Computer Science for the Humanities, University of Cologne, Germany

 

Since March 2000 Manfred Thaller has been Professor of “Humanities Computer Science” at the University of Cologne, Germany, and since 2010 strategic advisor to the Board of the BMBF (German Federal Ministry of Research) for the eHumanities. Between 2002 and 2008 he was a member of the Library Committee of the DFG (German National Research Council). After obtaining his PhD in Modern History at the University of Graz in 1975, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow in (Empirical) Sociology at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Vienna with a specialization in historical mobility studies. At the same time he participated in research projects on the history of the family, study of the daily life of the Middle Ages and interlocking directorates of German and Austrian companies. He is Senior Research Fellow at the Max-Planck-Institute for History, Göttingen, where he is responsible for the design and implementation of a general database-oriented programming system for history. At the same time he is conducting research on a general methodology of historical computer science. Since 1995 he has also been part-time professor at the University of Bergen, Norway. He has realized about 20 projects in the digitization of cultural heritage, around three in digital long-term preservation. In the 1990s he was the German coordinator of a project for the introduction of IT services into the archives of State Museums at former concentration camps.

Contact: manfred.thaller@uni-koeln.de