Welcome Prof. Dr. Rebekka Volk, Professor for Sustainability Assessment of Technical Systems
Freiburg, 18/07/2025
On 1 June 2025, Prof. Dr. Rebekka Volk was appointed to the Chair for Sustainability Assessment of Technical Systems. In this interview, she explains how her research contributes to sustainable solutions and reveals what she would like to explore in Freiburg.
What excites you about your research?
I am excited by the opportunity to generate knowledge about technical, industrial or urban systems, technologies, products and materials. I want to help shape this knowledge so that it is both powerful and functional in meeting requirements. On the other hand, they should be more sustainable than current systems and contribute to achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This allows me to contribute to major current and future societal challenges. These include, for example, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, adapting to climate change, the sustainable use of raw materials and resources, and sustainable land and water use. Ideally, we’ll find approaches and solutions that pursue several goals simultaneously. We can also develop a decision-making tool that helps people weigh up different environmental, economic, and social goals and needs.
What solutions can you find in your research for present and future challenges?
My research involves numerous creative approaches to tackling current challenges. In most cases, we are able to support an interdisciplinary team of engineers, scientists and architects in systematically analysing and evaluating novel systems, technologies, products and materials, and making them more sustainable early on in the development process. We also investigate how these new developments can be embedded into existing structures and value chains. The investment requirements and costs involved are also part of my research. We also work out what upscaling, i.e. the expansion of the capacity of a prototype system, could look like and what framework conditions would be necessary for this. We also evaluate the market ramp-up, which includes the introduction of the product to the market.
What would you like to pass on to your students, and what would you like to gain from teaching?
I want to inspire and motivate students to develop creative and critical thinking, pursue new ideas, work in an interdisciplinary manner and take responsibility. My goal is to enable them to independently develop and implement solutions to problems, especially in the field of sustainable technical systems, technologies, products and materials. I also learn a lot myself in the joint learning process. I often take the students’ questions as inspiration for improvements or further research.
What topics are you personally most concerned with at the moment, outside of your research?
Personally, I am concerned about the current polarised social and political situation with its global implications, which often takes place in isolation from scientific debate. This is particularly worrying to me in relation to armed conflicts. However, I also have concerns about future peaceful coexistence in view of dwindling resources and the difficulty of achieving the UN’s sustainability goals that humanity has set itself. The latest developments in the field of artificial intelligence and data processing/manipulation also concern me.
What do you like most about Freiburg?
I am particularly looking forward to meeting new colleagues in Freiburg with exciting research questions and hope to learn a lot in joint projects. I am also looking forward to interactive exchanges with students and their questions and ideas, which I would like to incorporate into my research and teaching formats. In addition, I am looking forward to exploring Freiburg’s beautiful old town and the charming, varied surroundings on foot and by bike.