Dr Detlef Müller-Wiesner

“Factors such as mobility, information, communication, resource management, the environment and safety are crucial for the sustainable economic and social development of a modern economy and are thus of tremendous strategic importance. Scientists working on aeronautics, space and transport research are tackling these challenges and offering solutions.”

Dr-Ing. Detlef Müller-Wiesner is senator of the Helmholtz Association for the research Field Aeronautics, Space and Transport. In June 2012, he became EADS Senior Vice President and Head of External Affairs, Business and Transverse Initiatives, a new position created inside the EADS Corporate Technical Office in order to manage the complexities of growing external network and transversal activities that include public funding, the Programme Life Cycle Management (PLM) programmes, business derived from the nursery, technology licensing, the EADS Experts network and systems engineering group capabilities.

From 2006 to April 2012, Dr Müller-Wiesner was EADS Chief Operating Officer Innovation and EADS Deputy Chief Technical Officer. In this capacity he was Head of EADS Global Innovation Networks and Chairman of the EADS Research & Technology Council (R&T Council), of which the research directors of the EADS Divisions and the Head of EADS Innovation Works are members. The EADS R&T Council is responsible for the joint planning and implementation of the Research & Technology programme at divisional and corporate level.

Dr. Müller-Wiesner studied mechanical engineering at Clausthal University of Technology and received a PhD for his thesis on structural durability.

Since 1986, when he began his professional career at ERNO Raumfahrttechnik, he has worked for EADS or for companies that later became part of EADS. In the space technology field, he held positions of responsibility in development, construction, service and programme departments and, when EADS was founded in 2000, he was tasked with heading, integrating and developing EADS' corporate research activities (now known as EADS Innovation Works).

Dr. Müller-Wiesner is a reserve officer of the German Air Force, President of the German Society for Aeronautics and Astronautics (DGLR), President of the International Council on Aeronautical Sciences (ICAS), member of the Supervisory Board of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, Chairman of the advisory committee of Bauhaus Luftfahrt e.V. and member of the Supervisory Board of EADS Deutschland GmbH. He also holds the title Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite du France.

He is married with three children and has lived with his family in Paris since 2001.

In private life, he is an avid sailor and keen musician.

June 2012