Silke Tannapfel has been Administrative Managing Director at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig since 1 October 2017 and will now leave the Centre at the end of December 2021. She will move to Wiesbaden on 1 January 2022 - with a new job as Ministerial Director in the Hessian Ministry of Higher Education, Research and the Arts, where she will head the department “Higher Education and Infrastructure”.
“We would like to thank Silke Tannapfel very much for the good cooperation over the past four years,” says Prof Dirk Heinz, Scientific Director of the HZI. “She played a significant role in successfully mastering a difficult financial consolidation phase. This included, in particular, reforming the administration, avoiding an investment backlog and fundamentally stabilising the research centre's finances. We wish Silke Tannapfel all the best for her new exciting job in Wiesbaden.”
“For me, an extremely exciting, exhausting but wonderful time is coming to an end. Infection research in particular is one of the most important social challenges in the health sector, as we have been experiencing since the end of 2019 due to the Corona pandemic. I would like to thank all staff members for their support. The HZI has shown skill, fighting spirit and creativity, setting the stage for a great post-consolidation future. I wish the Centre and the employees the best for the future,” says Silke Tannapfel.
A successor for the administrative director is currently being sought. Until a successor is found, the position will be held on an acting basis by Elisabeth Gerndt, authorised signatory and head of the Finance and Controlling Department at the HZI.
About Silke Tannapfel:
Silke Tannapfel studied law at the University of Göttingen and Science Management at the German University of Administrative Sciences Speyer. She was head of the division of legal affairs and head of the Chancellor's office of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and division head of the Bavarian State Chancellery for the Science and Arts at the Bavarian delegation to the European Union in Brussels. Later, she was appointed personal consultant of the State Minister of the Ministry for Science, Research and the Arts in conjunction with being the head of the division for science politics and cross-state bodies. She has been the head of the division for extramural research support and cross-state bodies in the Bavarian State Ministry for Economy and Media, Energy and Technology based in Munich since 2013.
Since 1 October 2017, Silke Tannapfel had been the Administrative Director of the HZI.
