INGENIUM Team
Marie Rüppell-Wee
Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences
About
Self-Description: With extensive experience working in the field of intercultural exchange in academic and international organisations in Europe and Asia, I found a new home in the higher education setting doing exactly this.
Motivation: Connecting people on a multi-layered level, regardless of demographic categories, academic disciplines or affiliation to a specific institution seems to be the most natural way forward to deal with the big issues and challenges of our times. The INGENIUM family offers just this: unity in diversity. How exciting!
Fun/Random Fact: I’m a member of the “Three Peaks of Yorkshire Club”.
Joachim Lembach
About
Self-Description: With a Master’s degree in Linguistics from Germany and a PhD in German Studies from England I have worked in higher education in the UK, Hong Kong, and Germany for almost thirty years, both in teaching and administrative roles.
Motivation: Despite, or perhaps because of, my strong professional and personal connection with the United Kingdom, which much to my regret has chosen a different path, I very much believe in the idea of European unity and cannot think of a better project to help achieve this goal than INGENIUM, which brings together students and academics from ten European nations in all their glorious and fascinating diversity.
Fun/Random Fact: I play the cello in an amateur chamber orchestra.
Mikael Ejdebäck
University of Skövde, Sweden
About
Self-Description: In addition to my role as a deputy vice chancellor for internationalisation, I am also head of the School of Bioscience. I have a PhD in biochemistry and am now an associate professor in molecular biology.
Motivation: Science is global and sees no borders. What you see on the map are just constructed and artificial lines. Cooperation is the key to excellence and I believe that the INGENIUM Alliance could bring students, teachers and researchers together to work towards this goal.
Fun/Random Fact: I did my postdoctorate in Dublin, Ireland.
Marcello Costantini
About
Self-Description: I am a cognitive neuroscientist, interested in how the physical body shapes brain activity and our experience of the environment. I have worked in Canada (University of Ottawa) and the UK (University of Essex).
Motivation: Tolerance is a virtue. I believe that our responsibility, as academics, is to push our students to become more tolerant to diversity and to open their minds. European universities are the best place to achieve these goals.
Fun/Random Fact: I am a tango dancer, to be honest, a really good tango dancer. I play guitar, and love skating.
Agustin Nieto
About
Self-Description: Professor of Theoretical Physics. PhD at Madrid Autonoma U.; Postdoctorates at Northwestern, Ohio State, and CERN. I have worked on Quantum Effective Field Theories and Supersymmetry. Lately, I have been amusing myself by looking into the mathematical foundations of black holes.
Motivation: Universities are a unique creation of the European civilization. The INGENIUM European University is made up of diverse universities and countries that, by encouraging mobility of students and staff, can contribute to a better understanding of ourselves, our shared values and also our cultural differences.
Fun/Random Fact: I love bad movies.
Kossioris Georgios
About
Self-Description: Since 1995 I have been teaching Mathematics at the University of Crete with expertise in Applied Analysis, Partial Differential Equations & Mathematical Modelling. My service as a Deputy Rector also includes acting as Institutional Erasmus+ Coordinator; Chair of the QA committee; Head of LLL.
Motivation: Through the INGENIUM Alliance, we are pursuing excellence in education and research, and adapting to the forthcoming challenges in European Higher Education Area.
Fun/Random Fact: The main field of my research is Partial Differential Equations and Applications.
Eric Dargent
About
Self-Description: As Professor in Material Sciences, I am interested in biodegradable and bio-sourced polymers. I had the opportunity to open up to internationalisation by leading a master and a French-American research laboratory.
Motivation: I am deeply European, I believe that our generation has the responsibility to help the next generation to better understand the world, to collaborate between themselves to seize the great environmental challenges. INGENIUM is a great European adventure that modestly participates in this.
Fun/Random Fact: I’ll let you in on a secret: I’m a pure Norman who hates cheese. Don’t tell anyone!
Elina Orfanoudaki
About
Self-Description: After spending over a decade working in touristic development and strategic planning projects, I joined the URN’s international relations and cooperation office in September 2021. I have a Master’s degree in Local development policies and in Touristic development and planning.
Motivation: INGENIUM represents all the potential a multicultural, interuniversity alliance can offer in terms of strengthening European values by bringing together students, researchers, teachers and staff and by creating opportunities for them to jointly address common challenges.
Fun/Random Fact: I moved to Rouen from Greece to pursue my first Master’s degree, for what I thought would be a year. I have now been living here for 17 years.
Eeva Kuoppala
About
Self-Description: My specialities are teaching, development and pedagogical management. In particular, I am interested in learning in collaboration between education and working life. My diverse career at the Finnish University of Applied Sciences consists of teaching, administration, and development. I get inspired by developing things together with different experts and students
Motivation: INGENIUM is an ambitious and inspiring network to create great possibilities for European university students in the future.
Fun/Random Fact: I have a background in art education and I love culture, especially painting and dancing.
Dr. Heikki Saastamoinen
About
Self-Description: My name is Heikki and I have been leading Xamk for over 13 years. I studied for an M.Sc. in Computer Science at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, and for a Ph.D. in Information Systems at the University of Colorado in Boulder, USA. However, all my degrees are from the University of Jyväskylä. I have a mixed career as a senior executive in both business and academic worlds. In academics, I have served as a full professor, department chairman, dean, board member, vice president, and president both at classic universities and at universities of applied sciences.
Motivation: I believe in cooperation and in bringing together the ideas from different countries, backgrounds, and cultures. That is a complex environment to achieve conclusions. However, it is always a great learning achievement, and when the conclusion is finally reached, it is superior to the conclusion drawn by just like-minded people with the same background. INGENIUM provides this opportunity to the students and the faculty and staff of all the partner universities.
Fun/Random Fact: Heikki enrolled into an M.Sc. degree programme at the age of 16 and got his first full-time teaching position on the M.Sc. programme at the age of 19.
Prof. Ger Kelly
About
Self-Description: Vice Head of the iEd hub at MTU – a Human Capital Initiative project which aims to develop a novel agile educational platform to produce next generation graduates for the Health & Life Science, Medical Technology and Biopharmaceutical Technology sectors in Ireland.
Motivation: Advocate for research ethics and integrity and committed to internationalisation and the experience and opportunity that mobility offers.
Fun/Random Fact: I have degrees in Civil Engineering, Offshore Engineering and Electrical engineering – so I am my own pocket-sized Faculty of Engineering.
Michael Loftus
About
Self-Description: I have a long track record of entrepreneurship and leadership in industry and in academia, having developed a successful international IT consultancy business and having held senior roles in IT consultancy, research, technical management, software development and faculty leadership.
Motivation: MTU has much to learn from its partners in Ingenium and has much to contribute to their development. MTU’s motto is “succeeding together” and the development of the Ingenium Alliance provides a wonderful opportunity to succeed together with talented and ambitious European partners for the advancement of all.
Fun/Random Fact: I love to photograph birds in flight!
Sean McSweeney
Munster Technological University, Ireland
About
Self-Description: Sean was previously Head of the Department of Computer Science at MTU and lectured in CyberSecurity and the Internet of Things (IoT) and was the department’s undergraduate final-year projects coordinator. My PhD is in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, my MSc in Robotics, Process and Automation Engineering and I completed a postdoctoral embedded with Chemists and Physicists and have spent the better part of a decade embedded in Computer Science so I love to learn in new fields and link my current knowledge to these!
Motivation: Strongly believe in knowledge sharing across domains and cultures as a means to improve so very excited for students on internationalisation and the experience and opportunity that mobility offers.
Fun/Random Fact: I am an avid reader of science fiction and fantasy novels.
Josette O’ Mullane
About
Self-Description: I have been working at the interface between academia and industry for almost thirty years and am co-founder of one of the largest on campus incubators in Ireland, the Rubicon Centre in MTU. My role in MTU includes research commercialisation, innovation supports and enterprise development and campus incubation.
Motivation: I have been involved in numerous EU projects on innovation, enterprise development and entrepreneurship. I am really interested in the concept of the Entrepreneurial University and through Entrepreneurial INGENIUM look forward to exploring and implementing staff and student entrepreneurial programmes with our partners.
Fun/Random Fact: The smell of good coffee always reminds me of EU partner meetings. Looking forward to meeting our partners in person for some good coffee and collaboration
Irina Lungu
Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi, Romania
About
Self-Description: My work is divided between acting as Professor in Civil Engineering in the geotechnical group for more than 30 years and that of Vice-rector for International Relations over the last 10 years. I am fascinated by the change of soil behaviour while interacting with the built environment and how deeply our decisions shape the urban landscape. My first international research mobility in 1994, at Ghent University, fuelled the belief in the role of Erasmus as a European Program: opening minds and changing lives.
Motivation: I see INGENIUM as building the Pangea of higher education in Europe. It is for us to keep it together, a way of providing the meaningful competences for our graduates, wisely negotiating the AI rise of power with our humanity. I am in awe of the team spirit, straightforward opinions, and ambitious planning we experience while working together.
Fun/Random Fact: I love folk music, fantasy novels, musical cartoons and playing charades.
Tsvetalina Tankova
About
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Motivation:
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