It is exactly 50 years ago that the State of Lower Saxony on behalf of the University of Göttingen and the Max Planck Society established the Gesellschaft für wissenschaftliche Datenverarbeitung mbH Göttingen – GWDG for short – in a founding meeting. And even today, the construct of a computer and IT competence centre for science and research, co-financed by two associates, is still both a very successful and extraordinary concept: the synergies in the operation of modern high-performance computers, cloud services, tailor-made IT systems and applications, networks and a great number of other services ensure sustainability and allow us to quickly react to constantly changing requirements and conditions in IT and to develop new, effective and easy-to-use solutions for our customers.
This is particularly true in these exceptional times, during which the coronavirus is changing global life, work and research in a way that until recently was beyond imagination and poses unexpected challenges. During the past weeks, the GWDG has taken numerous measures and added new IT services to our extensive service portfolio or substantially expanded existing IT services in order to offer practical solutions and support for digital collaboration, teaching and research. The numerous positive feedback from our customers is both an appreciation and encouragement to continue our efforts to provide a powerful and innovative IT infrastructure for excellent research and teaching in the future.
Therefore, it would have been a great pleasure for us to celebrate our 50th birthday together with associates, customers and friends of the GWDG as well as our employees in a festive manner here in Göttingen. Due to the current situation, we unfortunately had to adjust our existing plans and with a heavy heart decided to celebrate our “50+1” anniversary next year.
Today is a “special” day in many ways and the circumstances of our 50th birthday will probably remain in memory of many people connected with the GWDG for a long time. However, today the GWDG remembers our current and former customers, friends and employees with joy and gratitude, and all of their contributions to five successful decades of “IT in science”.