Prof. Dr.-Ing. Georg Heerten is the new chairman of the board of the German Geotechnical Society (DGGT)
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Georg Heerten, general manager of NAUE GmbH & Co. KG (in Espelkamp-Fiestel, Germany) is the new chairman of the board of the German Geotechnical Society (DGGT). He was elected at the last DGGT general meeting held on 4 November 2010 in Munich to succeed long-time chairman Prof. Dr.-Ing. E.h. Manfred Nußbaumer M.Sc., Munich.
New deputy chairman is Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Karl Josef Witt of the Bauhaus University in Weimar. Prof. Witt succeeds Prof. Heerten who was deputy chairman of the DGGT from 2002 until 2010.
Georg Heerten, born in 1949, studied civil engineering at the Technical University of Hanover with a specialization in hydraulic and ground engineering as well as soil mechanics. Between 1974 and 1980 he worked as a research assistant at the Franzius Institute for Hydraulic and Coastal engineering of the University of Hanover (formerly the Technical University of Hanover). He received his doctorate in 1980 upon completion of his dissertation entitled "Geotextiles in Hydraulic Engineering – Tested, Applied, Proven". In 1981, Prof. Heerten joined NAUE Fasertechnik GmbH & Co. KG in Espelkamp (since 2005: NAUE GmbH & Co. KG). He was entrusted with managing the company in 1984. From 1987 until 2009 Prof. Heerten was managing partner and since 2010 he his again general manager of NAUE GmbH & Co. KG. In 2004 Georg Heerten became honorary professor of the RWTH Aachen where he lectures on plastics in geotechnical engineering at the Chair and Institute for Geotechnical Engineering under Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing Martin Ziegler.