On 25 February, the farewell ceremony for Professor Dr Sybille Hellebrand and Professor Dr Reinhold Häb-Umbach took place in the Vice Dean's Office from 14:00. Institute Director Professor Dr Jens Förstner paid tribute to both with personal words on behalf of the entire faculty.
The farewell in the Vice Dean's Office formed part of several tributes: Both professors had already been officially farewelled by the President.
Professor Sybille Hellebrand, born in 1959, had been Head of the Department of Data Technology at the Institute of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology since 2004. After studying mathematics at the University of Regensburg and working in Karlsruhe, Grenoble, Siegen and Stuttgart, she was appointed to Paderborn University in 2004.
In addition to her research into testable and reliable microelectronic systems, she has been heavily involved in academic self-governance. She headed the institute from 2006 to 2011 and was instrumental in setting up the Computer Engineering study programme. Her scientific work has been honoured with the Baden-Württemberg State Teaching Prize, among other awards. She is also an IEEE Life Member and has been active in numerous international committees.
Professor Dr.-Ing. Häb-Umbach, born in 1959, has been Professor of Communications Engineering at Paderborn University since 2001. Prior to this, he worked for many years at Philips Research Laboratories and as a postdoctoral researcher at the IBM Almaden Research Centre in the USA.
His research focuses on statistical signal processing and machine learning, in particular for speech processing and communication systems. He has published over 300 scientific papers and supervised numerous successful doctoral theses.
Among his outstanding awards, he was named an IEEE Fellow in 2020, is a Fellow of the International Speech Communication Association (ISCA) and has held leading positions on numerous international expert committees and conferences, including Technical Programme Chair of Interspeech 2024.
In addition to his scientific excellence, international networking in his field has always been a particular concern of his. This enabled many of his doctoral candidates to gain valuable experience at renowned institutions and companies worldwide.
In Dr Hellebrand and Professor Häb-Umbach, the Institute is bidding farewell to two outstanding personalities who have significantly shaped research, teaching and academic life over many years. Their commitment and impulses will have an impact far beyond their active time.
