President of the BTU Cottbus

Walther Christoph Zimmerli was born May 6, 1945, in Zurich, Switzerland. He attended Yale College, as well as the universities at Goettingen and Zurich, where he studied philosophy and German and English philology. After obtaining his doctorate in 1971, he was appointed assistant professor and lecturer in philosophy at Zurich, where in 1978 he completed his postdoctoral studies. After holding Chairs at the Technical University Braunschweig and the universities of Bamberg and Erlangen-Nuernberg, he assumed the Chair of Practical Philosophy at the Phillips University at Marburg in 1996.

In 1999, Prof. Zimmerli was named president of the private Witten/Herdecke University, a position he held until 2002. From 2002 to 2007 he served as president of the AutoUni (Volkswagen Group). He is a recipient of the international Max Planck Research Award and is currently a member of the following bodies: the World Corporate Ethics Council (WCEC), acatech (German Academy for Science and Engineering), the senate of The Foundation of Lower Saxony and Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences.

From 1988 to 1992, Prof. Zimmerli was chairperson of the Committee for Philosophy of the German Research Foundation (DFG). He was bestowed an Honorary Chair by the TU Braunschweig in 2003. In 2002, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Stellenbosch (South Africa).

Prof. Zimmerli was elected president of the think tank of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences in March of 2007. He has served as President of the Brandenburg University of Technology since May 15, 2007.