Honorary professorships

Wieland Backes, born in 1946, holds a doctorate in chemistry and geography. His passion is the media: he made his first film at the age of 16. In 1973, he began an internship at Süddeutscher Rundfunk (SDR) television, became a reporter, editor, presenter, documentary filmmaker and finally, in 1981, head of the magazine programme "Abendschau Baden-Württemberg" for five years. In 1987, Backes founded the "Journalistic Entertainment" department, a novelty in the German television landscape at the time. The talk show "Nachtcafé", which he hosted from the very beginning, became its flagship programme. Backes celebrated the 500th edition in July 2009. However, Backes also took on other programmes and moderations, including the personality show "Auf der Couch" from 1989 to 1992, which occasionally ran on ARD's main evening programme. Since 1999, he has also presented the programme "Ich trage einen großen Namen" and the summer series "Schlaflos im Südwesten." Backes has long been committed to Stuttgart as a media location: he is one of the founders of the "Initiative MedienRegion Stuttgart".

In 2006, he was awarded the Medal of Merit of the State of Baden-Württemberg for his commitment.
In October 2010, the television journalist and presenter was appointed honorary professor at the HdM. There he co-founded the Institute for Moderation and is involved in the moderation qualification programme.

Prof. Andreas Bieswanger was appointed IBM Fellow in April 2020 and assumed the position of "IBM Z CTO Platform Management & Optimisation" at IBM. In this role, he is responsible for the strategy and architecture of hardware platform management for the IBM Z and LinuxONE product families. In close co-operation with users, he implements innovation and transformation projects to increase the vitality and growth of the platform. After completing his studies in computer science, he has contributed significantly to product development projects at IBM Deutschland Research & Development GmbH in Böblingen since 1994. His professional career was complemented by several years abroad at the IBM development centre in Austin, Texas.

In June 2023, Andreas Bieswanger was appointed Honorary Professor by the Senate of the Hochschule der Medien.

Dr Emanuel Burkhardt has been lecturing on copyright, publishing and media law in all faculties at the university since October 1995. After training in the administrative service, Burkhardt worked in the personnel department at the Stuttgart Regional Council. At the same time, he attended evening school, where he passed his school-leaving examination in 1981. He then studied economics and law at the Albert-Ludwigs University in Freiburg. He completed his doctorate in labour law under Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. Manfred Löwisch. Since 1992, Burkhardt has worked as a lawyer at the law firm Löffler-Wenzel-Sedelmeier, since June 2022 Rödl GmbH Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft Steuerberatungsgesellschaft, in Stuttgart, specialising in media and copyright law.

Among his numerous publications, the textbook "Urheberrecht für die Praxis" (Copyright Law for Practitioners), founded by Karl Egbert Wenzel, and the 6th edition of the handbook "Wenzel, Das Recht der Wort- und Bildberichterstattung" (Wenzel, The Law of Word and Image Reporting), published in 2018, are particularly noteworthy. He is also the editor of "Löffler, Presserecht Kommentar", 7th edition 2023. Burkhardt is managing director of the Studienkreis für Presserecht und Pressefreiheit e.V., a member of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für gewerblichen Rechtsschutz und Urheberrecht e.V., a member of the Media Council of the Landesanstalt für Kommunikation Baden-Württemberg and chairman of the Media Convergence and Digital Society Committee. He was appointed honorary professor in December 2003.

Dr Nils Heide, born in 1968, has been a lecturer at the Hochschule der Medien (HdM) since the 2017/2018 winter semester. He studied at the universities of Bonn, Oxford and Göttingen, where he also completed his doctorate. He joined the patent and law firm Gleiss & Große in Stuttgart as an attorney in 1999 and became a partner in 2002. As a specialist in intellectual property law, he represents international corporations, medium-sized companies and start-ups in patent disputes as well as trade mark and product piracy cases. In addition, he has been advising companies, universities and research institutions for many years on licence and research projects and is actively involved in technology transfer between science and industry. This applies in particular to research projects in the field of artificial intelligence. In his legal and academic work, he has also been dealing with issues of Chinese IP law for two decades. Dr Nils Heide has published numerous book chapters and articles on patent law and is a sought-after speaker at national and international conferences on IP law. Dr Nils Heide has been an honorary professor at the HdM since October 2020.

Ingo Zamperoni studied American studies, law and history and completed a traineeship at Norddeutscher Rundfunk. In 2007, he took over as presenter of the "ARD-Nachtmagazin" programme, and from 2014, Ingo Zamperoni reported from the USA for two years as ARD's foreign correspondent. He currently alternates with Caren Miosga and Aline Abboud to present the ARD Tagesthemen programme. As an author, he has published books on German-American relations, including "Fremdes Land Amerika - Warum wir unser Verhältnis zu den USA neu bewerten müssen" and "Anderland - Die USA unter Trump, ein Schadensbericht". In the run-up to the 2020 US election, his documentary "Trump, meine amerikanische Familie und ich - Ingo Zamperoni unterwegs in einem zerrissenen Land" was broadcast on ARD. Since 2019, the television journalist and presenter has been a lecturer in the "Moderation Qualification Programme", based at the Institute for Moderation at the HdM.

In July 2021, Ingo Zamperoni was appointed honorary professor by the Senate of the Hochschule der Medien.