Jan vom Brocke, Chair of Information Systems & Business Process Management, ranks first in Germany in the career ranking for Information Systems. Globally, he is among the top 0.35 percent of leading researchers in his field. In the 2026 ranking, he is listed in third place in Germany and among the top 0.26 percent worldwide.

In addition, several Visiting International Professors (VIPs) from the Faculty of Economics are featured in the ranking: Sirkka Jarvenpaa from the University of Texas, Michael Rosemann from Queensland University of Technology, and Alan Hevner from the University of South Florida.

About the Stanford/Elsevier Ranking

The annually published database was established by John P. A. Ioannidis of Stanford University and is published in collaboration with Elsevier. Due to its selection of the world’s leading scientists, it is also known as the ‘Top 2 per cent list’. The ninth edition of the ranking, published on 7 October 2026, is based on Scopus data as at 1 August 2026. It comprises two assessments: one covering the entire academic career and a ranking for 2026.

You can read more about the principles behind the ranking here.

Finn Petersen earned his bachelor’s degree in Information Systems and his master’s degree in Information Systems at the Department of Information Systems at the University of Münster. During his studies, he also gained practical experience as an e-learning developer support specialist and through working student positions in product management and content management.

Today, Finn works as an IT consultant at BBHT Beratungsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, a Münster-based consulting firm specializing in IT, digitalization and business processes.

We spoke with Finn about his time as a student, the practical experience he gained during his studies and his path into IT consulting.

Why did you choose to study Information Systems, and which subjects or topics interested you most during your studies?

When I graduated from high school, I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do later on, so I wanted to keep my options relatively open. That’s why I considered which degree programs would best suit my strengths and leave various career paths open to me. I simply found the interplay between aspects of computer science and a business management perspective very interesting. During my studies, I particularly enjoyed the lectures on project and process management. But I also have fond memories of the project seminars and other seminars, which were a lot of fun because they offered a nice change from the typical lecture format.

You gained practical experience during your studies, including in e-learning and through working student positions in product management and content management. How did these opportunities come about, and how did they prepare you for your current career?

To be honest, for financial reasons, working alongside my studies was never really a question of whether I would do it or not. After a few jobs that weren’t related to my field, I eventually thought, “If I’m going to work anyway, I might as well gain some relevant experience.” I got the job through a friend and stayed in it until I graduated.The experience prepared me mainly by familiarizing me with workplace structures and the way colleagues work together. Even today, I see communication and collaboration within a team as essential parts of the job. Of course, structures and regular meetings help with this, but so do soft skills like facilitating discussions, etc., and those are best learned through hands-on experience.

How did you get into IT consulting after graduating, and what appealed to you about this field?

Consulting itself fascinated me because it gives you the opportunity to get a glimpse into a wide variety of projects and to take on responsibility fairly quickly. I ended up at BBHT through my master’s thesis. During that half-year, I gained a very good insight into the company and decided that it was a great place to start my career.

What exactly does an IT consultant do, and what does your typical workday at BBHT look like?

Of course, this depends a lot on the project, the current phase, and the team composition. I’m currently working on a project where we’ve been doing application development in a very agile way, starting with a very small team and now with a larger one. At first, I worked as a business analyst and tester, then briefly as a Scrum Master, and now I’m responsible for the project on the BBHT side. As a result, my day-to-day work depends quite a bit on whether there are new colleagues who need to be onboarded, etc. Generally, I start my mornings by getting an overview of the day so I can go into the daily stand-up meeting prepared. Then we have quite a few meetings and coordination sessions in the morning, and in the afternoon I usually have time to work on things and make progress on the design of new features. Of course, I’m not just working on the project – there are always tasks that come up within BBHT as well. For example, business analysis or Scrum training sessions, which I prepare and lead with other colleagues (last year, even with some participants from WINet).

What kinds of projects or topics do you particularly enjoy working on at the moment?

I actually really enjoy preparing and conducting training sessions, partly because it’s always a nice change of pace from day-to-day project work. But I also still enjoy working on my project, since we’re constantly receiving new requirements and, in addition to processing data extracted by AI (which was our core focus at the beginning), we’re continually taking on new responsibilities. This means I have to familiarize myself with new topics every now and then, which also gives me a sense of accomplishment whenever I’ve mastered a new subject.

In what ways is working as an IT consultant different from what you expected during your studies?

Primarily in terms of the extent to which soft project factors influence overall project success. Our team works so well primarily because we collaborate very effectively and can support each other’s work. In addition, we’ve created a very open feedback culture and a level of trust that gives everyone the feeling they can contribute to important decisions. I’m firmly convinced that this is the only way my colleagues and I can make the best possible use of our skills.

What was the biggest challenge for you personally when starting your career, and how did you deal with it?

The transition was certainly interesting, but I experienced it as a positive one overall. As a student, you feel like you’re never really finished: there’s always more to learn, lectures to catch up on or presentations to prepare. Toward the end of my studies, that was starting to frustrate me. So I really enjoyed being able to switch off properly after work or at the weekend.
Of course, not everything is easy. Depending on the project, you do give up some of the independence you have as a student which is probably at its highest then. When choosing where to start my career, I made sure to find a role that would allow me to retain as much of that independence as possible. All in all, I didn’t find the transition into working life particularly challenging. The biggest adjustment was probably getting used to a new sleep schedule.

What advice would you give today’s Information Systems students who are interested in a career in IT consulting?

I think it’s incredibly helpful to look beyond your immediate field of study early on and explore topics that go beyond what’s covered in lectures. It’s also worth looking into different consulting firms, because consulting can mean very different things. Starting out in strategy or management consulting certainly requires different skills from the more operational work I do. 
I was lucky enough to interview people from a range of consulting firms for my master’s thesis. That gave me a clearer picture of the different options and helped me figure out what I wanted. It definitely helped me make my decision. So I’d recommend taking every opportunity to explore the field, work out whether it’s right for you and, if it is, think about what kind of consulting you can see yourself doing.

Which tasks can be entrusted to artificial intelligence, and when should humans remain involved in decision-making processes? Determining how decision-making responsibilities should be distributed between humans and AI is one of the key challenges facing companies in the AI era.

Prof. Jan vom Brocke and Dr. Thomas Haskamp from the Department of Information Systems at the University of Münster, together with Dr. Ina Sebastian and Prof. Peter Weill from the MIT Center for Information Systems Research (CISR), have developed a framework to help companies address this question. The “AI Decision Matrix” enables executives to determine, based on two dimensions, the extent to which humans and autonomous AI agents should be involved in decision-making processes.

The researchers developed the matrix based on interviews with 30 executives. It is based on the understanding that decisions vary in complexity and risk: While some decisions are predictable and involve limited risk, others are characterized by ambiguity and can have far-reaching consequences. Depending on the nature of the decision, greater human involvement or a higher degree of AI autonomy may therefore be appropriate.

Learn more about the framework here.

This semester, the Chair of Information Systems and Supply Chain Management, headed by Prof. Bernd Hellingrath, is offering the project seminar “Agentic Purchase Recommendations for Inventory Management Optimization” for master’s students. In collaboration with the Münster-based company pacemaker.ai, the students are investigating how agentic AI systems can support supply chain planners in their day-to-day work, particularly with replenishment decisions and demand forecasting.

Planners face complex decisions every day: volatile demand, supply bottlenecks, and a large number of materials, suppliers, and constraints all have to be kept in view at once. Agentic AI opens up new possibilities here. Unlike traditional forecasting models, AI agents can independently gather information, detect anomalies, explain their recommendations, and interact with users in natural language. The central question of the seminar is therefore: How should such a digital “sidekick” be designed so that it genuinely relieves planners of work while keeping humans in charge of the decisions?

Working in small teams, the students will analyze existing planning processes and planners’ requirements and review the current state of research on agentic AI and human-AI collaboration. Building on this, they will develop their own concepts and prototypes, such as an agent that explains forecast deviations in an understandable way, an assistant that prepares order proposals along with their rationale, or a system that proactively flags critical shortages. The teams will be supported by experts from pacemaker.ai, who will provide insights into real-world planning processes, data, and practical requirements.

pacemaker.ai is headquartered in Münster, is part of the thyssenkrupp group, and develops AI software for industrial supply chains, with solutions for demand forecasting and replenishment.

The Legal and Administrative Informatics Conference (RVI) was held on September 24–25, 2026, at TU Dresden as part of the Informatics Festival and in conjunction with the GI Annual Conference INFORMATIK.

Michael Räckers from the Department of Information Systems at the University of Münster organized the conference together with Gunnar Auth (HSF Meißen) and Tim Pidun (HTW Dresden). The event brought together approximately 100 participants. In cooperation with the Informatics Festival, the organizing team also helped shape the overarching theme, “Digital Resilience,” and was responsible for part of the main conference program. Michael Räckers also moderated the panel “Digital Resilience and Sovereignty – Boosters for Innovative Administration and State Modernization?”

The conference also included the annual general meeting of the GI Special Interest Group on Administrative Informatics. After nine years as the group’s spokesperson, Michael Räckers handed over the role to his successor, Gunnar Auth. Tim Pidun and Vera Spitzer (University of Koblenz) were elected deputy spokespersons.

Michael Räckers will remain a member of the group’s steering committee. Michael Koddebusch from the Department of Information Systems was also newly elected to the committee. The University of Münster is therefore represented by two members on the committee.

The 2026 Legal and Administrative Informatics Conference focused on the challenges of digital transformation in public administration, which is unfolding amid pressure to innovate, rule-of-law requirements, and geopolitical and technological dependencies. The conference explored digital resilience and digital sovereignty both as concepts for protection and stability and as potential drivers or barriers to innovation in public administration. It brought together legal, technical, and organizational perspectives and provided an interdisciplinary forum for exchange between academia and practice.

from left to right: Tim Pidun, Vera Spitzer, Gunnar Auth, Michael Räckers

The 21st International Conference on Information Systems (WI 2026) took place from September 6 to 10, 2026, at Johannes Kepler University Linz in Austria. Under the theme “Sociotechnical Systems in the Age of AI,” the conference focused on how artificial intelligence is changing the use of technology and the role of humans in business contexts. The conference brought together researchers and practitioners and provided a platform for exchanging ideas on current developments in Information Systems. In addition to academic contributions, the event also emphasized networking within the community.

Staff and students from the Department of Information Systems at the University of Münster were also represented with numerous contributions. A total of six papers were presented, covering topics including digital transformation, digital solutions for the circular economy, and digital product passports: 

• “Tool Adoption in Systematic Literature Reviews: An Empirical Investigation of the Review Process” (Näscher, Hans-Henning; Strohmann, Timo; vom Brocke, Jan) 

• “Why Overcoming Does Not Work: A Configurational Reconceptualization of the Barrier Construct in Digital Transformation Research” (Poppe, Celine; Koddebusch, Michael; Brandt, Tobias) 

• “Digital Solutions for Improving Circularity in Textile Recycling” (Reichert, Nicole; Sander, Marie; Stanlein, David) 

• “Generation Z Consumer Preferences for Digital Product Passport Attributes” (Herold, Tim Lukas; Montsch, Celine; Stanlein, David) 

• “ReuseMe: A DSR Study on Simplifying Local Donation and Reuse” (Khidirboev, Uroljon; Khudoyberdiev, Isroil; Koddebusch, Michael) 

• “The Influence of Explainable AI on Bias in Decision-Making Processes” (Vahland, Carolin Elisabeth; Burger, Mara) 

It is particularly noteworthy that three of the presented papers by Nicole Reichert, Marie Sander, Tim Lukas Herold, Celine Montsch, Uroljon Khidirboev, and Isroil Khudoyberdiev emerged from the master’s seminar “Digital Enablers of the Circular Economy” and were accepted as full papers in regular tracks. 

In addition, Michael Koddebusch co-chaired the track “Smart Cities & Digital Government” together with Bettina Distel and Tobias Guggenberger (University of Bayreuth). 

At the Falling Walls Lab Münster 2026, Dr. Lea Püchel from the Department of Information Systems placed second with her pitch titled “Breaking the Wall of Data Dependency.” On September 11, eight early-career researchers presented their research and startup ideas in three-minute pitches in English at the REACH – Euregio Start-up Center.

In her research, Lea Püchel examines how digital documentation software in childcare centers affects trust between educators and parents. Building on this, she is developing software designed to provide educators with guidance and greater legal certainty when handling data.

The Falling Walls Lab is an international initiative of the Berlin-based Falling Walls Foundation. In just three minutes, early-career researchers pitch ideas with the potential to create a positive impact on society. The winners of the local competitions qualify for the Falling Walls Science Summit in Berlin.

© Uni MS - Nike Gais

Kristina Magnussen and Rainer Böhme have received the best paper award for their paper "Personal Data Accuracy is a Blind Spot in LLM Privacy Research" at the Annual Privacy Forum 2026. 

The paper highlights an underexplored aspect of privacy research for Large Language Models (LLMs): personal data accuracy. LLMs are the technology behind AI chatbots. It is a known problem that they sometimes generate text that is nonsensical, false or might contain fabricated facts. This can also happen when data about natural persons is generated. The opinon paper draws attention to these personal data accuracy failures as an important, but often overlooked aspect of privacy. The authors link them to legal principles, propose a taxonomy to classify them, and give directions for future research.

The paper was written in the context of the SMARD-GOV project and funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space.

Links related to this news
You can read the paper here (open access). 

Projekt SMARD-GOV

From August 28 to 30, Münster celebrated the 80th anniversary of North Rhine-Westphalia. Under the motto “Democracy lives. Diversity connects.”, NRW Day 2026 offered numerous opportunities to experience the diversity of the state and explore different aspects of society, science, and culture.

The Department of Information Systems was also represented with a booth at the Science Mile. Under the title “AI Transformation – A Look into the Future,” the department presented current developments in artificial intelligence and showcased selected research projects highlighting concrete applications and impacts of AI.

The focus was on direct dialogue with visitors: How is AI changing business, society, and organizations? What opportunities does it offer, and what questions and challenges come with the increasing transformation driven by AI? Numerous conversations provided an opportunity to discuss different perspectives on these topics and share new insights.

Prospective students also took the opportunity to learn more about the Information Systems program, its broad range of subject areas, and the career prospects it offers. They gained insights into the program’s content and learned about the diverse career and professional opportunities at the intersection of business and computer science.

For the department, NRW Day provided a valuable opportunity to engage with a broad audience and bring academic research into conversation with the public. The many conversations and encounters made one thing clear: There is strong interest in how AI is transforming our future and how we can shape this transformation.

Prof. Dr Jan vom Brocke, Director of the Department of Information Systems, has been awarded the Best Published Paper Award by the CTO Division of the Academy of Management, together with his co-authors Christoph J. Frick (PhD) and Prof. Dr Stefan Seidel (University of Cologne). The study, entitled “Regulating Emerging Technologies: Prospective Sensemaking Through Abstraction and Elaboration”, has been published in the prestigious journal MIS Quarterly.

The paper focuses on one of the most important questions of digital transformation: how can new technologies be regulated in such a way as to avoid harmful effects whilst at the same time promoting innovation? To get to the bottom of this tension, the authors examined the development of the blockchain law in Liechtenstein and how stakeholders from various sectors – the legal sector, regulatory authorities, government, business and technology – worked together to shape this law collectively.

Their key finding: successful regulation arises from collective, forward-looking sensemaking – a shared endeavour to achieve understanding, based on the two closely interlinked processes of abstraction and elaboration. In this way, the participants succeeded in rethinking the subject of regulation step by step: from blockchain to ‘trustworthy technology’, from cryptocurrency to the token economy, and from the traditional roles of financial service providers to new roles within technological systems.

You can read about the conclusions the authors draw from these findings regarding the regulation of technologies in the award-winning paper (open access).

You can find out more about Prof. Dr Jan vom Brocke here.

The Student Council of the School of Business and Economics once again presented the annual Teaching Awards on behalf of the students. The awards recognize courses that stand out through outstanding commitment, high teaching quality, and a lasting contribution to students' academic success.

In the study programs Business Administration, Economics, and Information Systems, three courses from both the bachelor's and master's programs were nominated. From these nominations, the Teaching Award Committee selected this year's award recipients. Since 2010, the Teaching Awards have honored lecturers who demonstrate an exceptional commitment to excellent teaching. The award ceremony took place as part of the graduation celebration organized by the Student Council.

Awards for Information Systems:

• Bachelor: Dr. Lea Püchel & Ronja Dobler – Resource Overshoot Day 2.0 – Further Development of a Sustainability Tool for the University of Münster
• Master: Prof. Bernd Hellingrath – Supply Chain Management

Further nominations:

• Bachelor:Dr. Shariga Sivanathan – Digital Future Challenge
• Bachelor: Dr. Jens Lechtenbörger –  AIlaborate - Learnweb as a Personal Learning Environment for Students
• Master: Prof. Benedikt Berger – Exploring the Capabilities and Limits of AI Agents
• Master: Prof. Bernd Hellingrath & Prof. Luiz Felipe Scavardo do Carmo – Supply Chain Logistics Management

Congratulations to all nominees and award recipients on this well-deserved recognition!

The SMARD-GOV research project investigates how large language models (LLMs) can support decision-making processes in public administration in a secure, privacy-preserving, and legally compliant manner. The project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) and is jointly carried out by Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), the University of Münster, and PROSOZ Herten GmbH.

Over the past months, the project has generated new insights and presented its research findings at several academic and professional events.

As part of the Computers, Privacy and Data Protection (CPDP) conference in Brussels, the University of Münster organized an interdisciplinary workshop on data accuracy in LLMs. Together with journalist Martin Bernklau, legal expert Constantin Lessmann (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg) and computer scientist Kristina Magnussen (University of Münster) discussed the risks of inaccurate AI-generated statements about individuals, the legal requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and current technical challenges. The workshop highlighted the continued need for research to develop trustworthy, privacy-preserving AI systems.

At the end of June, Johannes von Ivernois (University of Münster) participated in a hackathon organized by the German Federal Ministry for Digital and State Modernization (BMDS) to further develop the project "Faster Planning and Implementation through AI (SPARK)" in Berlin. As SPARK shares several thematic overlaps with SMARD-GOV, the event provided valuable opportunities to gain new insights for the project's research while contributing SMARD-GOV's findings to the further development of SPARK.

At the MEMO Conference at the University of Münster, Prof. Tobias Brandt presented initial findings from interviews and a pilot experimental study. The results were discussed with experts from public administration, fostering an exchange on current challenges and opportunities related to AI-supported administrative processes.

In addition, the SMARD-GOV team organized two expert workshops addressing the question: "How can LLMs be integrated into administrative procedures in a legally compliant way?". The workshops were aimed at stakeholders from the municipal sector and provided insights into initial project results while facilitating discussions on legal and technical challenges.

Research Partners Wanted

SMARD-GOV is currently looking for research partners from public administration to support the further development and validation of reliable and privacy-preserving AI systems. Real-world application data is needed to evaluate the developed approaches under practical conditions. Partners will gain early insights into project results while contributing to the development of privacy-preserving and legally compliant AI solutions for public administration.

Interested in collaborating? Contact the SMARD-GOV project team: Constantin Lessmann (constantin.lessmann@fau.de). 

In May, the new research project “SynDIKAT” was launched. The acronym stands for “Synthetic Disinformation Data, Infrastructure for Collaboration and Analysis Toolbox for Social Media Research”. Funded for three years by the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR), the collaborative project focuses on disinformation in social media.

The project develops approaches for the privacy-compliant sharing and generation of synthetic social media data using large language models (LLMs) and agent-based simulations. Its main focus is on methodological questions in disinformation research.

According to the researchers, one central problem is the lack of shared social media datasets. As a result, methods for detecting and combating disinformation can currently only be compared and evaluated to a limited extent. SynDIKAT therefore aims to enable legally compliant data sharing and improve the evaluation of relevant algorithms for pattern and anomaly detection.

The project is led by Prof. Dr. Christian Grimme, Janina Lütke-Stockdiek, and Michael Vogt from the Department of Information Systems, as well as Prof. Dr. Thorsten Quandt, Malin Zoe Richter, and Paula Philine Jung from the Department of Communication at the University of Münster. Additional partners include GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, the Center for Advanced Internet Studies, and TU Dortmund University.

Links related to this news
BMFTR SynDIKAT

Press release from the University of Münster