MCI professorship to Michael Meister

In recognition of his outstanding achievements in research and teaching, the exemplary implementation of research achievements in practice and contributions to the further development of the Entrepreneurial University®, as well as the university sector, the MCI recently awarded Professor Dr. techn. Michael Meister the title of Professor. MCI Rector Hon. Prof. Dr. Andreas Altmann awarded the professorship along with the head of the academic council Univ. Prof. FH-Prof. Dr. Franz Pegger.

Michael Meister started his academic career at the University of Innsbruck in 2008 and graduated in 2015 with a PhD in Technical Sciences (with Distinction) from the University of Innsbruck. In his dissertation 'Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics in Urban Water Management' he dealt with the application of flow simulations in wastewater treatment, with a research focus in the area of modeling and simulation of wastewater treatment plants (coupling of hydraulic and process based wastewater treatment models) and numerical flow simulations. He stands out with his focus on intensively linking the fields of wastewater treatment and fluid dynamics in research and teaching.

After several years of teaching and research activities, such as at the Imperial College in London, Michael Meister returned to Innsbruck and received the very first Science Award of the City of Innsbruck for research and innovation at MCI in 2017 for his research in: 'Integrating hydrodynamics and biokinetics in wastewater treatment modelling by using smoothed particle hydrodynamics'.

Since 2017, Michael Meister has been working at the Entrepreneurial School® as a lecturer in the Department of Environmental, Process & Energy Engineering and also holds the position as head of the Department of Environmental Engineering. Students particularly appreciate his skills for explaining mathematical and physical topics in an understandable way and sparking interest for this complex matter.

In his exciting inaugural lecture 'Research-oriented teaching for process optimization in wastewater treatment', he gave insights into the comprehensive national and international research achievements in this field as well as into the sustainable development in the field of environmental engineering by individually linking the fields of hydrodynamics and wastewater treatment. In doing so, Michael Meister focuses on the reduction of energy demand for the operation of a wastewater treatment plant while ensuring a high biological cleaning activity.