Hildegard Hamm-Bruecher
With the Hildegard Hamm-Brücher Prize for Equal Opportunities in Chemistry, the GDCh honors exemplary behavior in promoting more equal opportunities in chemistry. Individuals, teams, groups or organizations who are committed to or have committed themselves to equal opportunities with innovative projects are to be recognized.
Equal opportunities should be an internalized pattern and a matter of course for every individual and every organization. It should show itself in the diversity of people who bring different backgrounds, experiences, skills, values, perspectives and beliefs to a group or organization as a value contribution in which they interact.
The DiSenSu team has been awarded the Hildegard Hamm-Brücher Prize for Equal Opportunities in Chemistry – for its pioneering career guidance in chemistry for girls with a migration background. The project combats educational disadvantages, strengthens equal opportunities, and was judged by the selection committee to be "extremely well-founded, innovative, and sustainable."
DiSenSu is a joint project of TU Darmstadt and the Ludwigsburg University of Education. At its core is a gender- and diversity-sensitive tool for career orientation in chemistry, designed to spark interest in chemistry-related careers among young women – particularly those with a migration background – and show them suitable prospects. The project's core components were several hundred intensive individual coaching sessions with tests and exercises assessing strengths, interests, and skills typical of the chemistry field.
In addition, comics featuring female role models, a card game for career orientation, as well as scientific publications and conference contributions were created. All materials, the evaluated tool, and documentation will be available after the project's completion, enabling schools and educational institutions to use the DiSenSu format independently – regardless of the type of school the participants attend.
The project 'Women In Supramolecular Chemistry (WISC) – an international network supporting equality, diversity and inclusion within supramolecular chemistry' will be awarded the Hildegard Hamm Brücher Award for equal opportunities in chemistry 2023.
The international team, led first by Prof. Jennifer Hiscock, University of Kent/UK, and now by Prof. Anna McConnell, University of Siegen, initiated the project because women in chemical sciences have poorer opportunities for employment and career development, which is evident in precarious contracts, lower publication and citations, low presence on committees and nominations, and fewer patent applications.
The WISC project aims to create an international community for supramolecular chemists, especially women, to remove barriers and support retention and advancement at all career stages. The project offers various initiatives such as mentoring, community clusters, and workshops on inclusion and diversity to actively drive change.
Hildegard Hamm-Brücher has published two articles about her doctoral supervisor Heinrich Wieland in Chemistry in Our Time, which you can find under the following links:
A conversation with chemists: memories of Heinrich Wieland
Science and civil courage: Heinrich Wieland - an upright dissident
We thank Wiley-VCH for the exclusive free access to the two ChiuZ articles.
The Commission for Equal Opportunities in Chemistry of the GDCh forms the selection committee. This selects a proposal from the nominations according to the above criteria and submits it to the GDCh Board for a decision. The selection process follows the general guidelines for GDCh awards.
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last modified: 03.12.2025 12:36 H from R.Wieneke
