AcademiaNet is an international database containing profiles of women scientists. It is a non-profit project with the goal to raise the share of women in leadership positions in academia. AcademiaNet was initiated in 2010 in Germany by the Robert Bosch Stiftung and the publishing house "Spektrum der Wissenschaft". The Swiss National Science Foundation assumed responsibility of the platform in 2020. [1]
The share of women professors and executives at research institutions across Europe is low and rising only slowly. [2] [3] AcademiaNet is a resource aimed at facilitating the search for women researchers in view of academic appointments or as conference speakers, experts on scientific committees or peer reviewers. [4] A search function allows users to find the registered scientists according to their field or discipline. As opposed to databases such as "Request a Woman in STEMM" by 500 Women Scientists or "WiLS database of women in science", women cannot create their own profile on AcademiaNet; they need to be nominated by a scientific partner based on clearly defined criteria. [5] [6]
The Robert Bosch Stiftung founded AcademiaNet in 2010. [7] In her speech inaugurating the platform in November 2010, the German Chancellor and physicist Angela Merkel said that science would not achieve its full potential if it remained predominantly male and did not promote half of its talents. [8] [9] She also said that AcademiaNet offered more visibility to women scientists, who contribute with their expertise to scientific endeavours. [10]
Initially, the platform was in German and contained primarily researchers from Germany, who were nominated by institutions such as the Leibniz Association, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) or the Fraunhofer Society. Since 2012, the platform has become more international. [11] The language of the platform is now English.
In 2020, the management of AcademiaNet passed from the Robert Bosch Stiftung to the Swiss National Science Foundation, which continues to work with the publishing house "Spektrum der Wissenschaft". [12]
A number of renowned female scientists are member of AcademiaNet. Here a list of some of the most famous among them: [13]
AcademiaNet is a non-profit project. It is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Robert Bosch Stiftung and 21 European research funding organisations, including the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science, the Royal Society, the Spanish National Research Council, the Swedish Research Council and the European Molecular Biology Organization. [15] AcademiaNet is also included in the search map of The Brussels Binder, a database for more women in European debates. [16]
More than 40 European science organisations nominate women scientists who meet the selection criteria of AcademiaNet. These organisations include: [15]
An academician is a full member of an artistic, literary, engineering, or scientific academy. In many countries, it is an honorific title used to denote a full member of an academy that has a strong influence on national scientific life. In systems such as the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, the title grants privileges and administrative responsibilities for funding allocation and research priorities.
IBM Research is the research and development division for IBM, an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, with operations in over 170 countries. IBM Research is the largest industrial research organization in the world and has twelve labs on six continents.
Hans-Peter Dürr was a German physicist. He worked on nuclear and quantum physics, elementary particles and gravitation, epistemology, and philosophy, and he advocated responsible scientific and energy policies. In 1987, he was awarded the Right Livelihood Award for "his profound critique of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) and his work to convert high technology to peaceful uses."
The Technische Universität Darmstadt, commonly known as TU Darmstadt, is a research university in the city of Darmstadt, Germany. It was founded in 1877 and received the right to award doctorates in 1899. In 1882, it was the first university in the world to set up a chair in electrical engineering. In 1883, the university founded the first faculty of electrical engineering and introduced the world's first degree course in electrical engineering. In 2004, it became the first German university to be declared as an autonomous university. TU Darmstadt has assumed a pioneering role in Germany. Computer science, electrical engineering, artificial intelligence, mechatronics, business informatics, political science and many more courses were introduced as scientific disciplines in Germany by Darmstadt faculty.
The Robert Bosch Stiftung GmbH is a German foundation that owns a majority shareholding in Robert Bosch GmbH, from which it derives its funding. The foundation was established in accordance with the wishes of Robert Bosch, who died in 1942, and conducts and finances social, cultural and scientific projects.
The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of Humanities, Letters, Law, and Sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of European interests in national research agencies.
Science and technology in Germany has a long and illustrious history, and research and development efforts form an integral part of the country's economy. Germany has been the home of some of the most prominent researchers in various scientific disciplines, notably physics, mathematics, chemistry and engineering. Before World War II, Germany had produced more Nobel laureates in scientific fields than any other nation, and was the preeminent country in the natural sciences.
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) is a set of major research fellowships created by the European Union/European Commission to support research in the European Research Area (ERA). The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions are among Europe's most competitive and prestigious research and innovation fellowships.
The Klaus Tschira Stiftung (KTS) is a German foundation established by the physicist Klaus Tschira in 1995 as a non-profit organization. Its primary objective is to support projects in the natural and computer sciences as well as mathematics. The KTS places strong emphasis on the public understanding in these fields. Klaus Tschira’s commitment to this objective was honored in 1999 with the "Deutscher Stifterpreis" by the German National Academic Foundation. The KTS is located at the Villa Bosch in Heidelberg, Germany, the former residence of Nobel Prize laureate for chemistry Carl Bosch (1874–1940).
Harald zur Hausen NAS EASA APS is a German virologist and professor emeritus. He has done research on cervical cancer and discovered the role of papilloma viruses in cervical cancer, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2008.
The Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings are annual scientific conferences held in Lindau, Bavaria, Germany, since 1951. Their aim is to bring together Nobel laureates and young scientists to foster scientific exchange between different generations, cultures and disciplines. The meetings assume a unique position amongst international scientific conferences, as from 30 to 65 Nobel laureates attending each edition they are the largest regular congregation of Nobel laureates in the world, apart from the Nobel Prize award ceremony in Stockholm.
Ottmar Georg Edenhofer is a German economist who is regarded as one of the world's leading experts on climate change policy, environmental and energy policy, and energy economics. His work has been heavily cited. Edenhofer currently holds the professorship of the Economics of Climate Change at the Technical University of Berlin. Together with Earth scientist Johan Rockström, economist Ottmar Edenhofer is scientific director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), representing the interdisciplinary and solutions-oriented approach of the institute. Furthermore, he is director of the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC). From 2008 to 2015 he served as one of the co-chairs of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group III "Mitigation of Climate Change".
Reinhard Wilhelm is a German computer scientist.
José Luis Moreira da Encarnação is a Portuguese computer scientist, Professor Emeritus at the Department of Computer Science of the Technische Universität Darmstadt in Germany and a senior technology and innovation advisor to governments, multinational companies, research institutions and organizations, and foundations. He is involved in the development of research agendas and innovation strategies for socio-economic development with a focus on emerging economies. He is also a member of the Topical Network Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and ICT-related activities of the German National Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech) and the German Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BBAW). He is an elected member of the ACM SIGGRAPH Academy (USA).
This is a timeline of women in science, spanning from ancient history up to the 21st century. While the timeline primarily focuses on women involved with natural sciences such as astronomy, biology, chemistry and physics, it also includes women from the social sciences and the formal sciences, as well as notable science educators and medical scientists. The chronological events listed in the timeline relate to both scientific achievements and gender equality within the sciences.
Nikolaus Rajewsky is a German system biologist at the Max-Delbrück-Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) and at the Charité in Berlin. He founded and directs the “Berlin Institute for Medical Systems Biology”.. He leads the Rajewsky lab, where he studies how RNA regulates gene expression. He also co-chairs LifeTime, a pan-European research initiative of more than 90 academic institutions and 70 companies, which aims to revolutionize healthcare by mapping, understanding, and targeting cells during disease progression. LifeTime integrates several technologies: single-cell multiomics, machine learning, and personalized disease models such as organoids. Rajewsky has received numerous awards and honors, including the most prestigious German award, the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize, endowed with 2.5 million euros by the German Research Foundation (DFG).
Claudia R. Binder is a Swiss, Canadian and Colombian environmental scientist working in the field of human-environment systems and sustainability s. Since March 2016 she has been a full professor the La Mobilière Chair on Urban Ecology and Sustainable Living at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland and founding director of the Laboratory for Human-Environment Relations in Urban Systems (HERUS) at School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC) of EPFL. Since January 2020 she has been serving as dean of ENAC at EPFL.
Johann Wolfgang Koch is a German physicist and computer scientist. He teaches applied computer science at the University of Bonn, Germany, and is chief scientist of the Fraunhofer Institute for Communication, Information Processing and Ergonomics. In 2011, Koch was elected a IEEE Fellow and since 2015, he has been an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer
Andrés Fabián Lasagni is an Argentinean, Italian and German materials scientist and laser expert. He is professor at the Technische Universität Dresden and leads the Chair for Laser-based Manufacturing.