Dr. Alena Storm

Dr. Storm earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and a master’s degree in applied chemistry from Clausthal University of Technology, specializing in organic and physical chemistry. She then earned her Ph.D. on the synthesis and materials analysis of heterocycles at the Institute of Organic Chemistry at Clausthal University of Technology.

Since February 2021, Dr. Storm has been working as a research assistant in the Materials Analysis and Functional Solids research group at the Institute of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry, where she focuses in particular on planning and organizing the analytical chemistry lab courses. She is also responsible for the course “Quantitative Inorganic Analysis.”

Prof. Dr. Niels Neumann

Prof. Dr. Neumann holds the Chair of Communication Technology for the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).

He holds a doctorate in engineering and studied electrical engineering at TU Dresden. In 2020, he completed his habilitation at TU Dresden on the topic “Microwave Photonic Applications – From Chip Level to System Level.”

Prof. Dr. Neumann has experience in applications of high-frequency and communications technology, optical communications, microwave photonics, and the modeling and analysis of electromagnetic problems.

Throughout his academic career to date, he has published more than 100 papers, delivered presentations, and filed seven patent applications. He serves as a reviewer for more than 10 conferences and scientific journals, is a member of the program committee and TPC Chair for several conferences, and has successfully secured funding for over 25 national and European projects as well as industry research totaling more than €6 million.

Prof. Dr. Philip Jaeger

Since early 2020, Prof. Dr. Jaeger has held a chair at the Institute of Subsurface Energy Systems and serves as the program director for the bilingual bachelor’s program in Geo-Energy Systems, which was launched in 2022.

In the English-language master’s program in Petroleum Engineering, he is responsible for the modules “Fluid Phase and Flow Behavior” and “Geothermal Systems,” for the interdisciplinary group project, and for all modules in the “Drilling and Production” area. Both the student body of the aforementioned degree programs and the early-career researchers in his department are largely from non-European countries.

His research focuses on geothermal production systems and the investigation of phase and interfacial behavior of fluid systems under elevated process pressures, particularly involving carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and methane.

As a “Faculty Advisor” for the SPE student chapter at Clausthal University of Technology, he supports student initiatives and activities ranging from company presentations, field trips, student exchange programs, and international competitions to the organization of student conferences at Clausthal University of Technology.

Dr. Sebastian Sdrenka

Dr. Sdrenka has served as director of the Sports Institute at Clausthal University of Technology (SITUC) since September 2023. His primary interests lie in sports science and training design, college sports, project management, sustainability, health management, and organizational development.

He studied chemical engineering at Clausthal University of Technology. He completed his master’s thesis at the Institute of Technical Mechanics (ITM) in the Fluid Mechanics Department, while also participating in a research internship at Clariant Produkte (Deutschland) GmbH.

Following his master’s program, he moved to the Institute for Polymer Materials and Plastics Technology (PUK) and the Clausthal Center for Materials Technology (CMZ), where he earned his Ph.D. in 2022 in the field of materials science with a focus on biologization.

Dr. Sdrenka is also active in several volunteer positions and committees, including as chair and coach for university sports, with the DLRG, as a junior ambassador for doping prevention, as a judge for the “Jugend forscht e.V.” foundation, in the University Sports Association of Lower Saxony/Bremen (HVNB), and in the General German University Sports Association (adh). During his studies, he served on the adh student board as the representative for competitive sports and was a member of the competition committee. During this time, he supported national and international student sports events.

His motto is: “No actually means yes! You just need to find a different solution.”

Prof. Dr. Andreas Potschka

Prof. Dr. Potschka has been a professor of continuous optimization at the Institute of Mathematics at Clausthal University of Technology since October 2020.

He earned his Diplom (2006), his Ph.D. (2011), and his habilitation (2018) in mathematics at Heidelberg University.

In 2005, he spent time as a Complimentary Visiting Scholar at Rice University in Houston, TX, USA. From 2012 to 2020, he led the early-career research group “Model-based Optimizing Control” at the Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing at Heidelberg University.

He is the recipient of the Klaus Tschira Prize for Accessible Science in Mathematics (2012).

He also served as a visiting professor in the Department of Optimization (2014–2015) at the University of Mannheim and in the Department of Numerical Mathematics (2017) at Heidelberg University, and worked for eight months in 2020 at the ABB Research Center Germany in Ladenburg.