2022 Prof Johann Dietrich-Wörner

Jan Wörner’s career at the Technical University (TU) Darmstadt began in 1990, initially as Professor of
Civil Engineering then taking over as Head of the Test and Research Institute, and later held the position
of Dean of the newly established Civil Engineering Faculty.

 
He was elected as President of TU Darmstadt in 1995 heading the university until 2007. By 2005 he had
succeeded in making it the first autonomous university in the Federal Republic of Germany.
As Chairman of the Executive Board of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) from 2007 to 2015, he
created a jointly-operating research centre out of the original loose association of institutes. In this role,
he was the Head of the German delegation to the European Space Agency (ESA), also serving as
Chairman of the ESA Council from 2012 to 2014.

 
Nominated Director General of ESA in 2015, and noting the paradigm shift occurring at that time, he
placed his initial four-year mandate under the theme of “Space 4.0” representing a new path of space
travel into the future, encompassing many aspects including New Space and commercialisation and
involving new roles, motivations, actors and technologies and to create a “United Space in Europe”.
And the latest meeting of the ESA Ministerial Council held at the end of 2019 in Seville, was a huge
success: the Director General called for 14.3 billion Euros from the Member States, but received
commitments totalling 14.5 billion.

 
Jan Wörner has praised the outstanding success of the ESA-developed satellite navigation system
Galileo, a system three times more accurate than the American GPS, and is highly aware of the need to
reduce space debris, which poses collision risks for satellites.

 
Another great legacy is Jan Wörner’s “Moon Village“, his vision of a community settlement on the moon,
which he refers to as a Multi Partner Open Concept. Today, with the NASA Artemis multi-national Moon
programme commencing with the “Lunar Gateway” also involving private sector players like Elon Musk
and Jeff Bezos, his vision is in reach. As he says “No coincidence. ESA explicitly stands for cooperation.
In space, things only work together.”

 
Prof. Wörner has been awarded numerous prizes and positions, such as the Prize of the Organisation of
Friends of Technical University Darmstadt for ‘outstanding scientific performance’.

 
He was also appointed to the Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and to the Convention for
Technical Sciences (acatech) and is a representative of the Technical Sciences Section of the
Leopoldina, the national academy of sciences of Germany.

 
Prof. Wörner has received honorary doctorates from New York State University at Buffalo (USA),
technical universities of Bucharest (Romania) and Mongolia, the Saint Petersburg University for
Economics and Finance (Russia) and École Centrale de Lyon (France).

 
He has received the Federal Cross of Merit (Officer’s cross, 1st class) of the Federal Republic of
Germany for his continuous efforts regarding the next generation of scientists and Germany as a location
for Science, Technology and Engineering.

 
He was awarded the honours of Knight of the French Légion d’Honneur and an Honorary Fellowship of
the Royal Aeronautical Society.