From 1996 onwards, Prof. Dr. Susanne Menzel-Riedl studied the subjects biology, education and English for secondary school at the universities of Münster, Dakar (Senegal) and the College of William and Mary (U.S.A.), where she was awarded her master’s degree in 2002. Between 2004 and 2007 she was a research associate in the Department of Biology Education at the University of Göttingen (Ph.D. 2007), and subsequently a postgraduate scholarship holder in the German Research Foundation (DFG) PhD research group "Successful Matching of Determinants of Learning at School".

In 2008, she came to Osnabrück as an assistant professor and was awarded a professorship in biology education, having declined two professorships in Giessen and Cologne. From 01 October 2016 she was the extra-professional Vice President for Research and Advancement of Young Academics at Osnabrück University and a key contributor to the strategic plan for the future of the university, the “Zukunftskonzept UOS 2020”. 

Prof. Dr. Susanne Menzel-Riedl has been President of Osnabrück University since October 1st, 2019.

On 7 November 2022, she was elected as the new Chairwoman of the Lower Saxony State University Conference.

Since December 2023, she has been Vice-President for the Higher Education System and Organisation of the German Rectors’ Conference.

Dr. Wilfried Hötker, born in 1961, trained for a career in banking before studying mathematics and computer studies with an applied component in business administration at Osnabrück University. After receiving his diploma, he was involved as a research associate in several projects at Osnabrück University involving (natural) language processing. He completed his PhD dissertation in 1996.

In 1997, Dr. Hötker was the head of Finance Unite of the Church Office of the Protestant Church of Germany (Hanover), subsequently head of Department Financing, and from 1999 onwards head of the entire financial management of the von Bodelschwingh Foundation Bethel in Bielefeld. In 2000, he became head of the “Internal Administration” division at the Münster Chamber of Commerce and was elected to the position of managing director by the general assembly in November 2002.

Dr. Wilfried Hötker has been Vice President for Human Resources and Finance at Osnabrück University since January 1st, 2005.

Prof. Dr. Kai-Uwe Kühnberger studied philosophy, mathematics, linguistics and modern German literature from 1990 to 1996 at the universities of Stuttgart and Tübingen. Between 1996 and 1997 he was a scholarship holder in the Baden-Württemberg postgraduate program at the University of Tübingen. He then spent time as a researcher at Indiana University, Bloomington from 1997 to 1999, and was employed as a research associate from 1999 to 2001 at the Department of General and Computational Linguistics at the University of Tübingen and from 2001 onwards at the Institute of Cognitive Science at Osnabrück University.

Kühnberger completed his PhD in 2002 in general linguistics/ computational linguistics at the University of Tübingen. Between 2003 and 2009 he was Assistant Professor of Artificial Intelligence at the Institute of Cognitive Science at Osnabrück University and since 2009 has been Professor of Artificial Intelligence at the same institute.

Between 2016 and 2019 he was managing director of the Institute of Cognitive Science and in 2019 Dean of the School of Human Sciences.

From 01 October 2019 onwards, Prof. Dr. Kai-Uwe Kühnberger was Vice President for Research and Advancement of Young Academics at Osnabrück University. Since 01 October 2022, he has been Vice President for Research, Social Dialog and Outreach. 

From 1984 to 1987, Prof. Dr. Andrea Lenschow studied socioeconomics at Kiel University and then from 1987 to 1991 politics (MA) and public administration (MPA) at Pennsylvania State University. Between 1991 and 1995 she worked on her PhD in the field of political science as a scholarship holder at New York University. She subsequently worked as a post-doc researcher as a Marie Curie Fellow at the Erasmus University Rotterdam and as a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence. From 1997 to 2003, she was employed as an assistant professor at the Paris Lodron University of Salzburg.

In 2003, Lenschow moved to Osnabrück to take up an assistant professorship at the School of Social Sciences at Osnabrück University. In 2007 she was awarded the W3 professorship in European Politics and Integration in the same school.

Between 2009 and 2011 she was Dean of the School of Social Sciences, and between 2015 and 2017 she was managing director of the newly created Institute of Social Sciences. From 2011 to 2022 she acted as an internal member of the University Council of Osnabrück University.

Since 01 October 2022, Prof. Dr. Andrea Lenschow has been Vice President for International Affairs, Diversity and Academic Staff Development at Osnabrück University.

Prof. Dr. Jochen Oltmer, born in 1965, has a PhD and a habilitation in history (modern history, 19th to 21st century). He has been teaching and researching at the Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies (IMIS) and at the Department of History at Osnabrück University since the 1990s. His academic work focuses on the history and present of global, European and German migrations.

Prof. Oltmer has served as a member of numerous university committees and commissions: since 1995 he has been a member of the IMIS board and was chair of the University Library Commission between 2012 and 2022. Between 2008 and 2015 and between 2018 and 2022, Prof. Oltmer served as Dean of Studies in the Schools of Cultural Studies and  Geography, and Cultural Studies and Social Sciences.

Since 01 October 2022, Prof. Dr. Jochen Oltmer has been Vice President for Teaching and Studies at Osnabrück University.