Torsten Reimer

Torsten Reimer joined the University of Chicago as University Librarian and Dean of the University Library in April 2022. He is leading the process of developing and implementing a comprehensive strategic vision for the future of the University of Chicago Library, the 10th largest academic library in the United States.

Torsten holds a Magister Artium and PhD in history, both from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. He is chair of the advisory board for the library system of the University of Cologne, chair of the Ivy Plus Libraries Confederation, and chair of the Open Repositories conference. He is also a board or advisory group member for a range of non-profit organizations including DataCite, a global non-profit organization that provides persistent identifiers for research data and other research outputs, SPARC, an advocate group on open knowledge, and CORE, the world's largest collection of open access research publications. Previously, he has been involved in a range of community initiatives, including chairing the Digital Shift working group that developed a ten year digital transformation vision for the Research Libraries UK consortium.

Before coming to Chicago, Torsten served as Head of Content and Research Services at the British Library, ensuring that contemporary collections and research services met the needs of in-person and online users of one of the world’s largest research libraries. He was the British Library’s strategic expert for scholarly communications, including open access, research data, and alternative publishing models.

Earlier in his career, Torsten served as Scholarly Communications Officer at Imperial College London, where he oversaw the development of open access and research data services. He also worked as a Program Manager for digital infrastructure at Jisc, the United Kingdom’s digital service provider for higher and continuing education, managing programs and innovation projects including the National Grid Service and National Centre for Text Mining. Prior to that, Torsten held several positions at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) and King’s College London, where he coordinated an international network supporting digital scholarship in the arts and humanities.