Joachim Funke

Prof. Dr. H.C. Joachim Funke has been Professor of experimental and theoretical psychology at the Psychology Department of Heidelberg University since 1997. He received his doctorate from the University of Trier in 1984. In 1990 he worked on his habilitation at the University of Bonn. Funke has been a visiting professor at various universities, including Fribourg (Switzerland), Melbourne (Australia), Nanjing (China), and Szeged (Hungary). His primary research interests include thinking, creativity, and problem solving. Funke has published numerous articles in international journals, contributed chapters to textbooks, and edited and published his own books. From 2010 to 2014, he served as chair of the International Expert Commission on Problem Solving in the OECD's global PISA studies. He is credited with a shift in the understanding of problem solving that changes the perspective from static to dynamic problem-solving activities. In 2015, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Hungarian University of Szeged for his contributions to the computer-based assessment of problem-solving processes. From October 2011 to March 2019, Funke served as speaker of the university's Academic Senate. His retirement began in April 2019.