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FAQ - Frequently asked questions

Professor Dr. Katja Becker - President of the DFG

Portrait photo of DFG President Professor Katja Becker

DFG President Professor Dr. Katja Becker

© DFG / David Ausserhofer

The President represents the DFG publicly and within the organisation and works with the Executive Committee to decide its overall strategy.

Katja Becker has been President of the DFG since January 2020 and was re-elected for a further four-year term at the 2023 General Assembly. Her second term began in January 2024.

DFG-Präsidentin Katja Becker steht vor einem Pult und hält eine Rede
New Year’s Speech 2026

Berlin, 12 January 2026

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2026

New Year’s Speech, Berlin, January (English(Download) I  German(Download) |  Video statement (in German only)(externer Link))

2025

Speech at the festive event held, Hamburg, July (English(Download) I  German(Download))

New Year’s Speech, Berlin, January (English(Download) I  German(Download) I  Video statement (in German only)(externer Link))

2024

Video statement (in German only)(externer Link) to mark 75 years of Germany’s constitution, the Basic Law

New Year’s Speech, Berlin, January (English(Download) I  German(Download) I  Video statement (in German only)(externer Link))

2023

Speech (in German only)(Download) at the festive event held, Juni

New Year’s Speech, Berlin, January (English(Download) I  German(Download) I  Video statement (in German only)(externer Link))

2022

Speech (in German only)(Download) at the festive event held, Freiburg im Breisgau, Juni, Video statement (in German only)(externer Link)

Virtual New Year’s Speech, Bonn, January (English(Download) I  German(Download) I  Video statement (in German only)(externer Link))

2021 

Virtual New Year’s Speech, January (English(Download) I  German(Download) I  Video statement (in German only)(externer Link))

2020

Video statement(externer Link) on the relationships between politics and academia, December

Video statement(externer Link) in connection with the campaign #30JahreVereintForschen (30 years of united research), October

Video statement(externer Link) DFG2020 - #fürdasWissen entscheiden in Zeiten von Corona (#research matters in times of COVID-19), June

Video statement(externer Link) Unterstützung und Impulse zur aktuellen Krise (Support and ideas in the face of the current crisis), May

New Year’s Speech, Berlin, January (English(Download) I  German(Download) I  Video statement (in German only)(externer Link))

Current videos (in German only)

All videos of Katja Becker on the DFG YouTube channel(externer Link)

DFG-Präsidentin Katja Becker steht vor einem Pult und hält eine Rede

Freedom and Security of Research in Europe

Speech at the DFG New Year’s Reception, 
12 January 2026

DFG-Präsidentin Katja Becker steht vor einem Pult und hält eine Rede

Science and the Humanities in the Crosshairs

Keynote address at the DFG Annual Meeting, 
1 July 2025

Since 2000          Full (C4/W3) Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Giessen
2005 - 20066-month research visit to Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, Proteomic Mass Spectrometry Lab, Prof. John Yates III
1999 - 2000Junior Group Leader at the Research Center for Infectious Diseases, University of Würzburg
1998Medical specialisation in Biochemistry
1996Habilitation in Biochemistry, Heidelberg University
19946-month research visit to Institute of Pathology, Prof. N. H. Hunt, University of Sydney, Australia
1993Licence to practise medicine
1988 - 1999Research associate at Heidelberg University Biochemistry Center
1988 - 1993Clinical training and research stays abroad (Royal Flying Doctor Service, Australia; Kantonsspital Basel, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford; Nigeria, Ghana) 
1986 - 1988Dissertation with Prof. Heiner Schirmer at Institute of Biochemistry II, Heidelberg University; title: "Glutathione reductase and its apoenzyme: contributions to the chemotherapy of malaria and the diagnosis of FAD deficiencies" (summa cum laude)
1984 - 1991Studies in human medicine, Heidelberg University

Selection from more than 300 Publications:

  1. Becker K, Savvides S, Keese M, Schirmer RH, Karplus PA (1998). Enzyme inactivation through sulfhydryl oxidation by physiologic NO-carriers. Nature Struct Biol 5: 267 - 271.
  2. Kanzok S, Fechner A, Bauer H, Ulschmid JK, Müller HM, Botella-Munez J, Schneuwly S, Schirmer RH, Becker K (2001). Substitution of the thioredoxin system for glutathione reductase in Drosophila melanogaster. Science 291: 643 - 646.
  3. Fritz-Wolf K, Becker A, Rahlfs S, Harwaldt P, Schirmer RH, Kabsch W, Becker K (2003). X-ray structure of glutathione S-transferase from the malarial parasite Plasmodium falciparum. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 100: 13821 - 13826.
  4. Urig S, Fritz-Wolf K, Réau R, Herold-Mende C, Tóth K, Davioud-Charvet E, Becker K (2006) Undressing of phosphine gold(I) therapeutic agents as irreversible inhibitors of human disulfide reductases. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl 45: 1881 - 1886.
  5. Perez-Jimenez R, Li J, Kosuri P, Sanchez-Romero I, Wiita AP, Rodriguez-Larrea D, Chueca A, Holmgren A, Miranda-Vizuete A, Becker K, Cho SH, Beckwith J, Gelhaye E, Jacquot JP, Gaucher E, Sanchez-Ruiz JM, Berne B, Fernandez JM (2009). Diversity of chemical mechanisms in thioredoxin catalysis. Nature Struct Mol Biol 16: 890 - 896.
  6. Koncarevic S, Rohrbach P, Deponte M, Prieto H, Yates J, Rahlfs S, Becker K (2009) Plasmodium falciparum imports the human protein peroxiredoxin 2 for peroxide detoxification. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 106: 13323 - 13328.
  7. Fritz-Wolf K, Kehr S, Stumpf M, Rahlfs S, Becker K (2011). Crystal structure of the human thioredoxin reductase - thioredoxin complex. Nature Commun. 2: 383.
  8. Wang L, Delahunty C, Fritz-Wolf K, Rahlfs S, Prieto JH, Yates III JR, Becker K (2015). Characterization of the 26S proteasome network in P. falciparum. Sci Rep 5: 17818.
  9. Krieg R, Jortzik E, Goetz A-A, Blandin S, Wittlin S, Elhabiri M, Rahbari M, Nuryyeva S, Voigt K, Dahse HM, Brakhage A, Beckmann S, Quack T, Grevelding CG, Pinkerton AB, Schönecker B, Burrows J, Davioud-Charvet E, Rahlfs S, Becker K (2017) Arylmethylamino steroids as antiparasitic agents. Nature Commun. 8: 14478.
  10. Felber J, Poczka L, Scholzen K, Zeisel L, Maier MS, Busker S, Theisen U, Brandstädter C, Becker K, Arnér ESJ, Thorn-Seshold J, Thorn-Seshold O (2022) Cyclic 5-membered disulfides are not selective substrates of thioredoxin reductase, but are opened nonspecifically by thiols. Nature Commun. 13: 1754.

Katja Becker on Google Scholar(externer Link)

  • Alliance of Science Organisations, Germany – ex officio

  • Deutscher Zukunftspreis (Board of Trustees) – ex officio

  • Foundation Werner-von-Siemens-Ring (Board of Trustees) – ex officio

  • German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Board of Trustees) – ex officio

  • German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina

  • German Society for Parasitology

  • German Society for Tropical Medicine and Global Health

  • German Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

  • Global Research Council (Governing Board) – ex officio

  • Humboldt Foundation (Vice President) – ex officio

  • Holtzbrinck Prize for Science Journalism (Board of Judges) – ex officio

  • Paul Ehrlich Society (Honorary President) – ex officio 

  • Science Europe (Governing Board, General Assembly) – ex officio

  • Society for Free Radical Research International 

  • Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft (Member of the Executive Board) – ex officio

  • STS forum (Council Member, Board Member) – ad personam 

  • Thyssen Foundation (Scientific Advisory Board) – ad personam

  • WiD – Wissenschaft im Dialog (Shareholders‘ Meeting) – ex officio

  • Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (Member of General Meeting) – ex officio

2025The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
2010Rudolf Leuckart Medal of the German Society for Parasitology
Since 2009Member of the Leopoldina, Germany's National Academy of Sciences
2003 / 2004          Carus Medal of the Deutsche Akademie für Naturforscher Leopoldina/Carus Prize of the city of Schweinfurt
2000 - 2005Member of the Junge Akademie of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina
2003Support for the congress "Redox Metabolism in Malaria: From Genes to Drugs", Bellagio, Italy, from the Rockefeller Foundation (together with Prof. Hagai Ginsburg, Hebrew University)
1989First Ludolf Krehl Prize (dissertation prize) of the Southwest German Society for Internal Medicine
1984 - 1986Scholarship, Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes

Positions and roles

Since 2020          President of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation)
2021 - 2023Chair of the Governing Board of the Global Research Council (GRC)
2020 - 2023Chair of the Commission for Pandemic Research, DFG (ex officio)
2014 - 2019Vice President of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft 
(DFG, German Research Foundation)
2009 - 2012Vice President for Research and Early Career Support, University of Giessen
2007 - 2014Spokesperson for the Bioresources and Biotechnology Section, Giessen Graduate Center for the Life Sciences
2004 - 2005Spokesperson for the interdisciplinary Research Centre for BioSystems, Land Use and Nutrition (IFZ), University of Giessen
2018 - 2019Spokesperson for LOEWE centre DRUID (Novel Drug Targets against Poverty-related and Neglected Tropical Infectious Diseases), part of an initiative by the state of Hesse to promote scientific and economic excellence
2014 - 2019Spokesperson for DFG Priority Programme 1710 "Dynamics of Thiol-based Redox Switches in Cellular Physiology"

Chairs

2025 - 2027                  Member of the Governing Board Science Europe
2021Involvement in the statement "The Need for a One Health Approach to Zoonotic Diseases and Antimicrobial Resistance" for the G7 summit 2022
2020Involvement in the statement "Coronavirus Pandemic – Measures Relevant to Health", Leopoldina (April 2020)
2020Involvement in the statement „Coronavirus Pandemic in Germany: Challenges and Options for Intervention“, Leopoldina (March 2020)
2020 - 2023Chair (ex officio) of the DFG’s Interdisciplinary Commission for Pandemic Research
2017 - 2018Member of the German government round table on Internationalisation of Education, Science and Research
2016 - 2017Involvement in the statement on Improving Global Health for the G20 summit 2017
2015 - 2017German representative on the Scientific Committee of the EU COST programme
2016 - 2020Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Research Center for Infectious Diseases, University of Würzburg
2014 - 2015Involvement in the statement on Neglected Tropical Diseases for the G7 summit 2015
2013 - 2019Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Kerckhoff Heart Research Institute, Bad Nauheim
2007 - 2010Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Center for International Development and Environmental Research

More about the Statutory Bodies(interner Link)

Contact Assistence

Julia Otto
E-mail: julia.otto@dfg.de
Telephone: +49 (228) 885-2223

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