European Academic Colloquium on Technical Communication 2012

Prof. Dr. Petra Drewer is Full Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Applied Sciences Karlsruhe, Germany, where she is Vice-Dean of the Department of Information Managementand Media. Her teaching and research activities focus on multilingual documentation development and translation as well as terminology studies and terminology management. In these fields she is also active as a consultant for companies and institutions. Professor Dr. Drewer is active in the tekom, the German professional association for technical communication and Information Development. She is a member of the German Standards Committee on Terminology and of the Council for German Language Terminology (UNESCO/RaDT). She is further a member of the scientific advisory board of the Deutscher Terminologie Tag (DTT) and president of the Deutsches Institut für Terminologie (DIT). Professor Drewer holds a Diploma in "Technical Translation" (Spanish, French and English, electrical and mechanical engineering) and a Ph.D. in Cognitive Linguistics. Since 2003 she is Full Professor for Applied Linguistics at the University of Applied Sciences in Karlsruhe, teaching applied linguistics, professional German, terminology management and multilingual technical documentation in the Technical Communication Degree programs. Prof. Dr. Sylvia Fischer is a professor of technical communication at Upper Austria University of Applied Sciences. She studied English, French, and Italian at Mainz University, Germany, and worked both as a technical translator and technical writer before starting her academic career. Since 2011 she has been teaching technical writing, German, and English at Upper Austria University of Applied Sciences in Wels, Austria. Marie-Louise Flacke has a 20 year technical communication experience, both in the academic and in business fields. On the international level, she developed documentation for major companies such as Microsoft Europe (Dublin, IRL) Alcatel (Paris, FR and Oslo, NO) France Telecom (FR), Nortel Networks (Hamburg, DE), EUROCONTROL (Brussels, BE) Deutsche Börse (Frankfurt, DE), ASCOM (Solothurn, CH) Police Fédérale (Brussels, BE), ESA (European Space Agency, Noordwijk, NL) and Roche Diagnostics (Rotkreuz, CH). Additionally, her involvement in professional associations include Tekom, STC, CRT, TC Europe and UK APMP. She is former INTECOM Vice President (2003-2006) and co-founder and FR representative to TC Europe. Marie-Louise is currently involved in designing a complete documentation set for the HR department of the EU Council in Brussels (BE). Involved in technical communication for the past seven years, Nolwenn Kerzreho led the DITA adoption effort at Technicolor as a trainer and information architect. Nolwenn graduated from Rennes 2 University, majoring in technical translation and communication, terminology and project management, where she now is in charge of the technical communication Master curriculum. Now a DITA consultant at Componize, a software editor dedicated to structured documentation, Nolwenn is based in the South of France. Nolwenn is committed to the advancement of technical communication, joining several professional international organisations and speaking at international events. Prof. Dr. Birgitta Meex is an Assistant Professor of German and Applied Linguistics at the Faculty of Arts, Subfaculty of Language and Communication of the University of Leuven in Antwerp. She received her PhD in German Linguistics from the University of Leuven in 2001. She is a certified trainer in Technical Communication (tekom) and is actively engaged in tekom Belgium. Her research is inspired by the desire to incorporate the disciplines of discourse analysis and cognitive linguistics. She has published research articles in the fields of cognitive semantics, corporate communication as well as technical and medical communication. Prof. Dr. Klaus-Dirk Schmitz is Full Professor of Terminology Studies at Cologne University of Applied Sciences in Germany. His teaching and research activities focus on terminology theory and terminology management as wells as on software localization and computer tools for translators. Numerous articles and books where he acts as author, co-author and editor show his excellent expertise in these fields. Prof. Schmitz has also taken a leadership role in national and international forums e.g. as president of the International Information Centre for Terminology Infoterm (2001-2009), vice-president of the German Terminology Association, chairman of the German Standards Committee on Computer Applications in Terminology and member of several advisory boards. Prof. Dr. Klaus Schubert is a professor at the Department for Applied Linguistics and International Specialized Communication at the University of Hildesheim. His main field of research is the optimization of communication. He is also the editor of the scholarly journal for translation and technical communication research trans-kom. Prof. Frieda Steurs is the dean of the subfaculty of language and communication at Lessius University College/KULeuven. She is a full professor in terminology and language technology and a member of the research group "Quantitative Lexicology and Variation Linguistics" (KULeuven). Her research includes projects with industrial partners and public institutions. She is the founder and former president of NL-TERM, the Dutch terminology association. She is also the head of the ISO TC/37 standardisation committee for Flanders and the Netherlands and a member of Coterm, the government body for terminology (Nederlandse Taalunie). She is a guest professor at 'L'Université Catholique de l'Ouest' (UCO), France and the president of TermNet, the International Network for Terminology. Dr. Maria-Cornelia Wermuth is lecturer at KU Leuven/Thomas More Antwerpen at the Department of Language and Communication. She lectures German grammar in the Bachelor in applied language studies and specialized (medical/technical) translation in the Master in Translation. She completed a PhD in Language and Literature awarded in April 2005 at the Free University of Amsterdam (Netherlands). Her main areas of interest are specialized (medical) translation, terminology, translation tools and terminological computer applications, applied cognitive linguistics (medical sublanguage), and frame semantics. She is also affiliated researcher of the Faculty of Philology (Department Linguistics) at KU Leuven.