Speakers & Chairmen 2022

Jessica S. Jermakian is vice president for vehicle research at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Dr. Jermakian joined the Institute in 2009 and has conducted research on topics ranging from crash avoidance and crashworthiness to child passenger safety. Prior to joining the Institute, Dr. Jermakian worked for Nissan North America and The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. She received her doctorate in Transportation Safety Engineering from The George Washington University.

Rainer Justen has more than 30 years of experience in the field of vehicle safety. After his studies in mechanical engineering with a focus on automotive engineering he started his career in the automotive development at Daimler AG in 1987. Several career milestones in the fields of vehicle safety, project management, safety concepts and active safety / driver assistance systems made him an expert on all relevant topics of automotive safety. Since 2008 he is working in the field of safety for alternative drive systems. Rainer Justen is author of numerous publications and papers on this topic. In 2015 Rainer Justen received the SAE Automotive Safety Award for his work on the Safety of Li-ion Batteries in Electric Vehicles from the American Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE).

Norman Meißner studied electrical engineering at the University of Applied Sciences in Dresden with a focus on automation and system technology. He has been working in passive safety since 2011 in different functions, initially in the areas of simulation and pre-development, later as a system- and project-engineer. Since 2017, he has been working at BMW AG as a project engineer in the side-crash-development as part of various vehicle projects.

Adriano Palao has 9 years of experience in automotive engineering, within the testing and validation domain. After completing his bachelor and master’s degree in mechanical engineering at Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, he worked for Nissan Motor Corporation, Applus+ IDIADA, Punch Powertrain, and Mitsubishi Electric. In January 2022 took the role of Technical Manager ADAS/AD at Euro NCAP.

Andreas Rigling completed his studies as Dipl. -Ing. (FH) Automotive Engineering at the Munich University of Applied Sciences in 2009. Since 2009 he has been working at the ADAC Technik Zentrum as project manager vehicle safety and consumer protection and is responsible for the projects and tests of active safety in the field of vehicle safety. As an ADAC representative he is involved in Euro NCAP working groups and active safety committees. Since 2015 he has been a lecturer at the Munich University of Applied Sciences in the subject "Vehicle Safety & Homologation". In July 2022, he became head of Testcener Mobility and Active Vehicle Safety.

Dominik Schuster has been VP Vehicle Safety for all BMW Group products since 2021. He is responsible for the development of active and passive safety, accident research as well as the safety aspects of automated driving for all vehicles of the BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce brands. After school and military service with the German Air Force, he studied mechanical engineering at the University of Applied Sciences in Munich and graduated as Dipl.-Ing. (FH) in 2004. Immediately after graduation he started his automotive career at BMW as an engineer for passive safety concepts. In the following years, he held various positions in the BMW vehicle safety department. After serving as department head for body structure, exterior and interior simulation in 2017, he was appointed Vice President Vehicle Safety in January 2021. He is a passionate sportsman and enjoys activities such as tennis or hiking in the Alps whenever possible.

Andre Seeck is head of the division "Vehicle Technology" with the German Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt). In this position he is responsible for the preparation of European Safety Regulations. Furthermore he represents the German Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport in the Board of Directors of Euro NCAP and he is the chairman of the strategy group on automated driving and of the rating system. These positions enable him to gain deep insight into current and future developments in vehicle safety. In 2017 NHTSA awarded him the U. S. Government Special Award of Appreciation.

After studying mechanical engineering and being awarded a doctorate at TU Darmstadt, Dr. Seiniger moved to the Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt) in 2009. Here Dr. Seiniger is involved in development and performance of tests for emergency braking systems and active safety for Euro NCAP and in developing and updating the respective legislatory framework (regulations). He was member of several Euro NCAP working groups and is Deputy Head of section “Active Vehicle Safety and Driver Assistance Systems”.