“With UTN, we have a unique opportunity to address the societal challenges of the future effectively by developing new methods and structures in research, teaching, transfer, and governance. This mission motivates me greatly. Together with a dedicated team, we are building UTN step by step and sharpening its academic profile. A central focus is the consistent concentration on artificial intelligence.”
– Prof. Dr. Michael Huth
Founding President
Prof. Dr. Michael Huth took office as the Founding President of the University of Technology Nuremberg (UTN) on October 1, 2024. Prof. Huth joined UTN from Imperial College London, one of the top ten universities in the world. At Imperial, he served as Professor of Computer Science, Head of the Department of Computing, and he continues to serve as a Visiting Professor. In research and teaching, his focus is on forward-looking topics in the areas of artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.
Prof. Huth was born in Aschaffenburg in Lower Franconia and returned to Bavaria after more than 30 years at renowned universities in Great Britain and the USA. He studied mathematics at the TU Darmstadt and received his PhD from Tulane University, New Orleans. He then researched and taught, e.g., at the TU Darmstadt and Kansas State University, and spent a research sabbatical at the University of Oxford.
Alongside his academic work, Prof. Huth is Co-Founder and Senior Researcher at the Berlin-based AI start-up Noxtua.
„As Founding Vice President for Education and International Affairs I will have the unique opportunity to integrate innovative, digitalized and evidence-based digital learning designs into a university right from the start and to permanently entrench it there. The concept of the University of Technology Nuremberg enables us to completely re-think digital learning experience design approaches in higher education.“
– Prof. Dr. Isa Jahnke
Founding Vice President for Education and International Affairs
Since January 1st, 2022, Prof. Dr. Isa Jahnke has been Founding Vice President for Education and International Affairs at the University of Technology Nuremberg. In addition, she has been granted professorship of Information Science and Learning Technologies.
Prof. Jahnke is a renowned expert in the field of digital learning. As Founding Vice President for Education and International Affairs she is responsible for incorporating digital teaching and learning at the University of Technology Nuremberg. For more than 15 years, she has studied digital learning and the implementation of modern technologies in teaching and learning. One of the core competences of Prof. Jahnke is to combine IT-related issues with educational science.
Prof. Jahnke completed her dissertation as Dr. phil. (Ph.D.) at TU Dortmund in 2005. From 2011 to 2015, she was Professor at the Department for Applied Educational Sciences at Umeå University in Sweden. From 2015 to 2021, she was Associate Professor at the School of Information Science and Learning Technologies within the University of Missouri-Columbia in the United States, where she was also Director of the Information Experience Lab.
„With UTN, we are developing a research environment in which academic excellence, innovative strength, and an entrepreneurial mindset work hand in hand. We see the systematic integration of research and transfer as the foundation for addressing concrete societal challenges. Our goal is to translate new scientific insights from interdisciplinary approaches into societal and economic impact, while consistently feeding impulses from practice back into research and teaching. We understand transfer as a process of dialogue and co-creation. On this basis, we are shaping UTN’s profile as an impulse-driving university with a clear focus on artificial intelligence.“
– Prof. Dr. Alexander Martin
Founding Vice President for Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship
On April 1, 2023, Prof. Dr. Alexander Martin joined UTN as Founding Vice President for Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship. He is also Deputy Founding President of the UTN.
Alexander Martin studied business mathematics at the University of Augsburg and earned his doctorate and habilitation in mathematics at the Technical University of Berlin. After that, he was assistant head of the Optimization Department at the Konrad Zuse Institute in Berlin (ZIB). In 2000, he was appointed Professor at the Technical University Darmstadt where he was Vice President from 2008 – 2010. Most recently, he became Head of the Chair of Analytics & Mixed-Integer Optimization at the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg. As of 2019, he is one of three Institute Directors of the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS in Erlangen, where he represents, among other things, the topics of data analytics and artificial intelligence as part of the ADA Lovelace Center. He has participated in different initiatives of the German Research Foundation (DFG) and is involved in several collaborative projects of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection. He is also co-editor of several international journals.
In addition, Prof. Martin is a member of the Senate and Grants Committee for Research of the DFG for graduate programs and Chairman of the Board of the Society for Operations Research.
“UTN and its AI focus stand for the interdisciplinary integration of natural, biological, engineering and the humanities – a unique and forward-looking approach within the university landscape. At the heart of this approach are people, including those who work or study at UTN. With my many years of experience in strategic human resource management as well as organizational and cultural transformation, I am eager to actively contribute to shaping this development.”
– Arina Zonner
Founding Vice President for Staff, Alumni and Equity
Since 1 March 2026, Arina Zonner is on the Executive Board of UTN as its first Vice President for Staff, Alumni and Gender Equity. She holds strategic responsibility in particular for recruitment and staff development, as well as for the areas of equal opportunities and alumni relations.
Arina Zonner has more than 22 years of professional experience in the banking and consulting sectors. She holds a Master’s degree in Business Psychology (M.Sc.) and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Law (LL.B.) and has been working in senior HR leadership roles for over ten years, most recently as Head of Human Resources and Authorized Signatory. Alongside her leadership activities, she is active as an author of specialist books, keynote speaker, and podcaster.
„Precisely because in my former municipal role I was able to accompany the founding and development of UTN from the very beginning, it is all the more appealing to now serve here as Vice President for Administration. My responsibilities include, among other things, overseeing staff growth, construction projects, as well as the establishment and further development of structures. I look forward to working on these tasks together with UTN’s strong team!“
– Dr. Michael Fraas
Vice President for Administration
Dr. Michael Fraas has been Vice President for Administration of UTN since September 1, 2025. Previously, he held the professorship for Business Law and Transfer at Technische Hochschule Nürnberg Georg Simon Ohm. From 2011 to 2023, he served as a full-time city councillor as well as the representative for economic and science affairs to the city of Nuremberg.
His professional career previously took him to Berlin to the Federal Ministry for Economics and Technology and into the private sector – including positions at Taylor Wessing law firm and Ernst & Young. Fraas was born in 1968, studied law at the Universities of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Lausanne, and Passau, and earned his doctorate at the University of Passau in 1998. After completing his legal clerkship in the Higher Regional Court district of Munich, he passed the second state examination in law.
Contacts
Prof. Dr. Michael Huth
Founding President
president@utn.de
+499119274-1000
Prof. Dr. Isa Jahnke
Founding Vice President for
Education and International Affairs
vp-learning@utn.de
+499119274-1200
Prof. Dr. Alexander Martin
Founding Vice President for Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship
vp-research@utn.de
+499119274-1400
Arina Zonner
Founding Vice President for Staff, Alumni and Equity
vp-sae@utn.de
Dr. Michael Fraas
Vice President for
Administration
kanzler@utn.de
+499119274-2000
Office of the Executive Board
Anna Bauer
- Phone number: +49 911 92741102
Tatjana Fink
- Phone number: +49 911 92742000
Katrin Langer
- Phone number: +49 911 92741000