among many other topics. In addition, it is important to me to further expand cooperation with university and non-university partners in Berlin, as well as on a national and international level.”

Short vita Prof. Dr. Joachim Spranger

Joachim Spranger was born in Cologne in 1970. He completed his studies in human medicine and his doctorate at the Ruhr University in Bochum. In 2005 he habilitated in internal medicine at the Charité. In 2008, he was appointed Heisenberg Professor of Diabetology at the Charité. Since 2011, Prof. Spranger has been Director of the Medical Clinic for Endocrinology and Metabolic Medicine at Charité and Head of the Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism at Labor Berlin – Charité Vivantes GmbH. From January 2017 to April 2022, he served as Vice Dean for Studies and Teaching in the Faculty Board of Charité, and was also a member of the Faculty Board for many years and Speaker of the Faculty Board from 2015 to 2017. From 2014 to 2018, Prof. Spranger was spokesperson of the Clinical Research Unit at the Berlin Institute of Health at Charité (BIH). Since January 1, 2023, Prof. Spranger has been Dean of the Charité.

About Charité – University Medicine Berlin

Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin is one of the largest university hospitals in Europe, with around 100 clinics and institutes on 4 campuses and 3,099 beds. Research, teaching and patient care are closely interlinked. With an average of 17,615 employees across Charité and an average of 20,921 employees across the Group, Berlin University Medicine is one of the largest employers in the capital. Of these, 5,047 are employed in nursing, 4,988 in the scientific and medical fields, and 1,265 in administration. Last year, Charité treated 123,793 full and partial inpatient cases and 682,731 outpatient cases. In 2021, Charité generated total revenues of around 2.3 billion euros, including third-party revenues and investment grants. With 215.8 million euros in third-party funds collected, Charité achieved another record in 2021. At one of the largest medical faculties in Germany, more than 9,000 students are trained in human medicine, dentistry, health sciences and nursing. In addition, 730 training positions are offered in 11 health professions and 111 in 8 other professions. The Berlin University Medical Center sets accents in the main research areas: Infection, Inflammation and Immunity including research on COVID-19, Cardiovascular Research and Metabolism, Neurosciences, Oncology, Regenerative Therapies and Rare Diseases and Genetics. Scientists at Charité work, among other things, in 28 DFG Collaborative Research Centers, including seven with a spokesperson function, in three Clusters of Excellence, one of which has a spokesperson function, 10 Emmy Noether junior research groups, 14 grants from the European Research Council and 8 European collaborative projects with Charité coordination.

Photo: Prof. Dr. Joachim Spranger © Charité | Wiebke Peitz

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