First female head for TU
A German-born academic has become the third woman to head a state-owned university in Austria.The board of the Vienna University of Technology (TU) said today (Fri) it unanimously elected Sabine Seidler as new chief of the institution.The 49-year-old married mother-of-two will take over from Peter Skalicky in October. Skalicky has headed the university since 1991. He praised Seidler who became an Austrian citizen some years ago as an “excellent researcher”.Seidler will be the first woman at the helm at the TU in its 196-year history and only the third female principal at universities owned by the Republic of Austria after Ingela Bruner and Sonja Hammerschmid.Bruner headed the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) in Vienna for two years until 2009. Hammerschmid became chief of the citys University of Veterinary Medicine (VU) last year.