Welcome

Dear students,

I would like to welcome you as a new student at the Faculty of Environmental Sciences at TU Dresden. We are very pleased that you have chosen TU Dresden and our faculty and we wish you a good start as well as much joy and success in your studies.
Our faculty unites - uniquely in Germany - the three environmentally related scientific fields of Forest Sciences, Geosciences and Hydrosciences under one roof. Approximately 2,200 students are enrolled in our German-language and international Bachelor's and Master's degree programmes, and teaching and research are carried out by 47 professors and a broad academic staff. The interdisciplinary and international orientation of our faculty creates great synergy potential in teaching and research.

In the Humboldtian sense, research and teaching are inseparable at a university. Central topics in the research of the Faculty of Environmental Sciences are the sustainable development of the human habitat and the monitoring of the Earth system on global, regional and local scales. As a student, you also have the opportunity to get involved in research - be it in the form of theses on current research topics or by working on research projects as a student or research assistant. In this way, you can already gain professional experience in the scientific field during your studies, get to know the structure of a university and make contacts - actively take advantage of your opportunities here as well!

As you know, the winter semester 2021/22 will also take place under difficult conditions, a complete 'normal' attendance will probably not be possible, and everyone involved (teachers, learners, planners) will again be required to be quite flexible. The corona-related restrictions will probably require considerable changes to teaching concepts for many courses this semester as well. Some lectures will probably have to be held in digital formats again this semester, and many new formats will also be used for other forms of teaching. This does not have to be a disadvantage, and the past year and a half has shown that innovative ideas and forms of teaching have often emerged from necessity. However, it will certainly require a lot of commitment and flexibility from everyone involved - you as students as well as the lecturers and scientific and technical staff. All teachers are aware of this and will try to offer you as complete and high-quality a teaching programme as possible, even under these difficult conditions, even if the conception and implementation of new forms of teaching sometimes entails considerable additional time and technical effort. Please understand if new forms of teaching do not always work one hundred percent straight away, and feel encouraged to offer constructive criticism wherever you see potential for improvement. Experience from 2020/21 shows that both learners and teachers miss direct contact with each other in digital teaching formats. Please therefore make intensive use of the technical possibilities offered by the various digital teaching formats to minimise this deficit. Questions are always welcome!

With this in mind, I wish everyone a successful winter semester 2021/22!

Prof. Dr. Hans-Gerd Maas
Dean Faculty of Environmental Sciences