What I love about my profession …
“…I love the complexity of the work we do and that I get challenged with complicated 3D numerical analyses. Since I was a child, I had a passion for mathematics, physics and construction and being able to apply this in civil engineering projects that change so many people’s lives is very rewarding. I especially like the moment when we receive measurement results from the site, which fit very well to our prognosis.

At WBI, no day is like another, and there hardly is a dull moment for intellectually curious minds!”

Dr.-Ing. Wittke-Gattermann joined WBI in 1995. She took a leading function (Prokurist) in  2013 and became a member of the Board of Management in 2020. She is a renowned expert for statics, numerical modeling (2D and 3D) and structural design and is leading the corresponding group at WBI. During her time at WBI, she has contributed to the realization of

• more than 20 railway tunnels with a total length of ~145 km, including surface and underground stations as well as shafts,
• more than 5 road tunnels with a total length of ~35 km, including cuts in the portal area as well as ventilation and emergency shafts,
• more than 5 hydraulic tunnels with a total length of ~37 km,
• more than 10 dams and hydropower structures including caverns,
• more than 10 geotechnical structures.

Amongst many other projects, she has made important contributions to the safe and economic construction of 17 km of urban tunnels in anhydritic rock in connection with the large-scale railway project Stuttgart 21, as well as to the construction of complicated shaft and tunnel structures in connection with the new underground railway station at Stuttgart airport in a soft claystone with high horizontal stresses.

Dr.-Ing. Wittke-Gatterman is a member of the German Geotechnical Society and the International Society of Rock Mechanics (ISRM), as well as the Chamber of Engineers.

Dr.-Ing. Wittke-Gattermann holds a PhD in rock mechanics (tunneling in anhydrite) from the RWTH Aachen, which she received as an external student in parallel to her working at WBI. She graduated summa cum laude as Diplom Ingenieur in Civil Engineering (structural) from the University of Hannover. She is a member of the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes, an organization dedicated to supporting the academically gifted.