Dirk Helbing was born on January 19, 1965. He studied Physics and Mathematics, but was always interested in other fields of science as well. In the year 2000, he became Professor and Managing Director of the Institute for Transport & Economics at Dresden University of Technology, and in 2007 he was appointed Professor of Sociology, in particular of Modeling and Simulation, at ETH Zürich. Since 2008, he is elected member of the German Academy of Sciences "Leopoldina".
More than 200 publications in different scientific fields, 300 talks and more than 300 reports in the public media reflect his wide field of interest, reaching from traffic science over crowds and disaster management to biologically inspired logistics. He also had projects with Xerox PARC, Volkswagen, SCA Packaging, Siemens, PTV, further companies, and various foundations.
Helbings's team developed a traffic assistance system and patented the principle of a self-organized traffic light control, which implements massively parallel, decentralized control concepts for the optimization of traffic flows. The resulting increase of performance and the higher flexibility are based on latest developments in the understanding of complex systems. Companies and societies are other examples of such complex systems. This is also the reason why Dirk Helbing is interested in sociology.
Apart from developing information portals to accelerate scientific innovation, he is particularly interested in techno-social systems, which will determine the future of Web2.0. Furthermore, he is the chairman of the newly established ETH Competence Center "Coping with Crises in Complex Socio-Economic Systems", which will develop computer models of crisis scenarios and finally provide decision support for politics and economy.
Dirk Helbing is excited about everything that stimulates curiosity and intellect, in particular science, culture, and international exchange. Generally, he enjoys challenges and the exploration of unknown territory. Besides, he loves nature, in particular mountain hiking, skiing, jogging, and swimming, and he is a fan of a diverse and creative cuisine.
