Gerald Haug is a paleoclimatologist, marine geologist and paleoceanographer. He studies the development of the Earth climate over thousands to millions of years. He analyses sediment cores from the sea floor and lakes, amongst several other climate archives. The chemical composition of the different sediment layers provides clues to the prevailing climatic conditions at the time of deposition. This allows quantitative reconstructions of past climate conditions and the underlying processes in the ocean, atmosphere and climate system.

Current Functions in Scientific Committees

• Chair of the Science Advisory Board of the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) and member of the Governance Board
• Chair of the Science Advisory Board of the Potsdam Institute of Climate Impact Research (PIK) Member of the Governance Board of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
• Member of the Science Commission of Lower Saxony
• Member of the Science Advisory Board of the Swiss Polar Institute
• Member of the Science Advisory Board of the Netherland Earth System Science Centre (NESSC)
• Member of the Science Advisory Board of the Werner Siemens Foundation

Honours and Awarded Memberships

• since 2018 Member of the Mainz Academy of Science and Literature
• since 2012 Member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
• 2010 Rössler-Prize, ETH Zurich
• since 2008 Member of the Academia Europaea
• 2007 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize, German Research Foundation (DFG)
• 2001 Albert Maucher Prize, German Research Foundation (DFG)

Ole Petter Ottersen is a neuroscientist who focuses his research mainly on signal molecules and synaptic transmissions in the brain. He clarified the function of membrane molecules in the brain, an accomplishment that could serve as the starting point for the development of new medicines. Ottersen is also active in the field of Global Health.

Academic and Professional Career

• 2017 – 2023 President of Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
• 2009 – 2017 President of the University of Oslo, Norway
• 2002 – 2009 Director of the Center for Molecular Biology and Neurosciences, University of Oslo
• 2001 – 2002 Chair of EMBIO (cross-faculty department for molecular biology, biotechnology and bioinformatics at the University of Oslo)
• 2000 – 2002 Vice dean for research, Medical Faculty, University of Oslo
• 1997 – 1999 Head of the Department for Anatomy, Institute for Basic Medical Sciences, University of Oslo
• since 1992 Professor for medicine, Institute for Medical Fundamental Research, University of Oslo
• 1983 – 1992 Researcher, Institute of Anatomy, University of Oslo
• 1982 PhD in neurosciences, University of Oslo
• 1980 MD, University of Oslo
• 1978 – 1983 Research Fellow, Institute of Anatomy, University of Oslo

Functions in Scientific Societies and Committees

• 2016 – 2017 Chair of the Guild of Research Intensive Universities
• 2014 – 2016 Chair of the advisory board of the Academic Monitoring Panel on Global Governance for Health
• 2014 – 2021 Chair of the Olav Thon Prize committee consultant for the EAT Foundation
• 2013 – 2017 Chair of the Kavli Prize commitee for neurosciences
• 2013 – 2017 Member of the Business for Peace Advisory Board
• 2013 – 2017 Member of the advisory board of Partnership for Change
• 2013 – 2016 Member of the advisory board in Nordforsk
• 2013 – 2015 Chairman of the Norwegian Association of Higher Education Institutions (UHR)
• 2013 – 2015 Head of the Nordiske Universitetssamarbeidet (NUS)
• 2012 – 2015 Member of the strategic advisory committee of the Biocenter Finland
• 2012 – 2017 Member of the board of the Oslo University Hospital (OUS)
• 2011 – 2014 Chair of Lancet – University of Oslo Commission on Global Governance for Health
• 2009 – 2017 Chair of the board of the University Oslo
• 2009 – 2017 Board member of Universitetsforlaget
• 2008 – 2012 Committee chairman of the European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grants
• 2007 – 2013 Member of the scientific advisory board of the Lundbeck Foundation
• 2006 – 2009 Chief editor of Neuroscience
• 2006 – 2008 Member of the advisory board of the Institute for neurosciences, Norwegian University for Science and Technology
• 2004 – 2006 Member of the Expert Advisory Board, Brain Power, Sweden
• 2003 – 2007 Chairman of FUGE (National Program for Functional Genomics in Norway)
• 2002 – 2007 Chair of the scientific advisory board of the Helsinki Neuroscience Center
• 2002 – 2006 Board member of the Wallenberg Consortium North
• 2002 – 2005 Associate Editor of Neuroscience
• 2001 – 2005 Norwegian representative in the European Cooperation in Scientific and Technological Research (COST)
• 2001 – 2002 Committee chairman of the EVA Project (evaluation committee of the research activities of the University of Oslo)
• 2000 – 2009 Editor of the European Journal of Neuroscience
• 2000 – 2002 Chair of the Interim Board of CONNECT Norway
• 2000 – 2002 Member of the senior advisory committee of Nordic CONNECT
• 2000 – 2001 Member of the Interim Board of the Norwegian Biotechnology Forum
• 1996 – 2003 Chair of the election committee of the Jahre Prize

Professor Elizabeth H. Blackburn, a Nobel Laureate, is currently Professor Emerita at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Throughout her long career in science she has been a leader in the area of telomere and telomerase research, having discovered the molecular nature of telomeres – the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes that serve as protective caps essential for preserving the genetic information – and co-discovered the ribonucleoprotein enzyme, telomerase.

As Professor Emerita in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), Professor Blackburn and her UCSF research team continue their work with various cells (including human cells), with the goal of understanding telomerase and telomere biology. She and her research team also collaborate in a wide range of investigations of the roles of telomere biology in human health and diseases, through clinical and other human studies.

Born in Australia, Professor Blackburn earned her B.Sc. (1970) and M.Sc. (1972) degrees from the University of Melbourne, and her Ph.D. (1975) from the University of Cambridge in England. She was a postdoctoral fellow in the Molecular and Cellular Biology Department at Yale University from 1975 to 1977.

In 1978, Professor Blackburn joined the faculty at the University of California Berkeley (UCB), in the Department of Molecular Biology. In 1990, she joined the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at UCSF, where she served as Department Chair from 1993 to 1999. She was also appointed a faculty member in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at UCSF.

Professor Blackburn has won many prestigious awards throughout her career. In 2009, Professor Blackburn was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. She received the Albert Lasker Medical Research Award for Basic Medical Research in 2006, and in 2007 was named one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People. In 2008 she was the North American Laureate for L’Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science. She was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1991) and the Royal Society of London (1992), a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences (1993) and a Member of the Institute of Medicine (2000). She was elected the 1998 President of the American Society for Cell Biology and the 2010- 2011 President of the American Association for Cancer Research. She served on the President’s Council on Bioethics from 2002 to 2004, and has been awarded honorary degrees by 11 Universities.

Academic and Professional Career

• since 2021: Chairman of the Board of Trustees, World Health Summit
• 2010: Guest Professorship, Collège de France, Paris, France
• since 2009: Founding President World Health Summit and Chairman of Board of Trustees of the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces and Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Germany
• since 2005: Honorary Chairman of the Board, Charité Foundation, Germany
• 2004‐2008: Chief Executive Officer, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany
• 2002-2007: National Ethics Council
• 1997-2001: President, Helmholtz Association of National Research Centers
• 1997-1998: President, Deutsche Gesellschaft der Naturforscher und Ärzte (GDNÄ)
• 1992-2008: Professor for Clinical Pharmacology, Free University of Berlin
• 1991‐2004: Founding Director, Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch, Germany
• 1975-1991: Professor for Pharmacology and Experimental Medicine, University of Heidelberg, Germany
• 1973: Ph.D., McGill University, Montreal, Canada
• 1969‐1973: Research Fellow, Clinical Research Institute, Université de Montreal, Canada
• 1968: M.D. degree, University of Tübingen, Germany

Project coordination, Membership in collaborative research projects (Selection)

Sustjie Mbumba is a qualified Oral Health and Dental Therapist. She studied in Jamaica while in exile. She joined the Ministry of Health and Social Services after Independence and was instrumental in the development of the National AIDS Policy Framework and the implementation of the National AIDS Control Programme. Madame Mbumba has vast experience in capacity building and training of Health workers and community-based groups across Namibia and was a strong advocate for the promotion of Oral Health.

Madam Mbumba spent twelve years of her young and adult life in exile, mainly in Angola where she participated in the liberation struggle for the Independence of Namibia. In the camps, she provided dental care for refugees and took care of Namibian children whose parents were either studying abroad, fighting at the war front or were orphaned. She returned to Namibia in 1989 and took part in the United Nations supervised elections which ushered in Namibia’s independence. Madam Mbumba served on the boards of various non-governmental organizations that assist vulnerable and unemployed people, particularly women. These include the Ngeno Nakamhela Foundation which is working with the community of Kalkfeld in Odjozondjupa Region to improve the living conditions of communities. In addition, she served as the director of Women at Work, a non-profit organisation providing training to marginalised women.

Madam Mbumba is passionate about community development and the upliftment of vulnerable groups and that is evident in the project she has initiated at the Mururani Combined School in the Kavango East Region to refurbish the school hostel and kitchen area to assist vulnerable learners living far from school. She is also an avid farmer. Madame Sustjie Mbumba is the fourth First Lady of the Republic of Namibia.

In 2024, she effectively took over the Presidency of the Organisation of African First Ladies for Development (OAFLAD)

Activities & Positions

• Since 2024: Member of the Advisory Group | UNFPA WomenX Collective
• Since 2023: Member of the High-Level Council | Global Surgery Foundation
• Since 2023: Deputy Chairman | German-African Business Association (Afrika-Verein)
• Since 2022: Member of the Steering Committee & Coordination Committee | One Europe for Global Health
• Since 2022: Member of the Board of Trustees | World Health Summit
• Since 2022: Member of the Advisory Board | Institute for Research in International Assistance (IRIA), Akkon University of Applied Sciences for Human Sciences
• 2021-2022: EU Climate Pact Ambassador
• Since 2020: Member of the Board of Trustees | Neurological Rehabilitation Centre NRZ Godeshöhe Bonn
• Since 2019: Founding Member of the Advisory Group | Health Innovation Exchange (HIEx), established by UNAIDS
• Since 2019: Member of the Board | BDI Committee for Industrial Health Economy
• Since 2019: Member of the Strategic Board | BDI Initiative Digital Health
• 2019-2022: Member of the Steering Committee | Global Health Hub Germany
• 2018-2023: Chair | Private Sector Advisory Board of GIZ – Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit
• Since 2017: Permanent Guest of the BDI Presidential Board
• 2017-2023: Member | World Health Summit Council
• 2016: Initiator of the German Global Health Award, granted for the first time in 2017
• Since 2014: Chairman of the Board | GHA – German Health Alliance, with its pillar in health system strengthening established jointly by the German government through the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Federation of German Industries (BDI)
• Since 2014: Member of the Board | German-African Business Association (Afrika-Verein)
• Since 2014: Senior Managing Director | Sysmex Partec GmbH
• 2014: Main initiator of the “German-African Healthcare Forum” and of the multisectoral “Action Group on Ebola”
• 2012-2016: Founding Member | Saxon Future Commission for Biotechnology & Life Sciences
• 2012-2014: Founding Member | Advisory Board of the Coordinating Agency for the Free State of Saxony Healthcare Sector
• 2009-2016: Founding Chairman of the Board | biosaxony – Free State of Saxony Biotechnology & Life Sciences Association
• 2000-2014: Managing Partner | Partec, Görlitz
• 2006-2014: Director Essential Healthcare | Partec, Münster
• 2000-2006: HIV/AIDS Project Coordinator | Partec, Münster

Further Activities
In 2012, Roland Göhde co-founded the non-profit Göhde Foundation with a specific focus in Africa on essential healthcare, water supply, education and electricity supply, since 2017 with a second area of activities in classical music, especially in the context of supporting children as well as top young talents.

Awards
Besides other awards, Roland Göhde received the Innovation Award of the Free State of Saxony in 2003 and the IQ Innovation Award of Central Germany in 2007. At the “1st German Congress of World Market Leaders” in 2011, he was honored with the Young Entrepreneurs Award, granted for the first time by Adolf Würth GmbH & Co. KG. For his commitment and merits for the biotechnology sector in the Free State of Saxony, Göhde received the “Biosaxony Award” in 2019.

Since 1994, Hermann Gröhe is a member of the German Bundestag, currently acting as Vice Chairman of the CDU/CSU group for economic cooperation and development as well as labour and social policy. From 2013 to 2018, Mr. Gröhe was the Federal Minister of Health, giving Global Health issues a great priority in his work. A lawyer by profession, Hermann Gröhe is a faithful protestant and member of the National Synod of the Protestant Church of Germany (EKD).

Politics

• since 2018 Deputy Chairman of the CDU/CSU-Parliamentary Group and commissioner for churches and religious communities
• since 2014 Member of the CDU Federal Executive Board
• 2013-2018 Federal Minister of Health
• 2009-2013 Secretary General of the CDU
• 2008-2009 Minister of State at the Federal Chancellery, responsible for the coordination between states and federal government, deregulation and parliamentary relations
• 2005-2008 Legal Advisor of the CDU/CSU-Parliamentary Group, Spokesman of the CDU/CSU-Parliamentary Group on the first fact-finding committee, Member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs
• 2001-2009 Chairman of the CDU Rhein-Kreis Neuss
• 1998-2005 Spokesman on Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid of the CDU/CSU-Parliamentary Group
• 1994-1998 Spokesman of the “Young group” in the CDU/CSU Parliamentary Group
• since 1994 Member of the Deutscher Bundestag
• 1993-1994 Member of the CDU programme commission
• 1991-1993 Member of the County Council Neuss
• 1989-1994 Chairman of the national Junge Union Germany
• 1984-1989 Member of the County Council Neuss
• 1983-1989 County chairman of the Junge Union Neuss
• since 1977 Member of the CDU

Education and professional experience

• since 1994 Licensed lawyer
• 1993 Second State Examination
• 1991-1993 Trainee lawyer at the District Court Cologne
• 1987-1993 Research assistant at the department of Political Philosophy and Legal Policy at the University of Cologne
• 1987 First State Examination
• 1980-1987 Law school at the University of Cologne

Social commitment

• since 2021 Member of the Board of the Deutsche Nationalstiftung (German National Foundation
• since 2018 Deputy Chairman of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation
• since 2001 Member of the Board of Directors of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation
• 2000-2008 Chairman of the “Diakonisches Werk” in Neuss, the relief organization of the EKD
• since 1997 Member of the National Synod of the EKD
• 1997-2009 Member of the Council of the Protestant Church in Germany (EKD)

Academic and Professional Career

• Since 2020 President of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences
• 2012-2018 Vice-President of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences
• 2003-2015 Secretary of the Class of Humanities of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences (former Prussian Academy of Sciences)
• 2013 Senior Fellow Martin Buber Society Hebrew University, Jerusalem
• 2010 Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study Princeton
• 2009/2010 Stewart Visiting Research Scholar in the Humanities Council, Programm of Jewish Studies, University of Princeton
• 2008/2009, 2013 and 2019 Visiting Fellow, Trinity College, Oxford
• since 2004 Chair of Church History (Ancient Christianity) at the Humboldt University of Berlin
• 2000-2004 Chair of Church History at the Ruprecht-Karls Universität Heidelberg
• 1999/2000, 2005/2006 and 2016/2017 Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies of the Hebrew University, Jerusalem
• 1998/1999 Fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, Institute for Advanced Study
• 1994-2000 Chair of Church History at the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena

(Corresponding/Foreign) Member of the:

• European Academy of Sciences and Arts
• Academia Europea
• Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Humanities
• German Archeological Institute
• Academia Ambrosiana Milan
• Heidelberger Academy of Science
• Mainzer Academy of Science and Literature

Previous functions in scientific committees

• 2017 Federal Cross of Merit (1st Class)
• 2016 Director of Chronoi – Einstein Research Enter Chronoi (on Time and Awareness of Time in Ancient Societies), Berlin
• 2014 Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Council of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation

Honours and Awarded Memberships

• 2017 doctor honoris causa of the Pontifical Lateran University – Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum
• 2011 doctor honoris causa of the Faculty of Theology at the University of Oslo
• 2010 Salzburg University Prize
• 2007 doctor honoris causa of the Faculty of Orthodox Theology of Lucian- Blaga-University Sibiu/Hermannstadt
• 2001 Leibniz-Award of the German National Research Council
• 1995 Hanns-Lilje-Award of the Goettingen Academy of Sciences
• 1980 State’s President’s Price for Young Historians

Dr Miriam Orcutt (MBBS, MSc) is a Senior Research Fellow in Global Public Health and Forced Migration at the Institute for Global Health, University College London, and Executive Director of Lancet Migration: global collaboration to advance migration health.

Her main areas of academic and policy interest are: global health policy and governance and migration, health system and medical-humanitarian resilience and response to migration, forced migration and health, structural and political determinants of health for migrants.

Miriam has a particular interest in the effective translation of research into policy and practice. She has extensive experience working with NGOs and multilateral organisations; such as: Médecins sans Frontières (2018 and 2019), the World Health Organisation (regular consultancies 2017-2019), the Syrian American Medical Society (fieldwork 2016), DevTech (fieldwork 2012); and experience leading or contributing to research reports and policy briefings for WHO (2017-19), World Bank (2017), Terre des Hommes (2015), among others.

Fieldwork experience in: Nepal, India, Zambia, South Africa, Bolivia, Argentina; and in migration contexts in: Lebanon, Egypt, Greece, Serbia, Belgium, Italy.

Contributed to or made interventions at the following global policy processes as a civil society representative: the Global Compact for Migration global stakeholder consultations in: New York, May 2017 and Geneva, July 2017; Global Compact for Migration high-level member state meeting in Morocco, 2018; WHO Global Action Plan to improve the health of migrants and refugees: expert consultation meeting, Geneva, 2019; World Health Assembly, Side Event on Universal Health Coverage and Migration, May 2019; United Nations high-level meeting on Universal Health Coverage, New York, 2019.

Miriam previously worked as a medical doctor in the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), on the Academic Clinical Foundation Programme in Epidemiology and Global Public Health, in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. She holds an MSc in Medical Anthropology with Distinction from Durham University and is a doctoral candidate on health system response to forcibly displaced populations.

She has published academic articles in the field of migration and health as relates to global public health and health policy in peer-reviewed journals, such as The Lancet and The British Medical Journal, and was one of the lead authors of ‘The UCL-Lancet Commission on Migration and Health’ (published in the Lancet in December 2018).

Miriam has over five years of humanitarian consultancy and project management experience, including with The Lancet, the World Health Organisation and the World Bank, and is skilled in leading research projects and policy work. In 2018 she was named a Canadian Woman Leader in Global Health, on the inaugural list by The Lancet.

Dr h.c. Friede Springer is the Vice Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board of Axel Springer SE and holds the chairmanship of her two foundations:

The Friede Springer Foundation promotes scientific, medical, artistic and cultural projects.

The Axel Springer Foundation supports exclusively and directly scientific, non-profit and charitable purposes. The focus is on German-Jewish historical research and on German-Israeli relations.

Friede Springer has been a member of the Supervisory Board of Axel Springer SE since 1985 and its Vice Chairwoman since 1999.

In 1996, Friede Springer was awarded the Grand Cross of Merit of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Education, training and positions

• Business Administration, University of St. Gallen
  • Doctorate with Professor Dr Walter Krieg and Dr Ulrich Steger
  • Initiation and Founding, incl. fundraising (CHF 1 mill.) of the Institute for Economy and Ecology
• Years of apprenticeship and travel
  • Sectors included industry, finance, consulting and self-employment in the field of restructuring/reorganization
• 2022 – 2022: Chief Executive Officer, WALA Heilmittel GmbH
• Since 2022: Member of the Executive Board, Software AG – Foundation

Other activities

• Member of supervisory bodies of medium-sized companies, incl. Tegut Handelsgesellschaft, Germany / Sigvaris Group, Switzerland)
• Member of foundation committees, incl. DM Foundation, WALA Foundation, Software AG – Foundation

Wegner’s political career started in 1995, when he was elected to the Spandau Borough Assembly. From 1999 to 2005, he was a member of the Berlin House of Representatives and both the deputy chair of his parliamentary group and its economic policy spokesperson. In 2005, Wegner was elected to the German Bundestag, where he was a member of the Business and Technology Committee, among other things. From 2009 to 2017, he chaired the Berlin group within the CDU (Christian Democratic Union) parliamentary group and was the commissioner for large cities from 2014 to 2017. From 2018 to 2021, Wegner chaired the CDU/CSU parliamentary group’s working group on construction, housing, urban development, and municipalities, in addition to being the parliamentary group’s spokesperson on construction policy.

In 2021, Kai Wegner won election to the Berlin House of Representatives and then the chairship of the CDU parliamentary group. On 12 February 2023, he was re-elected to the House of Representatives in Berlin’s repeat election and confirmed as chair of the CDU parliamentary group. Since 27 April 2023, Kai Wegner has been Governing Mayor of Berlin.

© Helmholtz/Phil Dera

Otmar D. Wiestler was born in Freiburg, Germany on November 6, 1956. After completion of his medical training at the University of Freiburg Medical School, he received his M.D. degree in 1984. From 1984 to 1987 he trained as a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Pathology, University of California in San Diego/USA. After a five–year period as senior resident and Assistant Professor in Neuropathology at the University of Zurich/Switzerland, he moved to the University of Bonn in 1992, where he was appointed as Professor of Neuropathology and Head of the Department of Neuropathology. At this University, he established a major neuroscience research center. In January 2004 he joined the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg as Chairman and Scientific Member of the Management Board. Since September 2015 he serves as the President of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers in Berlin.

Otmar D. Wiestler has served on many scientific and professional boards, as Head of the German Brain Tumor Reference Center in Bonn, Chairman of the BONFOR research committee at the University of Bonn, President of the German Society of Neuropathology and Neuroanatomy, Head of the Review Board Theoretical Medicine of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), and as CEO of the Life & Brain Neuroscience platform in Bonn. Until 2014 heserved as a Member of the Medical Advisory Board of Deutsche Krebshilfe (German Cancer Aid). From 2007 to 2012, he acted as a Vice President for Health of the Helmholtz Association. Between 2016 and 2023, he chaired the University Council of the Technical University of Munich (TUM). Since 2015, he is a member of the Supervisory Board of Bayer AG. Furthermore, he is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Hertie Foundation (Gemeinnützige Hertie–Stiftung); member of the Board of Trustees of the Werner–von–Siemens–Ring–Foundation; member of the Board of Trustees of the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden and on the Board of Directors of the Mark Foundation for Cancer Research, New York.

Otmar D. Wiestler contributed more than 300 papers and book chapters to the scientific literature. He has also served as an editorial board member of several international journals, including Acta Neuropathologica (Editor), Brain Pathology, Cancer Letters, Carcinogenesis, Journal of Neurology, Neuropathology & Applied Neurobiology. Since 2001, he is an elected member of the German Life Science Academy LEOPOLDINA. In 2004, he received the German Federal Cross of Merit (Bundesverdienstkreuz). Honorary doctoral degrees (Dr. h. c.) were awarded to him in 2012 by the University of Tuebingen, in 2014 by the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, in 2016 by the University of Duisburg–Essen, in 2017 by the University of Wuerzburg and in 2021 by the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel

Christiane Woopen is a Heinrich Hertz Professor of “Life Ethics – Individuals, Institutions and Societies” at the University of Bonn and Founding Director of the Centre for Life Ethics since October 2021.

Previously, she was Professor of Ethics and Theory of Medicine at the University of Cologne, where she was Founding Director of the interfaculty Cologne Centre for Ethics, Rights, Economics, and Social Sciences of Health (ceres).

In addition to leading national and international research projects, she is involved in policy advocacy, including:

• 2012-2016 Chair of the German Ethics Council
• 2014-2016 President of the Global Summit of National Ethics Councils
• 2017 Member of the UNESCO International Bioethics Committee
• 2018-2019 Co-Spokesperson of the German Government Data Ethics Council
• 2017-2021 Chair of the European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies (EGE)

Membership in Scientific Academies

• North Rhine-Westphalia Academy for Sciences and Arts
• Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences
• Academia Europaea

Awards

• Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class

Professor Christina Mitchell trained as a physician scientist specialising in clinical haematology.  She received a degree in Medicine from the University of Melbourne and consultant training in haematology at The Alfred Hospital, Melbourne. She graduated with a Fellowship from the Royal Australian College of Physicians and also a Fellowship in Pathology. She obtained a PhD from Monash University and her post-doctoral studies were undertaken in the field of intracellular signalling at Washington University Medical School, St Louis, USA.

On returning to Australia Professor Mitchell became an independent investigator at the Department of Medicine at Box Hill Hospital. She was appointed Professor and Head of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Monash University and subsequently Head, School of Biomedical Sciences, Monash University which is the largest School within the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences. In 2011 she became Dean, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences at Monash University. She was the first woman to be appointed Dean of Medicine of a Go8 university in Australia. Professor Mitchell is also a member of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences.

Professor Mitchell is a recipient of the Lemberg Medal which is awarded annually to a distinguished biochemist in Australia, and is a Sir John Monash Distinguished Professor. She is a recipient of an Award in the Order of Australia for distinguished service to medicine in the field of haematology, to medical education and research, and to academic leadership.

Professor Sophia Zoungas has brought her broad clinical and public health expertise to her leadership of Monash’s School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine since 2019. She’s overseen huge growth as the School has responded to public health challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, whilst also growing the pre-existing portfolio of non-COVID research and education.

A practicing Clinical Endocrinologist specialising in diabetes care, she’s led clinical trials that helped transform care in diabetes, cardiovascular health, kidney disease and healthy ageing. New knowledge generated by her research has created a paradigm shift in clinical practice around the management of type 2 diabetes, and new awareness of the association between hypoglycaemia and cardiovascular events.

In addition to her executive duties, she’s the Principal Investigator of the world’s largest study exploring the preventive effects of statins in the healthy over-70s (STAREE). She also leads the Australian National Diabetes Audit and the Diabetes Clinical Quality Registry, a centralised quality assurance activity aiming to improve the quality of care provided to people with diabetes.

With an enviable publication record across titles including Lancet and NEJM, Professor Zoungas has sourced more than $50 million in funding across competitive grant schemes, and philanthropic and industry sources.

Her impact has been recognised through numerous awards, the most recent being the Australian Diabetes Society’s Kellion Award in 2022.

Within the School and in the community, she’s an active leader, Chairing the School’s Executive Committee and Senior Management Committee, holding Ministerial Appointments, and serving on numerous national and international scientific advisory boards, editorial boards, steering committees and data safety monitoring boards.

Academic & Work Experience

• seit 09/2019: Vorstandsvorsitzender der Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
• 2012 – 08/2019: Vorstand Forschung und Lehre, Dekan der Medizinischen Fakultät und Sprecher des Vorstands der Universitätsmedizin Göttingen
• 2012: W3-Professor für Pharmakologie und Personalisierte Medizin an der Universitätsmedizin Göttingen
• 2000 – 2012: Dekan der Medizinischen Fakultät der Ernst Moritz Arndt-Universität Greifswald und Mitglied des Klinikumsvorstands
• 1998 – 2012: Professor für Pharmakologie und Toxikologie an der Ernst Moritz Arndt-Universität Greifswald
• 1998: C3-Professor für Klinische Pharmazie an der Universität Bonn
• 1998: Ruf auf die C3-Professur für Experimentelle Pädiatrische Onkologie an der Universität Münster (abgelehnt)
• 1992: Habilitation für Pharmakologie und Toxikologie an der Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen
• 1989-1998: Senior Postdoc am Dr. Margarete Fischer-Institut / Robert-Bosch- Krankenhaus in Stuttgart
• 1987-1989: Forschungsaufenthalt im Biozentrum der Universität Basel und zweijährige Postdoc-Zeit in der Division of Clinical Pharmacology der Vanderbilt University in Nashville/USA
• 1987: Kurzstipendium der Paul-Martini-Stiftung für einen Forschungsaufenthalt am Biozentrum der Universität Basel
• 1986: Prüfung zum Dr. rer. nat. an der Technischen Universität Braunschweig
• 1983-1986: Promotion am Dr. Margarete Fischer-Bosch-Institut für Klinische Pharmakologie / Robert-Bosch-Krankenhaus zum Dr. rer. nat. in Stuttgart
• 1978-1983: Studium der Pharmazie an der Technischen Universität Braunschweig
• 1978: Abitur am Gymnasium Ulricianum in Aurich/Ostfriesland

Functions in Scientific Societies and Institutions

• seit 2018: Mitglied der Leopoldina – Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften
• seit 2012: Mitglied im Senatssauschuss für Sonderforschungsbereiche der DFG
• seit 2012: Präsident des MFT
• 2009 – 2012: Vizepräsident des MFT
• 2007 – 2009: Vorstandsmitglied der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Kardiologie – Herz- und Kreislaufforschung
• seit 2007: Präsidiumsmitglied des Medizinischen Fakultätentages (MFT)
• 2004 – 2012: Kollegiat der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)

Membership in Advisory Boards and Supervisory Boards

• Mitglied im Aufsichtsrat des Universitätsklinikums Frankfurt
• seit 2009: Mitglied im Wissenschaftlichen Beirat des IZKF am Universitätsklinikum in Münster
• seit 2006: Mitglied im Wissenschaftlichen Beirat der Bundesapothekerkammer
• 2005-2009: Aufsichtsrat der Riemser Arzneimittel AG, Greifswald

Awards

• 1993 Paul-Martini-Preis