The appointment as an honorary citizen of the TUD Dresden University of Technology (TUD) is a recognition of personalities outside the immediate university community who have contributed significantly to the further development of the university with their merits and achievements.

Table of contents

1. 1. Christiane Schaufler-Münch
   2. Gunda Röstel
   3. Martin Richter

Christiane Schaufler-Münch

For her solidarity and commitment to the promotion of science and research at the TUD, the Senate decided on March 12, 2025 to award Christiane Schaufler-Münch the TUD Honorary Citizenship. Christiane Schaufler-Münch has supported TUD in many ways through THE SCHAUFLER FOUNDATION, which she co-founded. This includes support for the Schaufler Lab@TU Dresden, the Schaufler Chair of Refrigeration, Cryogenics and Compressor Technology, the financing of numerous TUD German scholarships and the commitment to the new building of the University School Dresden. Christiane Schaufler-Münch passed away on April 16, 2025 at the age of 90.

• The Schaufler Lab@TU Dresden offers a lively and integrative platform for renowned artists and young scientists from the humanities and social sciences to reflect on and research future issues and to explore the relationships between technology, art, science and society. The Schaufler Lab@TU Dresden was founded in 2020 by THE SCHAUFLER FOUNDATION and the TUD and supports a research training group and an artist residency at the TUD. The Research Training Group consists of ten doctoral students from different disciplines. The project is divided into three three-year phases. The first phase focused on developments in artificial intelligence and the transformation of society and culture. The second funding phase, which began in 2024 and will run until 2027, focuses on "Data <-> Worlds. Socio-technical and cultural syntheses of new realities". The Schaufler Residency@TU Dresden is an artist-in-residence program for the promotion of artistic research that offers international artists the opportunity to become part of the scientific community at TUD for six months. The program is aimed at visual artists from the fields of performance, installation, media art (video, sound, etc.) who also understand their artistic practice in terms of time-based art. The projects of the Schaufler Residency@TU Dresden with the annually changing artists in residence are closely linked to the themes of the Schaufler Kolleg@TU Dresden and promote each other.
• From 2010 to 2015, THE SCHAUFLER FOUNDATION supported the Bitzer Endowed Chair of Refrigeration, Cryogenics and Compressor Technology (formerly the Chair of Refrigeration and Compressor Technology) at the Faculty of Mechanical Science and Engineering at TUD, thus enabling research and teaching in the field of refrigeration systems and heat pumps to be maintained and continued. Since 2015, TUD has once again funded the Chair from its own resources. From 2015 to 2021, THE SCHAUFLER FOUNDATION also funded a habilitation position at the Chair and, since 2015, the international graduate program "Future Refrigeration and Compressor Technologies" and the International Summer School "International Refrigeration and Compressor Course". This supports international exchange on current developments in refrigeration, heat pump, air conditioning and compressor technology at doctoral and student level. The SCHAUFLER FOUNDATION also supports various scientific research projects in the basic field of refrigeration technology at TUD.
• THE SCHAUFLER FOUNDATION has been funding several TUD Germany Scholarships since 2011, with funds totaling approximately €250,000 to date. The Germany Scholarship supports students who are expected to achieve outstanding academic and professional results. The monthly grant of €300 for each scholarship holder is paid 50/50 by the federal government and private sponsors.

Gunda Röstel

At its meeting on September 13, 2023, the Senate decided to appoint Gunda Röstel, former Chair of the TU Dresden University Council, as an honorary citizen of TU Dresden. The honorary citizenship ceremony took place on June 13, 2024 in the University Executive Board's ballroom.

To thank her, Gunda Röstel received a painting by the scientist Iaroslav Babenko entitled "Gray-Scott-morphospace". The picture was submitted by doctoral student Iaroslav Babenko to the Scientific Image Contest of the former Cluster of Excellence cfaed in 2021.

Gunda Röstel works with great commitment, selflessly and for the good of the community. As Chair of the TU Dresden University Council, she was a stroke of luck. She was already a voting member of TU Dresden's Advisory Board, the predecessor body to the University Council. When the University Council was established in 2010 with new tasks and
responsibilities, she was involved from the outset and also became its first chairperson. She fulfills her role - a mixture of supervision, advice and lobbying for the university - with great dedication. For a player of her stature, this alone is still completely within the expected scope and, considered in isolation, still below the threshold for an award. The focus should therefore be on both the results and the way in which Gunda Röstel is committed to science.

Three aspects are particularly noteworthy:

• Her commitment is characterized by great mediation skills within the university and her never-ending networking efforts between social stakeholders from business, science and politics. Examples of this are her work on the Coal Structure Commission, the Saxony Innovation Advisory Council and her activities on behalf of Local Agenda 21.
• The way in which Gunda Röstel carries out her social commitment is formative and particularly worthy of recognition. She is guided by a firmly rooted ethical compass that is equally oriented towards what is ecologically necessary and towards social coexistence. Her actions are always guided by decision-making standards based on the intellectual penetration of the issues raised. It is therefore a role model for women as well as for students and young managers.
• In preparation for the University Executive Board elections since 2010, her clever and prudent work as chair of the selection committees has been exemplary in shaping the nationwide change in the procedure for recruiting external candidates for the University Executive Board as opposed to the traditional purely internal election.

The calm yet precise matter-of-factness and her unerring sense of humor with which she has exercised the highly responsible and time-consuming function on the TU Dresden University Council for years without remuneration are also remarkable.

Martin Richter

The Senate passed a resolution at its meeting on November 13, 2019,
Martin Richter, former Managing Director of Studentenwerk Dresden, as an honorary citizen of TU Dresden. Martin Richter is the first honorary citizen of TU Dresden.

News article on the appointment as honorary citizen