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Found 38 Role Models

Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard

Date of birth: 20.10.1942
Place of origin: Magdeburg, Germany
Education:

She graduated from school in the year 1962 and wanted to study biology; although medicine interested her as well. In order to decide on her course of action, she enrolled in a month-long nursing course and decided against studying medicine. Till the year 1964, she dabbled between biology and physics trying to decide the best choice of career but she found biology boring while another course in physics turned out to be too tough after a point. Then, she came to a realisation that a new course in biochemistry was being taught at Tubingen and thus, she joined the university.

She graduated with a Diploma in Biochemistry in the year 1969 and earned a Ph.D. at the University of Tübingen in 1974 for her research into Protein–DNA interactions and the binding of RNA polymerase in Escherichia coli.

Field of expertise:

Genetics and developmental biology

Main achievements:

She became the director of the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen in 1985. In 1986, she received the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, which is the highest honor awarded in German research. In 1995, she shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine with Eric Wieschaus and Edward B. Lewis, for “their discoveries concerning the genetic control of early embryonic development.”

Promotion of gender equality:

Finding the crucial genes:
In 1978, at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard and her counterpart, Eric Wieschaus began trying to find the decisive genes for the early embryonic development of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Their numerous and rapidly developing offspring make the fruit fly the ideal research subject, especially as genetically altered individuals (mutants) are easily detected. Nüsslein-Volhard and Wieschaus produced and examined approximately 20,000 Drosophila mutants. As a result, they were able to find the 15 crucial genes.

Serving science and society:
Geneticist Edward Lewis pointed out the similarity between the genes of the fruit fly and human genes. Through her later work on zebrafish, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard gained valuable insights into the developmental genes of vertebrates. The similarity in the developmental genes of certain animals and humans is of significant interest to medical research and connected to hopes that this may provide new knowledge about the pathogenesis of cancer. Besides her concrete research work, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard also rendered outstanding services to science. In 2004, for instance, she established a foundation in her name which supports young mothers of all nationalities in their careers as researchers.

Emmy Noether

Date of birth: 23.03.1882
Place of origin: Erlangen, Germany
Education:

Noether graduated from Höhere Töchter Schule in Erlangen. In 1900, she passed the examinations of the State of Bavaria that certified her to teach English and French at schools for women. Soon after becoming a language teacher, Noether decided to pursue Mathematics, which was then considered as a challenging path for a woman. She took Mathematics classes for two years from the University of Erlangen after obtaining permission from the German professors. After passing the matriculation exam in Nürnberg in 1903, Noether joined the University of Göttingen. She attended lectures of leading mathematicians like Minkowski, Hilbert, Blumenthal and Klien. She then joined the University of Erlangen for her Doctorate degree and in 1907 she was awarded a Ph.D in Mathematics.

Field of expertise:

Mathematics (rings, algebras) and Physics

Rewards:

Noether was awarded the Ackermann-Teubner Memorial Prize in Mathematics in 1932.

Main achievements:

Noether’s work was divided into 3 epochs. The first epoch was between 1907-1919, in which she devoted her time in the field of algebraic invariant theory, Galois Theory and Physics. Noether proved two theorems that were important for elementary particle physics and general relativity. One of her theorems known as ‘Noether’s Theorem’ is one of the most significant contributions in the development of modern physics.

In the second epoch from 1920-1926, she concentrated on the theory of mathematical rings. She developed the abstract and conceptual approach to algebra, which resulted in several principles unifying topology, logic, geometry, algebra and linear algebra. Her works were a breakthrough in abstract algebra. Her study based on chain conditions on the ideals of commutative rings were honored by many mathematicians all over the world. Her paper ‘Idealtheorie in Ringbereichen’ or ‘Theory of Ideals in Ring Domains’, published 1921, became the foundation for commutative ring theory. The ‘Noetherian rings’ and ‘Noetherian ideals’ formed part of her mathematical contributions. Her insights and ideas in topology had a great impact in the field of Mathematics.

The third epoch began from 1927-1935, where non-commutative algebras, representation theory, hyper-complex numbers and linear transformations became the primary focus of her study.

Lena Falkenhagen

Date of birth: 10.10.1973
Place of origin: Celle, Germany
Place of residence: Berlin, Germany
Education:

She studied German and English at the University of Hanover and has been working as a freelance writer and computer game author ever since. She switches back and forth between worlds, genres and formats, whether modern literature, fantasy, SF or historical novels. Her first novel was published in 1996 by Wilhelm Heyne Verlag . In addition to writing novels, she worked as a translator, editor and author of novels and computer games. She is committed to the rights of authors in the cultural sector.

Field of expertise:

Game design and narrative

Main achievements:

Her first historical novel was published in 2008 under the title “The Girl and the Black Death” that takes place in Lübeck against the background of the plague. Her second historical novel was published in 2009 with the title Die Lichtermagd, which she was awarded the DeLiA Literature Prize for the "Best German-language Living Novel of the Year". In 2015, she won the “Best Browsergame” with “Drakensang Online – Rise of Balor”. In 2017, she was elected one of the 10 most influential female developers of the German games industry by magazine “Gameswirtschaft”.

Promotion of gender equality:

She also is the national chairperson of the Association of German Authors (Verband deutscher Schriftstellerinnen und Schriftsteller (VS for short)) and co-founder of the Phantastik-Autoren-Netzwerk (PAN) e.V. She was a member of the PAN board for 4 years and co-founded the Netzwerk Autorenrechte (Network Author’s Rights) in 2016.

Özlem Türeci

Date of birth: 06.03.1967
Place of origin: Siegen, Germany
Education:

She studied human medicine at Saarland University in Homburg and received her doctorate from the Medical Faculty of Saarland in 1992. She was a habilitation and Heisenberg fellow of the German Research Foundation. Her research focuses on the identification and characterization of tumor-specific molecules and the development of immunotherapies against cancer. In 2002, she completed her habilitation at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz in the field of molecular medicine.

Türeci met her future husband, Uğur Şahin, while he was working at Saarland University Hospital in Homburg, where she was completing her final year of studies. The couple married and have a daughter together. Türeci and her husband are billionaires: they sold Ganymed Pharmaceuticals in 2016 for $1.4 billion, and after its 2019 IPO BioNTech was valued over $21 billion in November 2020.

Field of expertise:

Her research focuses on the identification and characterization of tumor-specific molecules and the development of immunotherapies against cancer.

Rewards:

She is a recent recipient of the German Sustainability Award, among other notable recognitions.
Together with her husband, Uğur Şahin, they became the first Turkish Germans among Germany's top 100 wealthiest people list in 2020.

Main achievements:

Since 2020, BioNTech has been conducting research on a vaccine against the infectious disease of COVID-19 in so-called Project Lightspeed under the leadership of Özlem Türeci and Uğur Şahin, making her responsible for the clinical trials area in the development of the vaccine BNT162b2, or in a more familiar term, the Pfizer–BioNTech. She and her husband decided to apply the mRNA vaccine technology that they have been researching for two decades to the emerging of COVID-19 pandemic, which at the time was spreading in China. BioNTech began collaborating on the vaccine with Pfizer in March, and it was approved within 11 months. Türeci credits their rapid success due to being part of the international collaboration, as BioNTech worked with the Chinese firm, Fosun Pharma which has a number of staff from 60 countries.

Alexia Vassiliou

Date of birth: 1964
Place of origin: Famagusta, Cyprus
Field of expertise:

Vocal Artist - Singer, Songwriter, Composer and Social Activist

Main achievements:

With a career spanning 40 years, and 45 recorded albums, Alexia has developed her own authentic, eclectic, sophisticated musical sound, informed and inspired by a plethora of influences and genres - Jazz, Classical, Electronic, Experimental, Improvisation, Avant-garde, Trip hop, World music, Gospel, Spiritual and Folk.
Alexia is the first female vocalist to bring Classic American Jazz to the Hellenic / Greek-speaking world, pushing the musical boundaries, and her artistic evolution, Alexia's legato phrasing, a technique that displays a continuous motion between notes, as well as, rubato, meaning "to steal" rhythmical patterns, either preceding or following the downbeat, can be heard in her album, «Alexia in a Jazz Mood», in which she collaborates and features Jazz legend, Chick Corea, during a time when Jazz was an underground scene, paving the way for vocal jazz in Greece and Cyprus.

Promotion of gender equality:

Alexia's activist work is at the core of her foundation and principles. She has long symbolized Hope, Inspiration, Inclusion, and Acceptance for all. Her voice represents all Human Beings and her platform has repeatedly been utilized to promote and encourage Change.
Throughout her career, she has taken a stance for Human Dignity and has shed light on gender inequality, sexual violence, human trafficking, women's rights, children, the youth, refugees, migrants, LGTBQI people, and other groups of citizens. As a woman and as a displaced refugee herself, Alexia understands the importance of raising awareness and taking a stance for human rights.

Susanne Albers

Date of birth: 1965
Education:

She studied mathematics, computer science and business administration at the University of Osnabrück. She then moved to Saarland University and the Max Planck Institute for Informatics, first as a PhD student and subsequently as a senior researcher. In 1999, she was appointed as an associate professor at the University of Dortmund. From 2001 to 2009 she held a full professorship and chair in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Freiburg.

Field of expertise:

Mathematics and Computer Science

Main achievements:

Between 2009 and 2013, she was a full professor at the Humboldt University of Berlin and headed a research group focusing on algorithms and complexity. Since 2013, she has been a professor at TUM. She is a member of Leopoldina, the German National Academy of Sciences, and the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz. She is also a fellow of the German Informatics Society (GI).

Promotion of gender equality:

Albers' research is in the design and analysis of algorithms, especially online algorithms, approximation algorithms, algorithmic game theory and algorithm engineering.

In 1993, she received the Otto Hahn Medal from the Max Planck Institute, and in 2008 the Leibniz Prize from the German Research Foundation, considered the most important German research prize that includes a grant of €2.5 million. In 2011, she was elected as a fellow of the German Informatics Society. In 2014, she became one of ten inaugural fellows of the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science.