Dr. Klaus Vieregge is the new head of research and development in Bonn of the aluminium company Hydro. He follows in the footsteps of Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schneider, who retired at the end of December after more than 34 years at Hydro R&D in Bonn – the last 12 of which as its head.
Klaus Vieregge is a physicist and holds the title of Dr. rer. nat. from the University of Münster. Since October 1991 he held various positions at the aluminium rolling company Aleris; and since April 2013 he held the position of global director, research & development. He has a degree as technical MBA and was recipient of a post-doctoral scholarship at the renowned IBM - T.J. Watson Research Center in New York/USA in the field of physics.
As driver of innovation for the rolling plant network in the Rhine district Neuss, Wolfgang Schneider developed the Hydro R&D department in Bonn with its 120 employees. He has numerous patents, and read at the RWTH and the technical university in Aachen. In particular he intensified cooperation with the RWTH Aachen and the FH Bonn Rhein-Sieg. Schneider is a co-founder of the AMAP metal research cluster in Aachen, comprising RWTH institutes and several industrial companies, and for several years he headed the innovation forum of the chamber of commerce (IHK) in Bonn. For several years, as first non-American, Wolfgang Schneider was the vice president of the TMS (The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society), a leading global association of experts in mineral and ore mining, metallurgy and material science, and president in 2012/13.
Dr. Pascal Wagner, speaker of the board of management of Hydro Aluminium Deutschland GmbH, thanked Wolfgang Schneider: “With a differentiated and innovative strategy he turned R&D in Bonn into an indispensable part of the rolled products business division, and strengthened the position of R&D in Bonn as leading global institution in aluminium research.“