Hermann Parzinger, a prehistorian and professor, has been President of the Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz since 2008. He still directs excavation and research projects and publishes regularly. He has received numerous awards.

Studied pre- and early history (prehistoric archaeology), provincial Roman archaeology and medieval history in Munich, Saarbrücken and Ljubljana,

1985: PhD and assistant professor at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, 1990: Habilitation (Post-doctoral degree)

1990: Appointed Vice Director of the Römisch-Germanische Kommission of the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut;

1995–2003: Founding Director of the Eurasia Department of the DAI; 2003–8: President of the DAI Excavations and archaeological research projects in Siberia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Iran Important honours and prizes: 1998: Leibniz Prize of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation, DFG), 2009: Awarded Order of Friendship by the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev; 2012: Accepted into the Order Pour le mérite for the Sciences and Arts Membership in, among others, the British Academy, the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften (Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities) and the American Philosophical Society, spokesman of Deutsch-Russischer Museumsdialog (German-Russian Museum Dialogue), Director of the Working Group on Culture of the Petersburger Dialog.