The Scientific Council

The scientific council supports and advises the board on the institute’s guiding scientific principles and programs. The council consists of all research group heads as well as of four elected representatives of the institute. Furthermore, it consists of a technical and an administrative staff representative, each with voting rights, and a PhD student and a PostDoc representative with an advisory role. Similarly, the administrative director has an advisory role without voting rights. The scientific council has its own rules of procedure and meets monthly.

Scientific Council Members

(as of May 2026)

• Prof. Dr. Stephanie Pfänder (Chair)
  Head of Department
• Prof. Dr. Kay Grünewald (Deputy Chair)
  Head of Department
• Dagmar Schröder-Huse
  Administrative Director
• Patrick Thurau
  Deputy Administrative Director
• Prof. Dr. Marcus Altfeld
  Scientific Director / Head of Department
• Prof. Dr. Maya Topf
  Deputy Scientific Director / Head of Department
• Prof. Dr. Adam Grundhoff
  Deputy Scientific Director / Head of Department
• Prof. Dr. Gülsah Gabriel
  Head of Department
• Prof. Dr. Wolfram Brune
  Head of Department
• Dr. Pietro Scaturro
  Research Group Leader
• Dr. Dr. Ulrike Lange
  Junior Research Group Leader
• Dr. Tanja Laske
  Junior Research Group Leader
• Dr. Patrick Blümke
  Representative of Scientific Staff
• Dr. Naidoo Kewreshini
  Representative of Scientific Staff
• Sergiy Dovgopol
  Representative of Administrative Staff
• Tina Meyer
  Representative of Scientific-Technical Staff

Postdoc representatives 

• Dr. Kristina Schierhorn
• Dr. Zoé Schmal

PhD student representatives 

• Cedric Mahnke
• Katharina Budde
• Jule Alina Russow
• Marie-Sophie Vollmost