Honorary professorship for Dr Claudia Stern Honoured for outstanding research and teaching in aerospace medicine
Claudia Stern has been appointed honorary professor of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. This is in recognition of her outstanding expertise in the field of aerospace medicine. At TU Braunschweig, she will bring impulses from the research practice of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) to TU Braunschweig and help to jointly develop new fields of research. This will not only strengthen the long-standing close cooperation between TU Braunschweig and DLR, but also further develop the corresponding research area at the TU.
Honoured with an honorary professorship from TU Braunschweig: Dr Claudia Stern from DLR in Cologne. Picture credits: Silja Klemenz/TU Braunschweig
Prof Dr Stern is an internationally recognised scientist in the field of aerospace medicine. She is head of the Clinical Aerospace Medicine department at DLR and is researching medical diagnostics and monitoring of ocular changes to improve the health of people in space and on Earth. She also conducts ophthalmological research and is involved in the examination of astronauts, aviation personnel and test subjects.
“Prof. Dr. Claudia Stern is an outstanding scientist whose innovative research and passionate commitment to the advancement of women in science make her an inspiring role model for female students,” said Prof. Peter Hecker, head of the Institute of Flight Guidance and Vice President for Research at TU Braunschweig.
She has not only made significant contributions in the field of space medicine, but is also an internationally recognised scientist in the field of perceptual physiology in aviation. She is director of the Academy of the European Society of Aerospace Medicine, a fellow of the Aerospace Medical Association, an elected member of the International Academy of Aviation and Space Medicine, and past president of the German Society of Aviation and Space Medicine.
Prof Stern has been teaching aerospace medicine to students at TU Braunschweig for many years. She not only provides excellent subject-specific teaching, but also combines it with practical application knowledge in the highly relevant and exciting field of training and examining aerospace personnel such as air traffic controllers, pilots and astronauts.
Prof Stern is thus making an important contribution to the aerospace curriculum at TU Braunschweig. New methods of human-machine interaction, new innovative approaches to cockpit design and the development of new pilot assistance functions for future aviation systems play an important role in both teaching and research. They are directly integrated into the relevant research projects of the Institute of Flight Guidance (IFF) at TU Braunschweig and other aerospace institutes.
TU President Angela Ittel, Honorary Professor Dr Claudia Stern and Prof Peter Hecker, Head of the Institute of Flight Guidance and Vice President for Research at TU Braunschweig. Picture credits: Silja Klemenz/TU Braunschweig
About the person
Dr Claudia Stern, MD, graduated from the University of Bonn with a degree in human medicine and completed further training in ophthalmology at the University Clinics of Bonn and Hamburg. At the same time, she began training in aviation medicine at the German Air Force Institute for Aviation Medicine, which she had already prepared for during her studies. Between 1990 and 1993, she supervised an experiment on the first German MIR mission and the German-American D2 mission and participated in several parabolic flights. In 1995, she completed a research internship at the Air Force Human System Center in San Antonio, Texas. In 1996, she completed her Ph.D. on “Visual requirements in the workplace: experimental investigations of the visual acuity of air traffic controllers”. Since then she has been working at the DLR in Cologne, Germany, where she heads the Department of Clinical Aerospace Medicine at the Institute of Aerospace Medicine.
Since 2015, she has been a lecturer at the International Space University in Strasbourg and a lecturer at TU Braunschweig, where she gives lectures on aerospace medicine. Since 2017, she has been teaching at the University of the Federal Armed Forces in Munich.