On May 13, 2026, the Board of Trustees of the Max Planck Institute for Informatics (MPI-INF) met in Saarbrücken. During the meeting, the institute’s directors discussed the progress made and planned initiatives of the institute with the trustees from politics, business, science, and the media.
The meeting was opened by Prof. em. Dr. Joachim Buhmann (ETH Zurich), followed by reports from Dr. Simone Schwanitz (Secretary General of the Max Planck Society), Prof. Bernt Schiele (Managing Director of MPI-INF), and Prof. Ola Svensson (EPFL Lausanne, Scientific Advisory Board of MPI-INF).
The Board of Trustees, Directors and Senior Researchers of MPI for Informatics. Photo: Anna Ziegler
Afterwards, Prof. Christian Theobalt (Director of the Visual Computing and Artificial Intelligence Department) presented the institute’s recent developments and future outlook. In addition to a scientific lecture by Dr. Thomas Leimkühler (Head of the Image Synthesis and Machine Learning group) on the topic of Gaussian Splatting, the program included the official presentation of appointment certificates to the institute’s new Senior Researchers by the Chair of the Board of Trustees, Joachim Buhmann. These are:
- Dr. Jonas Fischer (Explainable Machine Learning group)
- Dr. Vladislav Golyanik (4D and Quantum Vision group)
- Dr. Marc Habermann (Graphics and Vision for Digitial Humans group)
- Dr. Thomas Leimkühler (Image Synthesis and Machine Learning group)
- Dr. Paul Strohmeier (Sensorimotor Interaction group)
The 2026 meeting concluded with a joint dinner.
The Boards of Trustees of the Max Planck Society serve as an important connection between science and society. Their role is to promote mutual exchange, strengthen understanding of scientific work, and increase societal acceptance of research. The members of the Boards of Trustees act as advocates for the institutes and their interests.
Members of the Board of Trustees of the MPI for Informatics are:
- Dr. Ferri Abolhassan (Deutsche Telekom AG & T-Systems International GmbH)
- Prof. Dr. Joachim M. Buhmann (ETH Zurich)
- Robert Jozic (Schwarz Media GmbH)
- Anke Rehlinger (Minister-President of the Saarland)
- Prof. Dr. Ludger Santen (President of Saarland University)
- Nadine Schön (Deputy State Chairwoman of the CDU Saar)
- Jakob von Weizsäcker (Minister of Finance and Science of the Saarland)
- Prof. Dr. Margret Wintermantel (Chair of the University Council of Saarland University)
- Prof. Dr. h.c. mult. Ranga Yogeshwar (Independent Science Journalist)
Further information:
List of Board of Trustees members: https://www.mpi-inf.mpg.de/institute/board-of-trustees
More about Boards of Trustees in the MPG: https://www.mpg.de/boards-of-trustees
Editor:
Philipp Zapf-Schramm
Max Planck Institute for Informatics
Phone: +49 681 9325 4509
Email: pzs@mpi-inf.mpg.de