Oswald Wagner new in the team of Rector Wolfgang Schütz

(Vienna, 3 May 2010) MedUni Vienna is restructuring its management: as of 1 May Univ. Prof. Dr. Oswald Wagner is taking over the position of Deputy Rector for Clinical Issues.

Univ. Prof. Dr. Oswald Wagner, 47, heads the Clinical Institute of Laboratory Medicine and has been on the MedUni Vienna staff for many years. Born in the province of Upper Austria, he was awarded the "venia docendi" in medical and chemical laboratory diagnostics at the age of just 31. Wagner's international successes include his position as Full Professor of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Diagnostics and Head of the Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Pathobiochemistry at the University of Leipzig. At the University Clinic of Leipzig he was head of the central laboratory. In 1998 Wagner returned to Vienna as Head of the Clinical Institute of Medical and Chemical Laboratory Diagnostics and was appointed professor for this specialist field.

In the team of his predecessor Univ. Prof. Dr. Christoph Zielinski, Wagner acted successfully as project manager for the new research building which will be opened in late June. After Zielinski was commissioned by Rector Schütz to set up Austria's first nationwide Comprehensive Cancer Centre, Oswald Wagner is taking over the function of Deputy Rector until the end of the current rectors' period. Says Wagner: "I am delighted that Rector Schütz trusts that I will continue along the successful course of recent years accordingly and I am happy to accept this challenge." Wagner sees one of his major objectives as further encouraging cooperation between basic science and clinical research.

With this new appointment, Rector Wolfgang Schütz thinks MedUni Vienna is ideally prepared for the new decade: "Professor Oswald Wagner boasts a high level of competence in his specialist field and will help ensure that MedUni Vienna will continue to develop successfully in the coming years."