General Assembly elects three researchers to central scientific body / Eight Senate members re-elected

At the DFG annual meeting in Potsdam, the General Assembly of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) elected three new members to the Senate of the largest research funding organisation and central self-governing organisation of science and the humanities in Germany. Eight Senate members were confirmed for a second term of three years. The Senate is the central scientific body in which all matters of essential importance to the DFG are discussed and decided on, unless they are reserved for the Joint Committee as the principal decision-making body. The Senate has a total of 39 members; the latter are also the Scientific Members of the Joint Committee. Of the three newly filled Senate seats, two are from the engineering sciences and one from the humanities and social sciences. The term of office will begin on 1 January 2025.

The following three members were newly elected to the DFG Senate:

• Civil Engineering and Mechanics: Professor Dr.-Ing. Michael Kaliske, TU Dresden
• Historical-Hermeneutic Studies: Professor Dr. Monika Trümper, FU Berlin
• Process Engineering / Fluid Mechanics: Professor Dr. Jörg Schumacher, TU Ilmenau

The following were elected for a second term of office:

• Geosciences of the Earth’s Body: Professor Dr. Charlotte Krawczyk, Helmholtz Centre Potsdam – GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences
• Engineering Sciences – Overarching Methods and Cross-Sectional Topics: Professor Dr.-Ing. Gisela Lanza, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
• Clinical Medicine II: Professor Dr. Christiane J. Bruns, University of Cologne
• Clinical-Theoretical Medicine: Professor Dr.-Ing. Georg N. Duda, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
• Art History / Philosophy: Professor Dr. Andreas Speer, University of Cologne
• Molecular Biology: Professor Dr. Annette Beck-Sickinger, Leipzig University
• Physical Chemistry Professor Dr. Ralf Ludwig, University of Rostock
• Linguistics: Professor Dr. Laura Kallmeyer, University of Düsseldorf

On 31 December 2024, the following members will retire from the Senate:

• Civil Engineering and Mechanics: Professor Dr.-Ing. Jörg Schröder, University of Duisburg-Essen
• Historical-Hermeneutic Studies: Professor Dr. Annette Haug, University of Kiel
• Process Engineering / Fluid mechanics: Professor Dr.-Ing. Wolfgang Peukert, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU)

The Senate is responsible for all major decisions in research funding in the run-up to concrete funding decisions as well as for all major decisions regarding the organisation of the review, evaluation and decision-making process. It also decides which review boards are to be formed and how these are to be structured. 

Of the 39 members of the Senate, 36 are elected for three years by the General Assembly based on a rolling system. In addition, the Presidents of the German Rectors’ Conference, the Union of the German Academies of Sciences and Humanities and the Max Planck Society are members of the Senate by virtue of their office. 

Further information 

A list of the current members of the Senate and further information is available at: 

• www.dfg.de/en/dfg-profile/statutory-bodies/senate

All press releases on the 2024 annual meeting are also to be found in a digital press kit at www.dfg.de/service/presse/jahresversammlung-2024, which is supplemented on an ongoing basis.