Foundation for refrigeration, air conditioning, and environmental technology
The Valerius Füner Foundation was established in 2001 to support the study specialization "Refrigeration, Air Conditioning, and Environmental Engineering".
The initiator was Prof. Dr.-Ing. Johannes Reichelt, who taught at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences from 1980 to 2004.
Via the Valerius Füner Foundation, interested donors can support HKA financially or in kind so that the university will continue to be an outstanding, modern, and competitive educational and scientific institution.
Valerius Füner
Pioneer in the field of teaching refrigeration technology
From 1934 to 1938, Valerius Füner studied at the Technical University of Karlsruhe (TH Karlsruhe, now KIT) and was an assistant and doctoral student of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr. h. c. mult. Rudolf Plank, the founder of the world's first refrigeration engineering institute in 1926 and two times-president of the TH Karlsruhe.
Ten years later, in 1948, Valerius Füner was appointed to the then Staatstechnikum Karlsruhe, today's Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences, and from that time on held the first lectures in refrigeration engineering.
Karlsruhe refrigeration courses establish refrigeration technology
From 1952 until his retirement in 1980, Prof. Valerius Füner held the well-known "Karlsruhe Refrigeration Courses" with great success. These initially had a duration of 12, later 9 weeks and were held once a year. The courses were the only ones to be offered in this field in Germany – and surely far beyond the borders of Germany – until the 1960s.
In 1995, Prof. Valerius Füner passed away at the age of 81. In his honor, the Valerius Füner Prize has been awarded once a year since 1982 to the best graduate in the above-mentioned field of study.
Purpose of the foundation
The purpose of the foundation is to promote the instruction and further education of engineers in the field of refrigeration and air-conditioning technology (including heat pumps) at Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences. We also aim to maintain the study specialization of the same name in the subjects of mechanical engineering as well as mechatronics in the long term.
In recent years, the Valerius Füner Foundation has supported numerous activities to promote teaching and research in the field of refrigeration technology at HKA. This also ensures the next generation for the industry, in which well-trained engineers are in great demand and urgently needed.
Bodies of the foundation
The Valerius Füner Foundation has a board of directors, a foundation council, and an advisory board. The members serve on an honorary basis.
Board of directors | ||
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Chair | Prof. Dr.-Ing. Matthäus Wollfarth | Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences |
Vice-Chair | Prof. Dr.-Ing. Michael Arnemann | Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences |
Advisor | Dipl.-Ing. Rainer Große-Krach | BITZER SE Sindelfingen |
Foundation council | ||
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Spokesman | Hermann Renz | BITZER SE Sindelfingen |
Deputy spokesman | Joachim Huber | PETER HUBER Kältemaschinenbau AG |
Member | Dipl.-Ing. (FH), MBA Philipp Jehs | CTS Clima Temperatur Systeme GmbH |
Member | Prof. Dr.-Ing. Franz Quint | Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences |
Member | Prof. Dr.-Ing Johannes Reichelt | Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences em. |
Advisory Board | |
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Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Rainer Burger | TWK GmbH |
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jens Denecke | Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences |
Prof. Dr.-Ing., Dr.-Ing. E. h., Dr. h. c. Werner Fischer | Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences |
Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Michael Kauffeld | Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences |
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Robin Langebach | Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences |
Michael Stalter | TWK GmbH |
Dr. Dipl.-Wirtsch.-Ing. Ulrich Stiebel | STIEBEL ELTRON Gruppe |
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Matthias Stripf | Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences |