Professor Dr. Raphael Zender takes over the ZF Endowed Chair for Virtual Reality Systems at Zeppelin University

"I am extremely pleased to continue my research and teaching with the ZF Endowed Chair of Virtual Reality Systems at Zeppelin University. I particularly appreciate the opportunity to work more directly with students in small, personalized courses than at state universities. Thanks to its exciting collaborations, ZU also offers optimal conditions for innovative and practical educational projects," says Raphael Zender, explaining his reasons for moving to ZU. "My goal is to explore and shape the diverse influences of virtual reality and to closely involve students in my research and provide them with individual support."

Raphael Zender studied Computer Engineering at the University of Rostock. His doctoral studies took place at the Institute of Computer Science, where he completed his doctorate on the topic of "Service-based infrastructure for pervasive teaching and learning arrangements" as part of a DFG Research Training Group. After completing his doctorate, he remained associated with the University of Rostock as a project coordinator at the Faculty of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering and in this role dedicated himself to the study program for Armenian students. Raphael Zender then worked as a research assistant at the Chair of Complex Multimedia Application Architectures at the University of Potsdam and at the same time as a freelance lecturer at the Steinbeis Center of Management and Technology (SCMT GmbH). Most recently, he held the professorship for Didactics of Computer Science | Computer Science and Society at the Humboldt University of Berlin.

At the ZF Endowed Chair for Virtual Reality Systems at ZU, Raphael Zender will research and teach the effective use of VR technologies to improve learning and teaching, the development and investigation of adaptive VR systems for individual learning needs and the social, ethical and psychological implications of VR technologies.

"Virtual reality systems have a major impact on how people interact, learn and are entertained. Conversely, developments in social virtual reality - think of the metaverse, for example - are capable of establishing new forms and possibilities of communication in digital space," says ZU President Professor Dr. Klaus Mühlhahn. "With his knowledge and experience in the field of virtual reality and its effects and applications, Raphael Zender can build bridges, especially to the chairs of communication and cultural studies at Zeppelin University. We are therefore very much looking forward to an inspiring and hopefully multifaceted collaboration."