In the run-up to International Women’s Day, we will be contributing to the dissemination of knowledge about women that have broken the bias by achieving outstanding accomplishments in their respective fields, by updating and translating into our local languages the Wikipedia pages of five exceptional women, each representing one of the countries we are present in.
Katja Becker, nominated by our German offices, is a medic, biochemist and the first female president of the German Re-search Society (DFG). She attended Medical School at Ruprecht Karls University Heidelberg, Germany from 1984 to 1991. In 1988, she completed her PhD summa cum laude on “Lutathione reductase and its apoen-zyme: contributions to the chemotherapy of malaria and the diagnosis of FAD deficiencies” (German: Glutathionreduktase und ihr Apoenzym: Beiträge zur Chemotherapie der Malaria und zur Diagnostik von FAD-Mangelzuständen). In 1996, she achieved the highest German university degree (Habitilation) in biochemistry at Karls University, Heidelberg.
Having completed her medical residency at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford and the University Hospital of Basel, Katja Becker gained clinical and research experience in Nigeria and Ghana and worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Sydney.
After five years as Vice President, she became the first woman to be elected President of the German Research Foundation in 2019.
For her research and teaching activities, Katja Becker received multiple awards, including the Ludolf Krehl Prize, the Carus Medal and the Rudolf Leuckart Medal.
Find out more about Katja Becker on:
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