The vote was taken by the University Council at its most recent meeting. Professor Kosch, who holds the Chair of Distributed Information Systems, accepted the vote, saying: 'I look forward to my work as Vice President and wish to contribute to the further development of our University-wide information systems, to the continuous improvement and expansion of our IT services as well as the internationalisation of our services'. Over the next two years his responsibilities will be centred on the University's technical workshops and laboratories, the Centre for Information Technology and Media Services (ZIM) as well as IT projects.
Harald Kosch studied at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and at Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, where he gained his doctorate in 1997 under Lionel Brunie. Subsequently, he worked as Senior Research Assistant at the University of Klagenfurt, Austria, before receiving a professorial appointment at the University of Passau in 2006. In parallel to his current teaching and research activities at the University of Passau, Harald Kosch is the German Director of the Tri-national Doctoral College with INSA Lyon and the University of Passau, which focuses on joint research in intelligent digital systems.
Professor Kosch received numerous prizes for his publications and dedication to internationalisation, including the Award for Services to Internationalisation of the University of Passau in 2013. Most recently, he was made Chevalier de l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques, one of the highest French decorations for services to French education.