Elections | Doctoral Council of TU Dresden 2025/26

From 11 to 13 June 2025, the Doctoral Council of TU Dresden, representing all doctoral candidates of TU Dresden, will be elected again for the term of office of one year. The elections are free, equal and secret are organized according to the election regulations of the TU Dresden of 27 September 2024.

All doctoral candidates of TU Dresden who have been accepted for doctoral studies and registered in Promovendus are eligible to vote and will receive an invitation to vote online on 11 June.

Candidates for the election of the Doctoral Council are:

Ankit Anil Chaudhari	Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences
Heiner Bauer	Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Felix Beyer	Faculty of Architecture and Landscape
Carolin Deuter	Faculty of Mechanical Science and Engineering
Paul Heber	Faculty of Civil Engineering
Karolin Küster	Faculty of Biology
Michael Krell	Faculty of Environmental Sciences
Elizabeth Michels	Faculty of Psychology
Peter Rothe	Faculty of Environmental Sciences
Philipp Hanisch	Faculty of Computer Science
Nelly Saibel	Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Science
István Simon	Faculty of Business and Economics
Maren Weissig	Faculty of Architecture and Landscape

This is where the candidates introduce themselves personally:

Ankit Anil Chaudhari
My motivation to run for the Doctoral Council of TU Dresden comes from a strong desire to improve the doctoral experience through better networking, academic exchange, and visibility of opportunities.
Having been both a master’s exchange student and now as a doctoral researcher at TU Dresden, I've experienced the academic and social transitions. I currently support DAAD-funded exchange students in settling and integrating into our academic environment. These experiences have shown me the impact of peer-driven support, which I now want to expand through active involvement in the Doctoral Council. I believe it is a key platform to promote collaboration, broaden access to opportunities, and ensure that doctoral voices are heard.

What I would like to achieve as a member of the TU Dresden Doctoral Council:

• "Strengthen interdisciplinary networking" - by supporting events that bring together doctoral researchers across faculties and encouraging collaboration.
• "Promote academic exchange opportunities" - by increasing visibility of mobility programs, scholarships, and partnerships with institutions such as from the DRESDEN-concept network, helping more doctoral candidates benefit from national and international experiences.
• "Improve access to job openings and funding opportunities" - specifically tailored to the needs of doctoral researchers. These goals align with the Council’s mission to support networking, represent doctoral interests, and advocate for better research conditions.

Heiner Bauer
My motivation for running for the Doctoral Council at TU Dresden: 

• Continuing the activities of the Doctoral Council to date and representing a faculty in the field of engineering

What I would like to achieve as a member of the Doctoral Council at TU Dresden:

• Organizing events to promote exchange between doctoral students from different faculties, e.g., science slams, presentations on individual topics, excursions, etc.
• Strengthening continuing education opportunities for doctoral students

Felix Beyer
By running for the Doctoral Council, I would like to actively contribute to shaping the situation of doctoral students at our university. My goal is to make the interests of doctoral students visible to the university, the faculties, and other committees and to represent them. I believe it is particularly important that doctoral students are involved at an early stage in decisions that directly affect them - whether in terms of doctoral requirements, financing, or working conditions - and that their voices are heard.

Another focus of my commitment is to improve the general conditions: I believe it is important to have fair, predictable employment contracts and transparent and reliable supervision structures, as well as better integration of doctoral candidates without a doctoral position to improve networking among us as doctoral candidates. In the long term, I also see this as contributing to the promotion of young academics as a whole, as good framework conditions not only strengthen the individual doctoral process, but also increase the attractiveness of an academic career.

Carolin Deuter
I would like to not only represent doctoral students at TU Dresden, but also actively participate in networking among doctoral students. Interdisciplinary exchange among doctoral students opens up new perspectives - and perhaps even new friendships!
Especially when you are new to the city - this applies to both foreign doctoral students and doctoral students who previously attended another German university - it can be lonely at first. The monthly meetings are a great opportunity to meet like-minded people, and this should definitely be continued!

I would like to support the monthly get-togethers and other events and am open to setting up a support program for everyone who is new to Dresden.

Paul Heber
I have been a doctoral student at TU Dresden for two years and benefit in my research work from what I consider to be the university's already excellent conditions. I would like to preserve these
and, where possible, improve them even further.

It is important to me to represent and implement the interests of doctoral students in order to maintain or create optimal conditions for the doctoral students at our university in their (not always) easy doctoral process. Furthermore, I would like to strengthen the exchange and network between the individual faculties, as I have experienced from my own experience how this can result in very positive and productive synergies - which, however, is only possible if people are networked and more familiar with each other.

Elizabeth Michels
I want to help other doctoral students navigate this intense phase more easily. From my own experience, I know how important exchange, transparent structures, and active representation of interests are - and that is exactly what I want to work toward. I want to advocate for doctoral students and help them navigate their doctoral studies. I want to help doctoral students at TU Dresden network better, feel heard, and receive targeted support. Transparent information and low-threshold exchange are particularly important to me.

Peter Rothe
As a doctoral student at the Chair of Human Geography, I have a deep interest in social transformation processes, global justice and sustainable development. My academic engagement with social spaces, power relations and the effects of neoliberal policies on urban living realities has sharpened my political compass - clearly social, emancipatory and solidary. I am running for the Doctoral Students Council
because I am convinced that universities must not only be places of knowledge production, but also of political engagement.

I am committed to improving working conditions for student and academic staff. Those who support teaching, research, and administration - often in precarious, temporary, or poorly paid positions - deserve our full solidarity. Employee rights do not end at the doors of universities. My goal is a university that not only researches social justice, but also lives it: through fair wages, transparent structures, and a culture of shared responsibility. I would like to contribute to this in a committed, critical, and constructive manner in the
Doctoral Students Council.

Philipp Hanisch
As part of my project work that complements my doctoral studies, I am in contact with and responsible for doctoral students from different faculties at TU Dresden and Leipzig University. Hence, I would like to contribute my experience and to learn more to better support these doctoral students. Moreover, I would like to contribute to improving the life of doctoral students in general.

As a member of the TU Dresden Doctoral Council I would like to contribute to the following aspects of the doctoral council:

• increase the visibility of the doctoral council,
• foster the exchange across faculties,
• transfer best practices between faculties,
• be a contact point for doctoral students, especially when facing difficulties, and
• strengthen the voice of the doctoral students.

Michael Krell
The interests of doctoral students often take a back seat in the neoliberal university structure. Between the pressure to perform, pressure from superiors, and precarious employment conditions such as chain fixed-term contracts, compulsory part-time work, or uncertain scholarships, we doctoral students are sometimes literally crushed. Planning for the future is virtually impossible under these employment conditions, compounded by dependence on professors who like to overload their doctoral students with tasks other than their doctoral studies. What is needed here is honest and combative representation of interests that is prepared to act confidently toward other status groups.

My primary objective is to enhance the structural conditions of the doctorate and to provide support to doctoral students in the event of difficulties.

Nelly Saibel
I am running for the Doctoral Council at TU Dresden so that the interests of doctoral students in the humanities and social sciences are represented. I am also running so that, beyond my doctoral studies, I can continue to build bridges between the various disciplines at the university through my involvement at TU Dresden.

I would like to draw the university's attention to the specific living and working conditions of (international) doctoral students. The university is still a hierarchical system, and there is no such thing as “overtime” for doctoral students. Socially disadvantaged groups are often unable to break through this glass ceiling, whether due to care work or precarious working conditions at the university. In addition, I would like to promote dialogue between doctoral students across disciplines, for example by organizing events (social events, interdisciplinary elevator (pitch) matchmaking).

István Simon
I have been part of the TU Doctoral Council since 2022. During the first year I acted as deputy, than as spokesperson and the this term again as deputy spokesperson of the council. With my coordination we have developed new rules of procedure that is fair and democratic to assure the safe and smooth operation of the council for the coming years and generations. I feel there is much more to do in this respect. I would like to continue this work, promote the importance of emotional intelligence and
soft-skill development, because I believe that phd students can have a great positive impact on our society and they also diserve the best possible environments for their research and their future.

It is my aim for the next term to provide council and support for phd candidates, create lively phd events for networking and idea exchange as well as to contribute to the sustainable scientific careers of phd candidates in Dresden and Saxony, connecting them with networks and organizations who are looking for special, knowledgeable expertise in various fields, such as for example: technology, management and innovation.
I would like to help the university culture by offering the contextualization of inclusion and
discrimination as social health and well-being questions. I believe this may open new doors to prevention and intervention processes.

Maren Weissig
For me, it goes without saying that I represent the interests of doctoral candidates at TU Dresden vis-à-vis the university management and the state of Saxony. Doctoral candidates make an
important contribution to research, teaching, and practice - this commitment deserves more visibility, appreciation, and individual support. I would like to work to ensure that their needs
are recognized and their working conditions improved. I am particularly motivated by the
opportunity to work constructively and solution-oriented with and for doctoral students as part of a team – both for those who are in the middle of their doctorate and for all those who decide to pursue this path.

As a member of the Doctoral Student Council, I am committed to diversity and equal opportunities in all their dimensions – such as age, health, family and care responsibilities, origin, gender, or ethnicity. I want to help shape a university that treats doctoral candidates as equals, takes a more nuanced view of individual life trajectories and challenges in the doctoral process, and takes these into account appropriately. Better conditions for self-funded doctoral candidates, greater recognition of their achievements, and funding opportunities are particularly important to me. I want to contribute to regional and international networking and motivate doctoral candidates to persevere even in difficult phases.