Private life
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Karl Beucke has a close relationship to nature and likes spending time with his family. Having grown up in a small town, he still prefers the idyllic feel of the country over the bustle of city life. At his home near Ettersberg, he enjoys taking walks and hiking with this loyal companion, Cosima, his dog.
Travelling became one of Karl Beucke's favourite pastimes at a young age. After graduating from secondary school, he went on his first major trip, hitchhiking all the way to Rabat, Morocco. During his studies, he and two friends took a three-month journey across the entire United States from east to west, then from north to south and back east again. He fell in love with the country and sought an opportunity to return for a study visit. He received a DAAD scholarship that allowed him to continue his studies at university in Raleigh, North Carolina and then at Berkeley, California. While living in California, he discovered what would become a life-long passion - motorcycling. Today, he still enjoys riding his motorcycle together with his wife as often as he can. Back in Germany, he lived in Hofheim am Taunus for 14 years, where he and his wife had three children.
The decision to move to Thuringia was made by the whole family. Now having lived for almost 15 years in Weimar and Ettersberg, Professor Beucke and his family are very happy and content with the path they've chosen.
University of California - Research and work at Calit2
In 2006, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Karl Beucke returned to his "second home". He spent one semester researching at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). As part of his research visit, he gave lectures at the civil engineering department there, the Jacobs School of Engineering, and worked on several research projects at the innovative visualization laboratory "Calit2". Life at an American university and his research work provided him and the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar with a number of new opportunities and contacts which resulted in long-term cooperation between both universities.
Since 2007, the UCSD and the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar have organized a joint research workshop every autumn titled "Collaborative on Technology and Society". Held in Weimar one year and in San Diego the next, high-ranking scholars meet to discuss current developments and projects in the field of Information Science in Construction as well as visualization and communication technologies in civil engineering. The concept of the Calit2 research laboratory persuaded the Thuringian Ministry of Science to fund the construction of the "Digital Bauhaus Lab" - a research facility like no other in Germany, which is scheduled to open in 2012.
Information Science in Construction - Appointment to the distinguished chair in Weimar
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Karl Beucke was quite interested to hear that the former College of Architecture and Civil Engineering (HAB) in Weimar was looking for a replacement for the Chair of Computer Science in Civil Engineering in the mid-1990s. The HAB had cultivated a long and rich tradition of development and application of computer technology in the civil engineering sector. Weimar was regarded as the gate between East and West, where the leading players of this development met on a regular basis, such as at the International Colloquium for Mathematics (IKM). In 1995, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Karl Beucke was chosen to succeed Prof. Horst Kretzschmar as Chair of Information Science in Construction. Since then, he has preserved and enhanced its outstanding reputation.
Career in industry - Introduction of CAD technology at Hochtief
After returning to Germany, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Karl Beucke accepted a position at Hochtief AG in Frankfurt/Main as a CAD development manager in 1982. There he was given the chance to devote himself to developing and implementing a completely new technology called "Computer-Aided Design" or CAD. In the following years, CAD would revolutionize the entire construction industry and replace the work at the drafting table with digital media. The technical requirements were especially influenced by power-plant construction and involved an enormous investment in new technology. For Professor Karl Beucke, adapting and expanding the process in construction companies represented both a challenge and opportunity. After more than ten years of development, the new technology was widely used at Hochtief, and the results could be marketed on a global scale.
The United States - His "second home" during his studies
From 1977 to 1981, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Karl Beucke studied in the United States for several semesters, first as a DAAD scholarship recipient at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, and later as a teaching associate und doctoral candidate at the University of California in Berkeley. Although the southern mentality of North Carolina and the liberal lifestyle of the West Coast in California were as different as night and day, Professor Beucke came to love the freedom and way of life in the United States. His stay in Berkeley from 1978 to 1981 played an especially formative role in his life. As the home of the free-speech movement and People's Park, Berkeley possessed a highly political, polyglot atmosphere in the late 1970s with many interesting people and opportunities for encounter.
Important milestones in Prof. Dr.-Ing. Karl Beucke's life and career
Karl Beucke was born in the town of Menden in the Sauerland region on 17 January 1951. After receiving his Abitur, he began studying Civil Engineering at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB). During the turbulent years of the late sixties and early seventies, he strongly participated in the student-run political process. His political involvement led him to join a number of student committees at the Ruhr-Universität in Bochum during his studies.
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Karl Beucke
In April 2011, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Karl Beucke began a six-year term as vice-chancellor. He had been a professor of Information Science in Construction at the Faculty of Civil Engineering since 1995 and gained profound experience at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. Between 1999 and 2003 and between 2005 and 2011, he was Dean of Research and a member of the university's executive board.
As Dean of Research, he significantly expanded the Research Department and improved the visibility of the university's research achievements abroad. He was also involved in increasing the scope of the scholarship system for artistic and design-related disciplines.
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Karl Beucke has excellent connections to well-known universities around the world, such as the University of California in San Diego, USA, the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa and the National Taiwan University.