By October 01, the long-time press officer Dr. Elisabeth Zuber-Knost will leave KIT and look back on 36 eventful years. By establishing and managing the Press and Communication Staff Unit (PuK) she represented public relations work at the Universität Karlsruhe (TH). Afterwards, she headed the press office of KIT. After her retirement, she will now tackle new tasks.
“I would not want to miss the time I spent at Universität Karlsruhe and KIT, but I am very much looking forward to what is coming now,” explains Zuber-Knost while looking back. Retirement for her does not mean that she will stop being busy. On October 01, the press officer will change her field of business and start to work as a free-lance moderator and counselor in science and administration. Her experience gained as a students’ counselor and women’s representative, as a moderator of events for media and politics, and not least as press officer will be the basis of her future activity.
After studying law and her Ph. D., the born Austrian worked several years as a lector of a legal publishing company and manager of a technical development office. In 1974, she started to work as a students’ counselor at the then Counseling and Information Center (biz) of Universität Karlsruhe (TH). At that time, she was conferred a diploma in the topic-centered interaction counseling method (TZI).
In 1990, Zuber-Knost was elected the first women’s representative of Universität Karlsruhe by the senate. From 1994 to 2007, she was press officer and headed the Press and Communication Staff Unit (PuK) of Universität Karlsruhe. After this and during the merger of the former Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe and Universität Karlsruhe (TH) into KIT, she was responsible for the public relations of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). During her employment with Universität Karlsruhe (TH) and KIT, she cooperated with five rectors and two presidents.
Apart from her press officer’s work, she was mentor in the EU pilot project “Cross mentoring in Karlsruhe as a location of public authorities”. From 2006 to 2008, she was member of the board of Pro Wissenschaft e. V. Within the framework of the “Initiative for Quality of University Communication IQ_HKom”, her work and that of other press officers was devoted to quality assurance of public relations work and the evaluation of university PR. At the moment, she is member of the board of the Association of Female Scientists in Baden-Württemberg.
Being “The Research University in the Helmholtz Association”, KIT creates and imparts knowledge for the society and the environment. It is the objective to make significant contributions to the global challenges in the fields of energy, mobility, and information. For this, about 10,000 employees cooperate in a broad range of disciplines in natural sciences, engineering sciences, economics, and the humanities and social sciences. KIT prepares its 22,800 students for responsible tasks in society, industry, and science by offering research-based study programs. Innovation efforts at KIT build a bridge between important scientific findings and their application for the benefit of society, economic prosperity, and the preservation of our natural basis of life. KIT is one of the German universities of excellence.