In January 2024, Prof Dr-Ing Patrick Scheele (48) has been appointed the new scientific managing director of the Ferdinand-Braun-Institut, Leibniz-Institut für Höchstfrequenztechnik (FBH). This management function is linked to the W3 professorship Microwave and Optoelectronics at Technische Universität Berlin. Together with administrative managing director Dr Karin-Irene Eiermann, Scheele will from now on form the joint executive management of the institute.

Scheele follows in the footsteps of long-standing scientific managing director Prof Dr Günther Tränkle, who has retired at the end of 2023. According to Tränkle, the FBH is in capable hands: “I am very pleased that we have been able to win Patrick Scheele as my successor, a proven expert in high-frequency electronics and an experienced leadership personality.” Scheele is looking forward to this challenge and to working with the research teams at the institute and the many partners from research and industry: “With its research topics in photonics, III-V electronics and quantum technologies combined with its excellent manufacturing capabilities, the Ferdinand-Braun-Institut is very well positioned. I see this broad spectrum as a great opportunity to combine the developments from these areas of expertise even more closely and transfer them into applications in line with demand.”

Previously Scheele worked at Hensoldt Sensors GmbH in Ulm and has known the institute for many years. From April 2015 to April 2023, he was a member and from 2017 also chairman of the scientific advisory board. As vice president and head of radar engineering at Hensoldt, he most recently led several large research and development teams with up to 950 employees. In addition to high-frequency electronics including circuit and antenna development, he was responsible for digital electronics and mechanical design along with environmental testing and the EMC laboratory. Over the past few years, he has also been responsible for software development and radar systems engineering. In previous professional positions, he worked on mobile communications components and highly reliable space sensors, among other things.

Senior Senate Counselor Bernd Lietzau, chairman of the FBH supervisory board, thanked Scheele’s predecessor Tränkle for his trusting cooperation over more than two decades and his “tireless commitment far beyond the call of duty. He actually made the direct transition in FBH’s scientific management possible in the first place by postponing his retirement several times. I wish Günther Tränkle all the best, health and happiness for his new phase of life.”

Lietzau is equally optimistic about the future: “Patrick Scheele has known the FBH for many years and has helped set the institute’s course. He will certainly contribute with his industrial experience to maintaining and expanding the transfer activities and thus continue the successful work of his predecessor.”

Further reading: Entangled photon pairs to help fighting cancer, wileyindustrynews.com, 27 February 2023 • First prototypes of UVB micro-LEDs presented, wileyindustrynews.com, 11 July 2022