Virchow Foundation

THE FOUNDERS

The establishment of the Virchow Foundation for Global Health and the Virchow Prize was achieved through civil society commitment. The five founders represent various sectors and disciplines.

WORDS OF THE FOUNDERS

“When we established the Virchow Foundation for Global Health on October 13, 2021, the 200th birthday of Rudolf Virchow, it was with a clear and hopeful mission: to broaden public awareness on the importance of global health and to convene stronger partnerships towards mobilising the attainment of the United Nations 2030 Agenda Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) in respect to “health and well-being for all”.

A key pillar of this mission is upheld through the awarding of the Virchow Prize, which elevates those exceptional individuals who have dedicated their lives to improve global health.

Laureates of the Virchow Prize serve as leading examples and inspiration on how outstanding contributions, strong commitment and ground-breaking innovation can drive this transformation.

As we look to what we have achieved as a global community since the UN SDGs were unanimously adopted by Member States in 2015, it is clear that major challenges remain ahead of us. Only together can we reach health equity as a prerequisite to protect our planet earth.

We hope you share our renewed ambition to improving health a truly universal human right.”

Dr. h.c. mult. Friede Springer

Founder

Chair | Axel Springer Stiftung
Founder | Friede Springer Stiftung

Prof. Dr. Detlev Ganten

Founder

Founding President & Chair of the Board of Trustees
World Health Summit

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)

since 2011: Board of Trustees, University Paris Sciences Lettres PSL
since 2011: Scientific Advisory Board, University Sorbonne Paris Cité
2009-2021: President of the World Health Summit
since 2009: Chairman of Board of Trustees of the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces and Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Potsdam, Germany
since 2009: Scientific Advisory Board, Agence Nationale der Recherche (ANR), Paris, France
since 2005: Chairman of the Board, Charité Foundation, Germany
1962‐1968: Medical Studies at the Universities of Würzburg, Montpellier, Tübingen, Germany

Functions in Scientific Societies and Committees (Selection)

since 2013: Co‐Chair, Interacademy Medical Panel (IAMP)
2002‐2007: German National Ethics Council
1997‐2001: President of the Helmholtz‐Association of National Research Centres
1996‐1998: President of the Society of German Scientists and Medicines (GDNÄ)
1993‐1998: Science Council, German Federal Government
1992‐1997: Health Research Council, German Federal Ministry of Education and Research
1990‐1995: President of the World Hypertension League

Honours and Awarded Memberships (Selection)

2017: Honorary doctorate, University of Coimbra, Portugal
2016: Honorary doctorate, Charité, Berlin
2003: Légion d’honneur, France
2002: Honorary Professorship, Wuhan University, China
2000: Federal Cross of Merit, Germany
1995: Honorary doctorate, University Iasi, Rumania
since 1993: Member, German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
1992: CIBA Award of the Council for High Blood Pressure Research, American Heart Association
1990: Max Planck Research Award; Okamoto Award, Japan
1981: Science Award of the German League for Combating High Blood Pressure; Sechenev Medal of the Medical Academy
Moscow; Chavez Award of the International Society of Hypertension

Roland Göhde

Founder

Co-Founder | Göhde Foundation
Chair of the Board | GHA – German Health Alliance

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.

Prof. Dr. Gerald H. Haug

Founder

President
German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina

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.

Academic and Professional Career

since 2015 Ordinary Professor for Climate Geochemistry, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, Switzerland
since 2015 Director, Dept. Climate Geochemistry, Max-Planck-Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany
2007-2015 Ordinary Professor for Climate Geology, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
2003-2007 Professor (C4), University of Potsdam and Geoforschungszentrum Potsdam (GFZ), Germany
2002 Habilitation in Geosciences, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
2000-2002 Oberassistent, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
1998-1999 Research Assistant Professor, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA
1997-1998 Postdoctoral Guest Investigator, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts, USA
1996-1997 Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver, Canada
1995-1996 Postdoctoral Research Associate, GEOMAR, Centre for Marine Geosciences, Kiel, Germany
1995 Ph.D. at the Geological Institute, University of Kiel, Germany
1992 Diploma in Geology, University of Karlsruhe, Germany
1987-1992 Diploma student in Geology at the University of Karlsruhe, Germany

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)

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Christoph Markschies

Founder

President
Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Christoph Markschies studied Protestant theology, classical philology and philosophy in Marburg, Jerusalem, Munich and Tübingen. In 1991, he received his doctorate and habilitated in 1994 in Tübingen. He held professorships in Jena and Heidelberg and followed a call to the Humboldt University Berlin in 2004, serving as president two years later until 2010. Professor Markschies was a fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin, Jerusalem and Princeton and a Visiting Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford. He is Professor of Ancient Christianity at the Humboldt University in Berlin and holds various honorary doctorates. Christoph Markschies received numerous prizes and honours, including the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz prize, the Federal Cross of Merit (1^st class) from German Federal President, Frank Walter Steinmeier, is a member of several distinguished academies in Germany and abroad and serves on various advisory boards of scientific institutions. Professor Markschies has published extensively. He contributes to scientific and public discussions as a columnist. Since 2019, he serves as President of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

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