Professor Emeritus Kurt-Heinz Bauer has served as alumni representative of the Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy for 16 years. He uses the post to build bridges between his faculty and the Alumni Office as well as between current students and alumni.

For decades, professor Kurt-Heinz Bauer devoted his efforts to research, helping to pave the way for important innovations in the field of pharmaceutical technology. Today, as alumni representative of the Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy, he commits himself to promoting talented and dedicated students. Each year he awards Alumni Freiburg’s prizes for academic achievement to students at the faculty and invites young graduates to stay in contact with the university.

Recognizing students for social involvement is also very important to him. He is thus more than happy to advise candidates for the “Alumni Prize for Social Involvement” awarded each year by Alumni Freiburg e.V. and is impressed by the wide range of causes the candidates give their time and effort to support. The 2000-euro prize helps the students to spread the word about their cause and extend their involvement.

Professor Bauer first came into personal contact with the idea of alumni work while studying in the USA in the 1960s, long before it caught on Germany around two decades ago. Now fully committed to the idea of maintaining contact with one’s alma mater and establishing contact between the university and its former students, he has served as a liaison between the Alumni Office, the faculty, and alumni for 16 years as the alumni representative of his faculty. He helps the Alumni Office to organize events at his faculty for alumni meetings and occasionally receives visits from his former students.

The professor emeritus regards the support he provides to students as a means of ensuring scientific progress, the cornerstone of Germany’s prosperity. But in addition to his work as alumni representative, he also promotes young academic talents by making financial contributions. Last year he gave 2000 euros to the Deutschlandstipendium scholarship program and established a generous endowment at the university. He provided the endowment with an initial amount of 200,000 euros and pledged to donate all future proceeds from a European patent he applied for in 2004 and received in 2008 to the endowment fund.