GDCh Commission for Equal Opportunities in Chemistry

Dr. Rolf Albach studied chemistry in Bonn and at the Technical University of Munich, where he received his doctorate in 1992 under WA Herrmann in U. Küsthardt's team. After a NATO scholarship at the Université de Paris-Sud under J.-J. Girerd, he joined Bayer AG in 1994 and has worked there since 1998 in management positions in research, application technology, sales and post-merger integration in the Polyurethanes business unit. He is currently leading R&D projects in the field of circular economy, automotive interiors and flame retardancy and also supports dissertations in these topics at domestic and foreign universities. From October 2020, he took on a teaching position at the FH Aachen. Rolf Albach has an MBA double degree from the WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management (Vallendar) and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University (Chicago).

Rolf Albach has been working voluntarily in environmental policy for 30 years, both for NGOs such as the Local Agenda and the SolarImpulse Foundation and in local and regional politics, for example in the Commission for Regional and Structural Issues of the Cologne District Government, on the Administrative Board of the Cologne Municipal Drainage Company, the Operating Committee of the Cologne Waste Management Company and the Environmental Committee of the Cologne City Council.

Prof. Dr. Sabine Becker studied from 2005-2010 at the Justus Liebig University in Gießen, where she obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in 2008 and a Master of Science in Chemistry in 2010. She then completed her doctorate in inorganic chemistry with a focus on polynuclear copper complexes and clusters in the working group of Prof. Dr. Siegfried Schindler. For this purpose, she received a doctoral scholarship from the Chemical Industry Fund (VCI) in 2011 and completed her doctorate in 2014 with summa cum laude. After a postdoc in the same working group for around a year, Sabine Becker joined the working group of Prof. Stephen J. Lippard, PhD at MIT (USA) for a postdoc stay, where her research included the modulation of neurological processes by zinc ions. Her stay abroad was financed by a postdoc scholarship from the Leopoldina - National Academy of Sciences. In May 2017, Sabine Becker took up the junior professorship "Chemistry of Multinuclear Complexes" at the TU Kaiserslautern. From April 2022 to July 2022, she held a visiting professorship for bioinorganic chemistry at the University of Vienna. Since October 2023, she has been working as a university professor (W2) at the RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau. Her research focuses on cooperative effects of multinuclear copper and iron complexes and their catalytic application and on the investigation of metal ions in the central nervous system with a focus on zinc.

Sabine Becker is involved in numerous committees of academic self-government, where she also actively advocates for issues of equality and equal opportunities. In 2020, for example, she received the "Young Scientist Award for Equality and Gender Activities" from the TU Kaiserslautern. In addition, she is active on a voluntary basis for various funding organizations and societies, for example as Deputy President of the GDCh and member of the GDCh Board of Directors since 2024. Since science communication is important to her, she also regularly takes part in outreach activities such as popular science lectures, experimental lectures, children's university, workshops for school classes and MINT fairs.

Katrin Beuthert has been doing her doctorate in inorganic chemistry in the working group of Prof. Dr. Stefanie Dehnen since 2021, initially at the Philipps University of Marburg and since 2022 at the Institute of Nanotechnology at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. In addition, from 2019 to 2022 she was the coordinator of the “MINT Summer School for Girls” project at the Philipps University and the women's and equal opportunities officer at the Department of Chemistry.

At the beginning of her bachelor's degree in 2014, she became a member of the GDCh and is involved in the JCF Marburg, of which she was spokesperson from 2018 to 2022. Since 2021, Katrin Beuthert has been Team Lead of the JCF Team for Equal Opportunities.

Since the beginning of 2022, Katrin Beuthert has represented the young chemists in the GDCh Commission for Equal Opportunities in Chemistry and is Chair of the Young Wöhler Association for Inorganic Chemistry. "Through more equal opportunities for students in STEM education, inclusion, diversity and targeted science communication, we can actively help shape a more diverse and open science community and inspire people to study chemistry."

Prof. Dr. Wolfram Koch was Executive Director of the German Chemical Society from 2002 to July 2024. He studied chemistry in Darmstadt and Berlin and received his doctorate in theoretical organic chemistry under Prof. Helmut Schwarz and Prof. Gernot Frenking at the TU Berlin in 1986. This was followed by a postdoc at the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California and several years as a permanent scientist at the Institute for Supercomputing and Applied Mathematics at IBM Deutschland GmbH in Heidelberg. In 1992, Wolfram Koch accepted a professorship for theoretical organic chemistry at the TU Berlin, where he taught and researched until he moved to the GDCh. His research focused on quantum chemical calculations of the properties and reactivities of open-shell transition metal compounds as well as the spectroscopic properties of small molecules. This work has been reflected in around 190 peer-reviewed scientific publications and numerous book contributions. He is also the main author of a textbook on density functional theory that has been published several times and has sold over 5,000 copies to date (W. Koch and MC Holthausen: "A Chemists' Guide to Density Functional Theory", Wiley-VCH, Weinheim). Wolfram Koch is an honorary member of the Czech and Israeli chemical societies, a fellow of IUPAC and the RSC, and an honorary fellow of ChemPubSoc Europe. In addition to his work as GDCh Executive Director, he performs a variety of voluntary tasks as a member of supervisory and advisory boards of several scientific institutions and other organizations. He is a member of the Executive Board of the European Association of Chemical and Molecular Sciences (EuCheMS), Chair of the scientific advisory board of the Technical Information Library (TIB) in Hanover, a member of the administrative board and the science commission of the Verwertungsgesellschaft Wort (VG Wort), and a titular member of the "Committee on Publications and Cheminformatics Data Standards" of the IUPAC. In May 2016, he was appointed to the High Level Advisory Group “Open Science Policy Platform” of the EU Commission.

The promotion of equal opportunities is a goal set out in the GDCh's statutes . Supporting this is an important concern for the former GDCh Executive Director in particular and is a motivation for working on the Equal Opportunities Commission.

Prof. Dr. Katharina Landfester studied chemistry at the Technical University of Darmstadt. For her diploma thesis, she was at the Ecole d'Application des Hautes Polymères in Strasbourg (Prof. M. Lambla). In 1995, she received her doctorate in physical chemistry from the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz after working with Prof. HW Spiess at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research. After another year as group leader at the institute, she moved to Lehigh University for a postdoctoral position (Prof. M. El-Aasser), where she first came into contact with miniemulsion technology. She returned to Germany in 1998 and joined Prof. M. Antonietti's group at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Golm. There she headed the miniemulsion group for new possibilities for the synthesis of complex nanoparticles. In 2002, she completed her habilitation in physical chemistry at the University of Potsdam. In 2003, she accepted a chair (C4) for macromolecular chemistry at the University of Ulm. Here she began her activities in the field of biomedical applications. Since 2008, she has been director of the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research.

In 1992 and 1994 she received DAAD scholarships for her research activities in Strasbourg. In 1996 she received a DFG scholarship for research in the USA. In 1998 she received the Liebig Scholarship from the Chemical Industry Fund (FCI). In 2001 she received the Reimund-Stadler Award from the German Chemical Society (GDCh) and the Dr. Hermann Schnell Foundation Prize. From 2002 to 2007 she was a member of the Young Academy of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and of the German Natural Scientists Leopoldina; in 2003/2004 she was the spokesperson for the young academy. From 2007 to 2015 she was a member of the board of the GDCh Division and from 2016 to 2023 a member of the GDCh Board. Since 2010 she has been a member of the Academy of Technical Sciences (Acatech).

After her professional career in the pharmaceutical industry, Dr. Nimmesgern is now a freelance career development consultant.

In 1985 she entered the pharmaceutical industry for the first time as laboratory manager for Medicinal Chemistry at Hoechst. In 1989 she switched to International Marketing as Product Manager, where she most recently headed the global Marketing department of the Vasotherapeutics business unit. After merging with other companies to form Hoechst-Marion-Roussel (HMR), she became Head of Human Resources for global research in 1996. After merging with Rhône-Poulenc to form Aventis in 1999, Dr. Negotiate strategic projects in global research and development. In 2002 she became head of the global Knowledge Networks Management R&D department. Here she was responsible for the areas of Knowledge Management, Alliance Management and Risk Management. When the merger with Sanofi to form Sanofi-Aventis in 2004, she took over the management of Scientific Relations for R&D Germany.

Miss Dr. Nimmesgern studied organic chemistry in 1984 with Prof. Dr. Ernst Schaumann is doing his doctorate at the University of Hamburg. This was followed by a one-year post-doc stay with Prof. Dr. Albert Padwa at Emory University of Atlanta, USA. For this she received a Feodor Lynen grant from the Humboldt Foundation and a Fulbright travel grant.

From 2011 to 2017, Dr. Nimmesgern volunteers the GDCh Working Group Equal Opportunities in Chemistry (AKCC), which was transformed into the Equal Opportunities Commission in early 2018.

?I am committed to equal opportunities for women and men in chemistry so that women experience the same visibility, appreciation and opportunities as men - that means equal pay for the same work, access to top positions in business, universities and politics , moreover protection from violence. "

dr Bianca Schmid works at Thermo Fisher Scientific in the Market Development Biomarkers department in Berlin. In this role, she drives market research forward and shapes the portfolio synergies throughout the company. With her previous experience as a lean manager at Thermo Fisher, she was able to gain a great overview of the entire business unit and, in addition to process optimization, also dealt with topics such as culture development and change Management .

Since the start of her doctoral studies in 2015, Bianca Schmid has been active in the GDCh?s Young Chemists? Forum and in spring 2017, together with JuWiChem , organized the ?Chemistry in Practice? event on the subject of ?Equal Opportunities in Chemistry? with impressive speakers from science and business. In the 2017/2018 term of office, she was a member of the JCF national board and responsible for communication with the regional forums, partner companies such as the jDPG and various industrial partners. Here she raised the issue of equal opportunities at federal level for the first time. Thanks to Bianca's pioneering work, the topic has now become an integral part of the national board.

From 2018-2022, she represented the interests of young chemists as a JCF representative on the commission and has held the deputy chair to this day.
dr Bianca Schmid noticed that equal opportunities and mental health are very important topics for young chemists. A particularly wide range of career opportunities and the compatibility of family and work are of great interest to both sexes today, especially in the post-pandemic era. Since 2022, Dr. As a business coach, Bianca Schmid supports her clients on these topics.

dr After completing her bachelor?s degree at the TU Dortmund University , Bianca Schmid went to the Université Pierre et Marie Curie (Sorbonne Université) in Paris (F) with the Erasmus program. For her master?s degree, she moved to the Free University of Berlin. Bianca Schmid did her doctorate in organic chemistry in Professor Süssmuth's working group at the TU Berlin.

Dr. Matthias Urmann studied chemistry at the University of Heidelberg from 1983 to 1989. He also completed his doctorate there from 1989 to 1992 under Professor Günter Helmchen. After a postdoc stay at Harvard University, Cambridge, USA in the working group of Prof. Elias J. Corey, he joined the then Hoechst AG in 1993 as laboratory manager for medicinal chemistry. After various roles in the company, including Head of administration at Sanofi R&D Germany, one of the companies that emerged from Hoechst AG, and Head of the Insulins & Peptides department within the Diabetes Research & Translational Medicine unit, he worked in the Business Development Diabetes External Innovation department. From 2018 to 2019 he was President of the German Chemical Society and is also active in the GDCh Divisions for medicinal chemistry and the Liebig Association for Organic Chemistry .

In addition to his involvement in the GDCh, he is a board member of Science4Life, an initiative that has also been supported by the GDCh for many years and supports young entrepreneurs from the life sciences/chemistry & energy sectors on their way to self-employment.