Mattias Kettner appointed Professor of Forensic Medicine at Saarland University

The following text has been machine translated from the German with no human editing.

The forensic scientist also uses virtual simulations and biomechanical reconstruction of events. Another focus of his work is clinical forensic medicine, which involves examining the injuries of victims of violence in order to reconstruct the course of events.

At Saarland University, Mattias Kettner not only wants to further promote existing expertise in the three areas of medicine, toxicology and biology, but also introduce new topics such as imaging techniques and biomechanical examination methods. To this end, he plans to collaborate with scientists from other departments to research how heat transfer in the human body can be simulated. In addition, the new forensic scientist will work closely with the Department of Toxicology at Saarland University to further develop complex models and analyses. To this end, he also aims to collaborate with the bioinformatics department at the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS).

Mattias Kettner has taught medical, law and medical technology students at the Universities of Zurich and Frankfurt. He also teaches at the universities of Budapest and Thessaloniki and is a lecturer in forensic medicine at the German Judicial Academy ( ). In 2024, the German Society for Forensic Medicine awarded him the Konrad Händel Foundation Prize for Forensic Medicine. In 2022, he received the award for special commitment to teaching, which the academic field of Medicine at Goethe University Frankfurt presented. At the Faculty of Medicine on the Homburg campus, he wants to contribute to innovative teaching concepts and help implement the new planned licensing regulations for doctors.

Mattias Kettner previously headed the Department of Experimental Forensic Medicine at the Institute of Forensic Medicine at Saarland University from 2011 to 2014. He is now succeeding Peter Schmidt, the long-standing director of the institute, who is retiring.

Short biography

Mattias Kettner studied human medicine at Goethe University Frankfurt. He then worked there as a research assistant and assistant physician at the Centre for Forensic Medicine. This was followed by positions at the Institute of Pathology at Darmstadt Hospital, the Centre for Psychiatry at Frankfurt University Hospital, the Institute of Forensic Medicine at Saarland University and as head of department of Forensic Medicine and deputy director at the Institute of Forensic Medicine at Frankfurt University Hospital. Most recently, Mattias Kettner headed the Department of Forensic Medicine and Imaging at the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the University of Zurich.