The GDCh Board of Directors established the "Equal Opportunities in Chemistry" Commission on 5 December 2016. The Commission's overarching task is to anchor equal opportunities for women and men in chemistry in the GDCh in a sustainable and respectful manner. The constituent meeting took place on 13 September 2017 in Berlin. The commission was established to succeed the Equal Opportunities in Chemistry Working Group (AKCC), which was dissolved on 31 December 2017.
The Commission steers the strategy of equal opportunities in chemistry in accordance with the GDCh's mission statement to ensure that progress in this area is achieved within the GDCh and has an impact beyond. In coordination with the GDCh Executive Board, it develops concrete goals, monitors their implementation, initiates promotional activities and participates in projects. You can find out more about the activities on a separate page.
Flyer of the commissionDr Hildegard Nimmesgern, formerly of Sanofi-Aventis, Frankfurt a.M.
Katrin Beuthert, Institute of Nanotechnology, KIT, Karlsruhe (2024-2025)
Dr Rolf Albach, Covestro, Leverkusen (from 2023)
Prof. Dr Sabine Becker, RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau (from 2024)
Dr Markus Haider, Wacker Chemie
Prof. Dr Wolfram Koch, former GDCh, Hünstetten
Prof Dr Katharina Landfester, MPI-P, Mainz
Dr Bianca Schmid, Thermo Fisher Scientific
Dr Matthias Urmann, former Sanofi, Eschborn
Charlotte Gerischer, Berlin
Tom Götze, Leipzig
Dr Gesa Behnken, Evonik
Dr Istemi Kuzu, University of Marburg
Dr Lisa Pecher, GDCh Business Office
Dr Kathrin Wolter, BASF
The commission has up to ten members, whose composition reflects the diversity of the GDCh. The JCF (JungesChemieForum) has the right to nominate one member. At least one member should preferably be a member of the GDCh Board. The members of the "Equal Opportunities in Chemistry" Commission are appointed by the GDCh Executive Board. The term of office is four years, for the chair and deputy chair two years. A representative of the JCF will be invited to the meetings with guest status from 06/2021
Prof. Dr Sabine Becker, RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau
Dr Gesa Behnken, Evonik
Katrin Beuthert, Institute of Nanotechnology, KIT, Karlsruhe
Dr Markus Haider, Wacker Chemie
Dr Istemi Kuzu, University of Marburg
Dr Lisa Pecher, GDCh-Geschäftstselle (here honorary)
Dr Kathrin Wolter, BASF
Charlotte Gerischer, Munich
Tom Götze, Leipzig
Dr Rolf Albach studied chemistry in Bonn and at the Technical University of Munich, where he received his doctorate in 1992 under W. A. Herrmann in the team of U. Küsthardt. After a NATO scholarship at the Université de Paris-Sud with J.-J. Girerd, he joined Bayer AG in 1994 and has held management positions in research, application technology, sales and post-merger integration in the Polyurethanes Division since 1998. He currently leads R & D projects in the field of recycling management, automotive interiors and flame retardancy and also supports dissertations on these topics at universities in Germany and abroad. He took up a teaching position at FH Aachen in October 2020. Rolf Albach holds a double MBA degree from WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management (Vallendar) and Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University (Chicago).
Rolf Albach has 30 years of voluntary work in environmental policy, both with NGOs such as the Local Agenda and the SolarImpulse-Foundation as well as in local and regional politics, e.g. on the Commission for Regional and Structural Issues of the Cologne District Government, on the Board of Directors of Cologne's municipal wastewater management companies, the Operating Committee of Cologne's waste management companies and the Environment Committee of Cologne City Council.
Prof. Dr Sabine Becker studied at the Justus-Liebig University of Giessen from 2005-2010, where she obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in 2008 and a Master of Science degree in Chemistry in 2010. She then completed her doctorate in inorganic chemistry with a focus on multinuclear copper complexes and clusters in the working group of Prof. Dr Siegfried Schindler. She received a doctoral scholarship from the Chemical Industry Fund (VCI) in 2011 and completed her doctorate summa cum laude in 2014. After a one-year postdoc in the same working group, Sabine Becker joined the working group of Prof Stephen J. Lippard, PhD at MIT (USA) for a postdoc stay, where she researched the modulation of neurological processes by zinc ions, among other things. Her stay abroad was funded by a postdoctoral fellowship from the Leopoldina - National Academy of Sciences. In May 2017, Sabine Becker took up the junior professorship "Chemistry of Multinuclear Complexes" at the TU Kaiserslautern. From April 2022 to July 2022, she held a visiting professorship for Bioinorganic Chemistry at the University of Vienna. Since October 2023, she has been a university professor (W2) at RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau. Her research focuses on the cooperative effects of polynuclear copper and iron complexes and their catalytic application and on the investigation of metal ions in the central nervous system with a focus on zinc.
Sabine Becker is involved in numerous academic self-governance committees, where she is also actively committed to gender equality and equal opportunities. In 2020, she received the TU Kaiserslautern's "Advancement Award for Equality and Gender Activities". She is also active on a voluntary basis for various funding organisations and societies, for example since 2024 as Deputy President of the GDCh and member of the GDCh Board. As science communication is important to her, she also regularly takes part in outreach activities such as popular science lectures, experimental lectures, children's universities, workshops for school classes and STEM fairs
"For me, equal opportunities means that all people have the opportunity to realise their full potential. There are often invisible hurdles for the majority that only become transparent when people with diverse backgrounds sit around the table and are heard. Diversity is crucial in chemistry in particular, because complex challenges can best be solved through different perspectives, expertise and creative approaches. Innovation arises when different 'building blocks' come together - just like in a reaction, where only the interaction of different components makes new products possible."
Dr Gesa Behnken has been Vice President of the Specialty Isocyanates & Amines Product Line at Evonik since 2025. She studied chemistry at the University of Hamburg, where she completed her doctorate on biodegradable polymers. She worked at Bayer and Covestro for 13 years in various functions ranging from innovation, application technology development and strategy to key account management. Four years ago, she joined Evonik as Global Director of Marketing and Product Management for Rigid Foam Additives. Since January 2025, she has been Vice President of the Product Line Vestanat & Derivatives and thus responsible for the isocyanate and isocyanate derivatives portfolio of Evonik globally and since November 2025 as Product Line Head Specialty Isocyanates & Amines also for the amine crosslinker portfolio of Evonik.
Katrin Beuthert has been working on her doctorate in inorganic chemistry in Prof Dr Stefanie Dehnen's research group since 2021, initially at Philipps-Universität Marburg and since 2022 at the Institute of Nanotechnology at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. From 2019 to 2022, she was also the coordinator of the "MINT Summer School for Girls" project at Philipps University and the Women's and Equal Opportunities Officer at the Department of Chemistry.
At the beginning of her bachelor's degree in 2014, she became a GDCh member and is involved in the JCF Marburg, of which she was spokesperson from 2018 to 2022. Katrin Beuthert has been Team Lead of the JCF Equal Opportunities Team since 2021.
Since the beginning of 2022, Katrin Beuthert has represented the Young Chemists in the GDCh Commission for Equal Opportunities in Chemistry and is Chair of the Young Wöhler Association for Inorganic Chemistry. "Through more equal opportunities for students in STEM education, inclusion, diversity and targeted science communication, we can actively help shape a more diverse and open science community and get people excited about chemistry."
Markus Haider studied General Chemistry at the LMU in Munich. He completed his diploma thesis in analytical chemistry at TUM under Reinhold Nießner. For his dissertation and doctorate in analytical chemistry, he moved to PLUS (Paris Lodron University Salzburg) under Hans Malissa. As a Feodor Lynen scholarship holder of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, he spent almost two years as a postdoc at MIT with Mario Molina in the field of stratospheric chemistry before joining Wacker Chemie in Burghausen in 1999 as head of the Optical Molecular Spectroscopy laboratory.
Since then, his career at WACKER has included strategy, plant management, project management, production management, global supply chain management, corporate services and sustainability in a total of two central and two business divisions. Markus Haider currently heads the Chemical Services department with the core functions Corporate Analytics, Corporate Chemical Safety and Corporate Product Safety. He is also responsible for Corporate Analytics.
He has been a member of the Speakers' Committee since 2014, representing the senior executives. Since 2020, he has been Chairman of the Overall Spokespersons' Committee of Wacker Chemie.
As a long-standing GDCh member, he has been involved as a mentor at CheMento from the very beginning. He has also been involved as a mentor in a similar internal WACKER programme four times so far. Diversity, equity and inclusion have been important to him for many years. The topic of gender is particularly close to his heart. On the one hand, due to the necessary fairness towards committed, capable women, and on the other hand due to the simple economic assessment of not wasting the great specialist and management potential of women, not least against the background of a massive growing shortage of skilled labour in Germany.
Prof. Dr Wolfram Koch was Managing Director of the German Chemical Society from 2002 to July 2024. He studied chemistry in Darmstadt and Berlin and obtained his doctorate in theoretical organic chemistry under Prof. Helmut Schwarz and Prof. Gernot Frenking at TU Berlin in 1986, followed by a post-doc at the IBM Almaden Research Centre in San Jose, California and several years as a permanent scientist at the Institute for Supercomputing and Applied Mathematics at IBM Deutschland GmbH in Heidelberg. In 1992, Wolfram Koch accepted a professorship for theoretical organic chemistry at the TU Berlin, where he taught and researched until he joined the GDCh. His research focussed on quantum chemical calculations of the properties and reactivities of open-shell transition metal compounds and the spectroscopic properties of small molecules. This work has resulted in around 190 peer-reviewed scientific publications and numerous book chapters. He is also the main author of a textbook on density functional theory (W. Koch and M.C. Holthausen: "A Chemists' Guide to Density Functional Theory", Wiley-VCH, Weinheim), which has been published several times and sold over 5,000 copies to date. Wolfram Koch is an honorary member of the Czech and Israeli chemical societies, a Fellow of IUPAC and the RSC and an Honorary Fellow of ChemPubSoc Europe. In addition to his work as Managing Director of the GDCh, he performs a variety of honorary duties as a member of the supervisory and advisory boards of several scientific institutions and other organisations. For example, he is a member of the Executive Board of the European Association of Chemical and Molecular Sciences (EuCheMS), Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of the German National Library of Science and Technology (TIB) in Hanover, a member of the Administrative Board and the Science Commission of the German Collecting Society Wort (VG Wort) and titular member of the Committee on Publications and Cheminformatics Data Standards of IUPAC. In May 2016, he was appointed to the EU Commission's High Level Advisory Group "Open Science Policy Platform".
The promotion of equal opportunities is a goal set out in the GDCh's statutes. Supporting this is an important concern and motivation for the former GDCh Managing Director to work on the Equal Opportunities Commission."For me personally, it's about pointing out the injustice that is unfortunately still present in large parts of our society - including in research and teaching. I want to break down prejudices, barriers and obstacles and prioritise visibility and empowerment."
Dr Istemi Kuzu has been working as a senior academic advisor at the University of Marburg in Prof C. Lichtenberg's working group since October 2022.
After training as a chemical laboratory technician at Dräger ST GmbH Lübeck (1996-1999) and then working for a year, he studied chemistry at the Philipps University of Marburg. During his studies, he spent a semester abroad at the University of Cambridge, UK. He completed his degree in 2005 with a thesis on "organothallium fluorides".
In 2009, Dr Kuzu completed his doctorate at the University of Karlsruhe (TH) with a dissertation on "Organometallic chemistry and coordination chemistry of anionic tris(pyrazolyl)methanides". After a short post-doctoral stay, he returned to the University of Marburg, where he initially worked as an academic advisor and later as a senior advisor in the working group of Prof S. Dehnen.Since October 2020, he has also served as Safety Officer and since November 2022 as Sustainability Officer at the Department of Chemistry.
Prof. Dr Katharina Landfester studied chemistry at the Technical University of Darmstadt. For her diploma thesis she was at the Ecole d'Application des Hautes Polymères in Strasbourg (Prof. M. Lambla). In 1995, she obtained her doctorate in physical chemistry at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz after working with Prof H. W. Spiess at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research. After a further year as a group leader at the Institute, she moved to Lehigh University (Prof M. El-Aasser) for a postdoctoral position, where she first came into contact with miniemulsion technology. She returned to Germany in 1998 and joined Prof M. Antonietti's group at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Golm. There she headed the miniemulsion group for new ways of synthesising complex nanoparticles. In 2002, she completed her habilitation in physical chemistry at the University of Potsdam. In 2003, she accepted a chair (C4) for macromolecular chemistry at the University of Ulm. Here she began her activities in the field of biomedical applications. She has been Director at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research since 2008.
In 1992 and 1994, she received DAAD scholarships for her research activities in Strasbourg. In 1996, she received a DFG scholarship for her research in the USA. In 1998, she received the Liebig Scholarship from the Fonds der chemischen Industrie (FCI). In 2001, she was awarded the Reimund Stadler Prize of the German Chemical Society (GDCh) and the Dr Hermann Schnell Foundation Prize. From 2002 to 2007, she was a member of the Young Academy of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina; in 2003/2004, she was the spokesperson of the Young Academy. From 2007 to 2015 she was a member of the board of the GDCh's Macromolecular Chemistry Division and from 2016 to 2023 a member of the GDCh board. She has been a member of the Academy of Engineering Sciences (Acatech) since 2010.After her professional career in the pharmaceutical industry, Dr Nimmesgern is now a freelance career development consultant.
In 1985, she first entered the pharmaceutical industry as a laboratory manager for medicinal chemistry at Hoechst. In 1989, she moved to International Marketing as Product Manager, where she most recently headed the global marketing department of the Vasotherapeutics business unit. After the merger with other companies to form Hoechst-Marion-Roussel (HMR), she became Head of Human Resources for Global Research in 1996. After the merger with Rhône-Poulenc to form Aventis in 1999, Dr Nimmesgern led strategic projects in Global Research & Development. In 2002, she became head of the global Knowledge Networks Management department for R&E. Here she was responsible for Knowledge Management, Alliance Management and Risk Management. During the merger with Sanofi to form Sanofi-Aventis in 2004, she took over as Head of Scientific Relations for F&E Germany.
Dr Nimmesgern received her doctorate in organic chemistry under Prof Dr Ernst Schaumann at the University of Hamburg in 1984. This was followed by a one-year post-doctoral stay with Prof Dr Albert Padwa at Emory University of Atlanta, USA. She received a Feodor Lynen Fellowship from the Humboldt Foundation and a Fulbright Travel Grant for this purpose.
From 2011 to 2017, Dr Nimmesgern led the GDCh Equal Opportunities in Chemistry Working Group (AKCC) on a voluntary basis, which was transformed into the Equal Opportunities in Chemistry Commission at the beginning of 2018."I am committed to equal opportunities for women and men in chemistry, so that women experience the same visibility, appreciation and opportunities as men - this also means equal pay for equal work, access to top positions in industry and universities as well as in politics, and protection against violence."
"There are many facets of diversity, inclusion and equity. We should all be aware of our privileges and support marginalised people to make the chemistry community a welcoming and open community for all."
Dr Lisa Pecher has been Coordinator for Specialist Structures at the German Chemical Society (GDCh) since April 2025.
After studying chemistry at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, she completed her doctorate in theoretical chemistry at the Philipps-Universität Marburg under Prof Ralf Tonner-Zech from 2013 to 2017.
After a short period as a postdoc at Philipps University Marburg with Prof Gernot Frenking, Dr Pecher was an editor at Wiley-VCH from 2019 to 2025 for various journals, including Angewandte Chemie, Advanced Functional Materials and Chemistry - A European Journal. From 2020, she led the DE&I working group of Wiley-VCH's chemistry journals and organised numerous events, including five IUPAC Global Women's Breakfast networking events and several workshops in collaboration with the GDCh.
In addition to her full-time work, Dr Pecher is committed to speaking on topics of diversity, inclusion and equity, as well as organising concerts on a voluntary basis.
Dr Bianca Schmid works in Market Development Biomarkers at Thermo Fisher Scientific in Berlin. In this role, she plays a key role in driving market research and shaping portfolio synergies throughout the company. With her previous experience as a lean manager at Thermo Fisher, she has gained a broad overview of the entire business unit and, in addition to process optimisation, has also dealt with topics such as cultural development and change management.
Since starting her doctoral studies in 2015, Bianca Schmid has been active in the JCF (JungesChemieForum) of the GDCh and, together with JuWiChem, organised the "Chemistry in Practice" event in spring 2017 on the topic of "Equal Opportunities in Chemistry" with impressive speakers from science and industry. In the 2017/2018 term of office, she was a member of the JCF Federal Board and responsible for communication with the regional forums, partner organisations such as the jDPG and various industry partners. It was here that she first raised the issue of equal opportunities at a national level. Thanks to Bianca's pioneering work, the topic has now become an integral part of the Federal Executive Board.
From 2018-2022, she represented the interests of young chemists as a JCF representative on the commission and is still deputy chair today.
Dr Bianca Schmid has noticed that equal opportunities and mental health are very important topics for young chemists. In particular, diverse career opportunities and the compatibility of family and career are of great interest to both genders today, especially post-pandemic. Dr Bianca Schmid has been supporting her clients on these topics as a business coach since 2022.
Dr Matthias Urmann studied chemistry at the University of Heidelberg from 1983 to 1989. He also completed his doctorate there from 1989 to 1992 under Professor Günter Helmchen. After a postdoctoral stay at Harvard University, Cambridge, USA, in the working group of Professor Elias J. Corey, he joined the former Hoechst AG in 1993 as Head of the Medicinal Chemistry Laboratory. After holding various positions within the company, including Head of Administration at Sanofi R&D Germany, one of the companies that emerged from Hoechst AG, and Head of the Insulins & Peptides department within the Diabetes Research & Translational Medicine unit, he worked in the Business Development Diabetes External Innovation division. From 2018 to 2019, he was President of the German Chemical Society and is also active in the GDCh's Medicinal Chemistry and Liebig Association for Organic Chemistry divisions.
In addition to his involvement in the GDCh, he is a board member of Science4Life, an initiative that has also been supported by the GDCh for many years, which supports young entrepreneurs from the life sciences/chemistry & energy sector on their path to self-employment.
"Diversity is not an end in itself - it is the basis for creative solutions and scientific excellence. My commitment to equal opportunities in chemistry is based on the conviction that only an inclusive environment does justice to all talents and enables sustainable innovation."
Dr Kathrin Wolter has been Vice President of the Analytical Science division at BASF SE since 2023.
After studying chemistry at the Eberhardt Karls University in Tübingen, she completed her doctorate in chemistry at the Technical University of Berlin in 2007. She began her professional career in 2008 as Research Manager in the R&D CAS Natural Products division at Sanofi-Aventis Deutschland GmbH.
In 2009, she moved to BASF SE, where she initially worked as a Research Manager and later as a Project Manager in the area of crop protection. From 2012, she increasingly took on management positions: first as Senior Manager Physical & Chemical Values, later in the areas of Bioanalytics & Physical Characterisation and Bioanalytics & Chemometrics.
In 2021-2022, Dr Wolter served as Senior Project Manager and Senior Manager for Strategic Innovation Steering in Health & Nutrition before assuming her current position as Vice President of Analytical Science in 2023.
Her career is characterised by continuous development and increasing leadership responsibility in various scientific areas.
Committee members (2022 - 2025)
Chair
Dr Hildegard Nimmesgern, formerly Sanofi-Aventis, Frankfurt a.M.
Substitute
Katrin Beuthert, Institute of Nanotechnology, KIT, Karlsruhe (2024-2025)
Assessor
Dr Rolf Albach, Covestro, Leverkusen (from 2023)
Prof. Dr Sabine Becker, RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau (from 2024)
Dr Markus Haider, Wacker Chemie
Prof. Dr Wolfram Koch, former GDCh, Hünstetten
Prof Dr Katharina Landfester, MPI-P, Mainz
Dr Bianca Schmid, Thermo Fisher Scientific
Dr Matthias Urmann, former Sanofi, Eschborn
JCF Equal Opportunities Team
Charlotte Gerischer, Berlin
Tom Götze, Leipzig
Committee member 01.01.2022 - 31.12.2022
Prof. Dr Doris Klee, RWTH Aachen
Committee members 2018 - 2021
Chair
Dr Hildegard Nimmesgern, ex-Sanofi-Aventis, Frankfurt a.M.
Substitute
Dr Bianca Schmid, Thermo Fisher Scientific (2022-2023)
Assessor
Prof Dr Axel Jacobi von Wangelin, University of Hamburg
Prof Dr Doris Klee, RWTH Aachen
Prof Dr Wolfram Koch, GDCh, Frankfurt a.M.
Prof Dr Katharina Landfester, MPI-P, Mainz
Dr Melanie Schultz, Merck, Darmstadt
Dr Matthias Urmann, Sanofi-Aventis, Frankfurt a.M.
The specialist group "Senior Experts in Chemistry" is collecting reports and contemporary documents on studying chemistry and career choices in the 1950s to 1970s to mark the anniversary year. more
The GDCh has been a co-signatory of the Charta of Diversity for diversity in the world of work since 2021 under the patronage of the Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
The GDCh is a co-signatory of the Statement on inclusion and diversity in the chemical sciences of 8 June 2020.
Author Vera Koester
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Further links can be found here.
GDCh Head Office
Dr Jasmin Herr
Phone: +49 69 7917-323
Email: j.herr@gdch.de