Keynote Speakers

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Kippes

A Civil Engineer from the Technical University of Vienna, who served as CEO for the Schloss Schönbrunn GmbH from 1992 until 2012 (UNESCO WHL Monument).

He was responsible for project development, restauration and conservation, research and development.

He has been involved in international Research and development programms such as the COST C5, Indoor Climate Monitoring and Control (PREVENT), Fire protection in Historic Buildings (COST C17) and of the EU project Cultural Heritage Identity Card (CHIC)

He served also as a member of the NFPA Cultural Resources Committee 2001 to 2012.

Currently, he is a visiting Prof. at the University for Applied Arts Vienna and at the Donau-Universität Krems.

Prof. Dr. Dieter Fellner

Since Oct 2006 Dieter Fellner is Professor of Computer Science at TU Darmstadt, Germany, and Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research (IGD) at the same location. Previously he has held academic positions at the Graz University of Technology, Austria, the University of Technology in Braunschweig, Germany, the University of Bonn, Germany, the Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada, and the University of Denver, Colorado.

He is still affiliated with the Graz University of Technology where he chairs the Institute of Computer Graphics and Knowledge Visualization he founded in 2005. Fellner is also CEO of the Fraunhofer Austria Research GmbH since November 2008 and Board Member of the recently established Fraunhofer Project Centre for Interactive Digital Media at Nanyang Technological University (Fraunhofer IDM@NTU) in Singapore since June 2010.

After his studies of Technical Mathematics in Graz (Diploma 1981, Doctorate 1984, Habilitation 1988) his career started in the MUPID development team (1982), where he was responsible for the decoder-based videotex graphics editing system. Dieter Fellner's research activities over the last years covered algorithms and software architectures to integrate modeling and rendering, efficient rendering and visualization algorithms, generative and reconstructive modeling, virtual and augmented reality, graphical aspects of internet-based multimedia information systems and cultural heritage as well as digital libraries. In the latter field he has coordinated a strategic initiative funded by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) from 1997 till 2005. Among several other R&D activities he is currently coordinating a strategic initiative (DFG Leistungszentrum) addressing the challenges general documents pose on libraries and information repositories. These challenges fit well with his current main focus on Visual Computing, in the academic research context as well as within the applied R&D of Fraunhofer IGD.

He is a member of EUROGRAPHICS, ACM, IEEE Computer Society and the Gesellschaft für Informatik (GI) where he serves as a member of the Board of Directors (erweiterter Vorstand) as well as the chairman of the Graphics Chapter (Fachbereich Graphische Datenverarbeitung). Furthermore, D. Fellner is an advisor for the German Research Foundation (as a member of DFG's AWBI) and the European Commission (as a member of ISTAG).

Prof. Dr. Mustafa Erdik

Mustafa Erdik is currently a Professor Emeritus of Earthquake Engineering at Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute in Bogazici University and also serves as the President of the Turkish Earthquake Foundation and as adjunct faculty members at Rose School in Pavia, Italy and at King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

He has received his BSc degree in Civil Engineering from METU in Ankara Turkey and his MSc and PhD degrees from Rice University in Houston, Texas, USA.

He has worked with UN organizations and several international foundations around the world on earthquake engineering problems. He has authored and co-authored about 300 scientific publications including 5 books.

He currently serves as a member of the editorial board and as the editor-in-chief of several earthquake engineering related journals.

In 1999 he was elected as the laureate of United Nation's Sasakawa Disaster Prevention Award, in 2004 he has received the NATO Science for Peace – Summit Prize, in 2013 he was awarded the Bruce Bolt Medal by SSA, EERI and COSMOS and in 2016 he was given the Prof. Nicholas Ambraseys Distinguished Lecture Award by the EAEE.

Download Abstract of Presentation with title: "Earthquake Protection of Museum Displays"

Prof. Dr. Sarah Whatley

Professor Sarah Whatley is Director of the Centre for Dance Research (C-DaRE) at Coventry University, UK. Her research interests extend to dance and new technologies, intangible cultural heritage, somatic dance practice and pedagogy, dance documentation, and inclusive dance practice; she has published widely on these themes. Funded by the AHRC, European Commission, Leverhulme Trust and Wellcome Trust, her current funded research projects focus on the creative reuse of digital cultural content, smart learning environments for dancers, reimagining dance archives and dance documentation, the generative potential of error in dance and HCI, dance and disability, and dancer imagery.

She is also founding Editor of the Journal of Dance and Somatic Practices and sits on the Editorial Boards of several other Journals.

Mr. Axel Ermert

Born 1952. Studies: Sociology and Information Science in Berlin. Beginning 1977, Axel has been working with DIN (German Standards Institute), in the department covering the information field (publishing, libraries, archives, museums, terminology, lexicography, printing), including work for the International Standards Organisation ISO as the Secretary of ISO/TC 46/SC 3 which finally produced “ISO 5127 Information and Documentation – Vocabulary (now 2016)“ and ISO/TC46/WG2 “Country codes” (Standard ISO 3166 Parts 1,2,3). In this context, the first relation to the cultural heritage and museum field emerged in 1984/1987, particularly towards ICOM-CIDOC, and this relation has been kept ever since.

During the afore-mentioned work, Axel developed a growing interest in a comprehensive view of the information chain as a whole, researching into the interconnections within, as well as the commonalities of, the information field with so interrelated fields like archives, libraries, documentation, museums, lexicography / terminology, printing. As from 1999, he has been a staff member of the Institut für Museumsforschung (IfM) of the State Museums of Berlin (SMB-PK), Germany, a central research and documentation institute for museums in Germany.

Axel has been teaching sociology, documentation (information science) and aspects of museology at Applied Universities in Berlin, Germany, since many years. 2004-2010, Axel is a member of the ICOM-CIDOC Board.

Mr. Vasco Fassina

He served the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage in the Venice Superintendence for 40 years as Senior researcher and Director of the Scientific Laboratory of Venice Superintendence with the responsibility to co-ordinate and promote interdisciplinary investigation projects aimed at conservation of historical building and wall paintings materials. He was involved for 25 years in International Training Programme for conservation of cultural heritage as teacher, coordinator and director of the biennial International Stone Conservation Course of UNESCO-ICCROM held in Venice.
Teaching activities at International level as Visiting Professor: in the Sino-Italy cooperation Project “Training in the Restoration and Conservation of the Chinese Cultural Heritage” in 2004 and 2007, in the International Course of University School of Monument Conservation in Rhodos, Crete, Ravello, for the Faculty of Architecture in Rosario (Argentina) and Salvador de Bahia (Brazil). In 2004 he was appointed Chairman of CEN/TC 346 The European Committee for the standardization in the field of Conservation of Cultural Heritage. In 2012 he has been appointed as Chairman of the national standardization commission for Cultural Heritage.
Actually is teaching chemistry applied to conservation and diagnostics techniques for investigation and conservation at Italian Universities and Academy of Fine Arts in Milano, Brescia, Napoli, Verona. In 2007-2008 he was appointed by the General Direction for Cooperation and Development of the Italian Foreign Affairs Ministry to evaluate the feasibility study for the establishment of Longmen Stone Relics Conservation Center and of Dazu Stone Monuments Conservation Center respectively located in the Middle and in the South West of China.

Prof. Dr. Antonia Moropoulou

She is currently Professor at the National Technical University of Athens, Greece and Vice President of the Technical Chamber of Greece. She is a Chemical Engineer, PhD, Full Professor at the Section of Materials Science and Engineering of the School of Chemical Engineering. She was elected as Contracted Professor in IUAV University of Venice (1993), Visiting Professor at Princeton University (1995-1996) and has served as Vice Rector of Academic Affairs of NTUA (2010-2014). She is a world class expert in building materials and the preservation of monuments that comprise the World’s Cultural Heritage (Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Medieval City of Rhodes, Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, et als) scientific coordinator of more than 80 National, European and International research competitive programs and author of 1 book, 2 monographies, 16 chapters in books and more than 450 scientific publications. In 2012 she was awarded the ‘YPATIA’ Award by the ‘Association of Hellenic Women Scientists’.

Presentation with title: Study, implementation and monitoring: Scientific integrated governance for the rehabilitation of the Holy Aedicule of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem

Mr. Jean-Pierre Massué

Presentation with title: A Euro-Med initiative: Proposal to set up "Cultural Heritage Advisors for Civil Protection in emergency situations and Military Authorities in case of conflicts situation"