The first semester is over. While Matthias Becker relaxes for a few days hiking in the foothills of the Bavarian Alps, he can look back on exciting months with many new impressions. And he can not only look back on steep mountain faces, but also on a steep career.
The former student, doctoral candidate and lecturer at Fachhochschule Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts has been Professor of eHealth Infrastructures at Kempten University of Applied Sciences since spring 2022. He smiles and shakes his head briefly. No, none of this was really foreseeable. Matthias Becker himself seems surprised that his career path has taken him from the Ruhr region to southern Germany between Munich and Lake Constance for the new academic position at such short notice. The 38-year-old had neither the Allgäu region nor a professorship on his immediate agenda.
Prof. Dr. Matthias BeckerI was born in Unna and am the only academic in a working-class family.
While studying medical informatics(Opens in a new tab) at the Fachhochschule Dortmund with a focus on software product lines in the healthcare sector, Matthias Becker gained practical experience at companies in areas such as quality assurance, consulting and product optimization.
Doctoral thesis with medical benefits
His doctorate was a collaboration between the University of Applied Sciences, the University of Duisburg-Essen and the University Medical Center Essen. In his doctoral thesis, he dealt with "guideline-based, personalized medicine" and developed decision aids based on patient data that are helpful in cancer therapy.
A-Z of the doctorate(Opens in a new tab)
In principle, he could have easily imagined staying at Fachhochschule Dortmund. "Even as a student, I really appreciated the practical orientation there and the personal support. As a research assistant and lecturer, I also experienced great cohesion in the Medical Informatics team and we did a lot across departments. But when the opportunity for a professorship arose in Kempten, I naturally wanted to take it."
Lots of self-management
As a result, he quickly found himself in the middle of everyday professorial life in the field of digital health and care applications at the Faculty of Computer Science. He managed the associated semester program in addition to moving and settling in. "A good dose of self-management is definitely an advantage." He has also already accepted a Bachelor's thesis for supervision.
Alumni network of the Fachhochschule Dortmund(Opens in a new tab)
Matthias Becker wants to keep in touch with his friends and colleagues in his old home country and try to "regularly visit the Pott", as he emphasizes, despite his professional duties and distance.