Chancellor

Karsten Gerlof

Karsten Gerlof earned a degree in physics with a minor in economics from the University of Oldenburg. He served as a student member of the academic senate and spent time abroad in Spain at a centre for research on solar energy use.

After graduating, he worked, among other things, at the Science and Research Administration of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, first as an advisor to the Senator and later as head of the Presidential Department. In 2002, Gerlof became head of the staff unit Program-Oriented Funding at the Helmholtz Association’ DESY Research Centre. Another station of his career was the North Rhine-Westphalian Ministry of Science before he was elected Chancellor of Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences in 2007. He served in the same position at the University of Potsdam from 2013 to 2022. Towards the end of 2022, he became Chancellor of the University of Cologne.

Karsten Gerlof is involved in national and state-wide working groups. From 2011 to 2013, he coordinated the national working group on accounting and controlling of the chancellors of universities of applied sciences in Germany. In addition, he has served as the spokesperson for university chancellors in Berlin and Brandenburg from 2016 to 2022. He lectures at the Centre for Science Management (Zentrum für Wissenschaftsmanagement) in Speyer.