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Chair of Railway Signaling and Transport Safety Technology
The chair of Railway Signaling and Transport Safety Technology solemnly bid farewell to its long-time head at a colloquium on January 19, 2023.
In her eulogy, Prof. Regine Gerike, Dean of the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences „Friedrich List,” described Prof. Jochen Trinckauf's professional work as a „life for and with the railroad.” She thanked him warmly on behalf of the faculty management for his work for and at the faculty.
Since 1998, Jochen Trinckauf has headed the chair of Railway Signaling and Transport Safety Technology at the TU Dresden. During this time, he has supervised 17 doctoral students: Many of them took part in the farewell party and honorably organized a verbal exam for him. Those who successfully completed their doctoral thesis at the chair received a graduation cap artfully designed by their colleagues to mark the end this scientific chapter in their lives. With a little help, Jochen Trinckauf was able to name the corresponding work for every graduation cap and passed the „Rigorosum” with „magna cum laude.”
Doctoral Advisor with Unconventional Approach
The doctoral students emphasized how the unconventional approaches and the critical and in-depth questions of their doctoral adviser had motivated and trained them to think further and to permeate and question every facet of transport safety technology.
His predecessor Prof. Dr.-Ing. Wolfgang Fenner, who held the chair from 1972 to 1997, honored Prof. Trinckauf with his presence and welcomed him into retirement. After a visual retrospective of their shared experiences at the faculty, the staff of the chair presented him with a golden axle counter to express their gratitude to their long-time chief.
For almost 25 years, Prof. Jochen Trinckauf worked as a professor at the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences "Friedrich List" at the TU Dresden. The students were especially close to his heart. The dean described him as a “committed and long-standing chairman of the examination board for the diploma course in traffic engineering and later also for the master programs in engineering of the faculty.” In his speech, Trinckauf emphasized that he was always on the side of the students and gladly offered his support to find a solution in difficult situations - as long, he added with a wink, as the students’ will to successfully complete their studies was perceptible. Through his numerous contacts in the business world, he had experienced the extent of the shortage of skilled workers in the transport sector first-hand. This made it all the more important for him to ensure the high-quality training of the next generation of specialists at the faculty.
Retrospection of the Celebrations
Retrospection of the Celebrations
Retrospection of the Celebrations
Retrospection of the Celebrations
Retrospection of the Celebrations
Retrospection of the Celebrations
Advancing Internationalization at the Faculty
With a great deal of pleasure and personal commitment, Jochen Trinckauf was instrumental in promoting the internationalization of the faculty. This included the project “Economy, Ecology and Infrastructure at High-Speed Railways” (EEIHSR) as part of the European student exchange program ‘Erasmus+.’ The aim was to establish a European, cooperative double degree program with universities in Russia and Kazakhstan. Another project, “Skill Training Alliance For the Future European Rail System” (STAFFER), was aimed at the training of international specialists in the rail sector. Prof. Trinckauf played a central role in the faculty's cooperation with the University of Transport and Communication (UTC) in Hanoi, Vietnam. Together, an English-speaking master program in Railway System Engineering was established at the UTC in order to train capable engineering personnel on site.
Prof. Trinckauf's passion for traffic and transport also affects his private life. Since he was a student himself, he worked as a bus and train driver – in recent years, he has taken many students and excursion groups to their destination by coach and can still be found in Dresden's DVB trams and busses from time to time.
As the dean concluded her eulogy, the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences “Friedrich List” sincerely thanks Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jochen Trinckauf for his decades of commitment and work for the faculty, for the students and for transport and traffic sciences as a whole – best wishes for the future and in retirement!
Career of Prof. Jochen Trinckauf
The mutual history of Jochen Trinckauf and the Dresden Transport and Traffic Sciences began long before his appointment as chair. As a unique character of the faculty and after an apprenticeship as a skilled worker for local transport, he completed his studies at the then College of Transport (HfV) “Friedrich List” with a diploma in 1979.
During the next four years, he worked as a research assistant at the chair he would eventually take over himself almost 15 years later. However, he left the university for 14 years – he worked as a development engineer for industrial railroads at the Senftenberg lignite combine and held various management positions in the field of transport safety technology.
As head of the chair of Railway Signaling and Transport Safety Technology, Prof. Jochen Trinckauf has had
17
doctoral student since 1998. He is currently supervising 15 more.