Prof. Dr. Ing. Werner Lorenz conducts research on the history of civil engineering and industrial archaeology,  especially in the field of iron-, steel- and steel-concrete constructions of technical monuments of the 19^th and 20^th century and has provided numerous publications on them. The chair of history of civil engineering strives to establish next to natural-scientific and technical, also content that is related to the humanities. Built heritage as a material expression is a formative property of humanity. It is furthermore to be understood as an expression of a cultural practice, that, provided that it has historically not already been overtaken, is to protected as living culture. His most recent international cooperation project “The Metal Girders of Eremitage St. Petersburg – Studies on the Geneaology of European Steel Structures in the 19^th Century” conducts research on the specific aspects of civil engineering of this World Cultural Heritage and represents thereby an important contribution in the context of modern concepts of heritage preservation. In the year 1999, he has been awarded with the literary prize for building culture of the DAI and in year 2008 with the Brandenburg prize for engineering. Prof. Lorenz will supervise Ph.D.-topics in the focus area 1.