press release, 29. August 2024

Change at the top of the UFZ

Biologist Katrin Böhning-Gaese takes over the scientific management

On 1 September 2024, biologist Prof Dr Katrin Böhning-Gaese will move from the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (SBiK-F) in Frankfurt/Main to the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) and become the scientific director. She will take over from biologist Prof Dr Rolf Altenburger, who has headed the centre since 2022. Katrin Böhning-Gaese and Administrative Director Dr Sabine König will be the first two women to head the UFZ since it was founded in 1991.

"We warmly welcome Katrin Böhning-Gaese to the UFZ and thus to the Helmholtz Association and look forward to working with her", say Prof Rolf Altenburger and Dr Sabine König, the current managing directors of the UFZ. "Her outstanding professional expertise in biodiversity and land use research and her vast network, which extends far beyond the technical context into the political and social sphere, are ideal prerequisites for further increasing the visibility of environmental research of the UFZ. With her ambitious plans, Katrin Böhning-Gaese will actively promote the bridge between outstanding basic research and its application in society".

"On behalf of the supervisory board of the UFZ, I would also like to extend a warm welcome to Prof Böhning-Gaese. We are delighted that we have been able to recruit an outstanding female researcher as the new Scientific Director of the UFZ", says Oda Keppler, Chair of the supervisory board of the UFZ. "My special thanks go to Prof Altenburger for managing the UFZ so diligently over the past few years and positioning it so well for the takeover by the new managing director". 

Katrin Böhning-Gaese is a biologist and has been Director of the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (SBiK-F) and Professor at Goethe University in Frankfurt/Main for 14 years. She was also a member of the board of directors of the Senckenberg Society for Nature Research for almost 10 years. Her scientific expertise focuses on the protection and restoration of biodiversity - the relationship between humans and ecosystems, the impact of climate and land-use change on biodiversity, and the link between biodiversity, ecosystem services, and human well-being. 

Prof Dr Klement Tockner, Director General of the Senckenberg Society for Nature Research, offers his warmest congratulations: "We are extremely pleased that Katrin Böhning-Gaese will be taking on this major task. With her, the UFZ has gained a scientific pioneer who thinks and acts in an impressively diverse and interdisciplinary way. At Senckenberg, she has always taken innovative approaches to spreading knowledge about the protection of biodiversity, outlining a positive narrative of what is possible, and thus motivating people to get involved. We will continue to pursue this goal and look forward to even closer cooperation between the UFZ and the Senckenberg Society". 

Böhning-Gaese has been contributing her expertise as a researcher and science manager to various specialist committees and commissions at universities and the German Research Foundation (DFG) for many years. She is also increasingly involved in policy advice and science communication - as demonstrated by her involvement in the German Council for Sustainable Development, the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, and the Scientific Advisory Board of the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration. This is also demonstrated by her countless appearances in the media, at popular science events, and in debates at the interface between civil society and politics. This commitment was one of the decisive factors in her being honoured with the 2021 German Environmental Prize.

On 1 September, Böhning-Gaese starts at the UFZ with the clear objective of strengthening basic and application-oriented environmental research and opening up new scientific horizons whilst further expanding its role as a mediator between research, politics, industry, and society. "I am strongly convinced that the transformation of our society towards a sustainable, future-friendly way of life is a task for society as a whole and cannot be mastered without the cooperation of science, politics, and citizens. I see the UFZ in the role of an important catalyser here", says Böhning-Gaese. "It is a great honour for me to be able to shape this role as scientific director together with the many dedicated employees. I am truly looking forward to the new challenges and opportunities that await me". 

About Katrin Böhning-Gaese

Katrin Böhning-Gaese comes from Oberkochen in Baden-Württemberg. She studied biology at the University of Tübingen and specialised in ornithology. In the early 1990s, she worked on her doctoral thesis at the University of New Mexico (USA), where she came into contact with macroecology, which was a completely new field of ecology at the time. This approach of analysing the numerous details investigated in ecology on a large spatial scale inspired her so much that she invested a great deal of energy in establishing macroecology in Germany. She is now regarded as a pioneer in this field of research. After completing her doctorate and habilitation, Böhning-Gaese was appointed to the University of Mainz in 2001. In 2010, she moved to Goethe University as a professor and to the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre in Frankfurt/Main as director. International research projects have taken her to many countries, including Madagascar, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ecuador, and Mongolia. She was - and is - active on many committees and has received numerous awards for her research and social commitment. Katrin Böhning-Gaese is married to Dr Bernhard Gaese and is the mother of two grown-up sons.

More information on professional experience, publications, fellowships and grants here.

Further information

UFZ press office

Susanne Hufe
Phone: +49 341 235-1630
presse@ufz.de