Founder Klaus Tschira

HITS Founder Dr. h.c. Dr.-Ing. E.h. Klaus Tschira (1940-2015)

At the end of 1995, Klaus Tschira established the Klaus Tschira Foundation with private means to promote natural sciences, mathematics and computer sciences, and to increase public appreciation of these fields.

Short Biography

Born in 1940, physics diploma from Karlsruhe University (1966)
Systems engineer at IBM Germany (1966-1972)
Co-founder of ‘Systemanalyse & Programmentwicklung GdBR’, from which SAP GmbH and SAP SE emerged (1972)
Executive board member at SAP (1988-1998)
Supervisory board member at SAP (1998-2007)
Foundation of the ‘Klaus Tschira Stiftung gGmbH’ (1995)
Foundation of the EML European Media Laboratory GmbH (1997)
Co-Founder of the ‘Gerda and Klaus Tschira Stiftung’ (2009)
Foundation of HITS gGmbH (2009)
Foundation of the ‘Nationales Institut für Wissenschaftskommunikation gGmbH’ (NaWik, together with KIT) (2012)
Foundation of the ‘Forscherstation Klaus-Tschira-Kompetenzzentrum für frühe naturwissenschaftliche Bildung gGmbH’ (2012)
Foundation of the Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation (HLFF) (2013)
Foundation of the ‘HITS-Stiftung’ (2014)

Awards and honors (selection)

• Honorary doctorate from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
• Honorary doctorate from Klagenfurt University, Austria
• Federal Cross of Merit, First class
• Founders Award (Federal Association of German Foundations)
• Leibniz-Medal (Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften)
• Konrad-Zuse-Presentation Plaque from the city of Hoyerswerda
• Rudolf-Diesel-Medal (Deutsches Institut für Erfindungswesen)
• Alwin-Walther-Medal (Darmstadt University of Technology)