Prof Dr Katharina Al-Shamery, chemist and Vice President for Research at the University, has been elected as a new member of the Senate of the German Research Foundation (DFG) by the General Assembly in Berlin.
The University Senate is the DFG's most important science policy body. It addresses overarching research concerns, advises governments, parliaments and authorities and sets priorities in research planning. It also represents the interests of German research vis-à-vis the scientific community abroad. The DFG University Senate consists of 39 scientific members.
Al-Shamery said that she was delighted with her new role as a member of the DFG Senate. "The election honours me and I see it as both an award and an incentive." She will continue to do all she can for the interests of science.
Al-Shamery, who was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit in 2011 for her special services to science and research, is a member of numerous committees and organisations. Among other things, she is deputy spokesperson of the DFG's Review Board for Chemical Solid State Research. In 2011, she was elected by the DFG University Senate to the "Ombudsman for Science" commission, a body that ensures compliance with good academic practice.
A particular concern of Al-Shamery is the promotion of young academics: in 2006, she initiated the university studies for secondary school students at the University of Oldenburg for particularly talented pupils. She is also a mentor for women in science. Since 2009, she has organised the annual conference "From the witches' kitchens of materials science" with experienced female professors and young female scientists.
Before Al-Shamery was appointed to the University of Oldenburg in 1999, her academic career had taken her to Göttingen, Paris, Zurich, Oxford, Bochum, Berlin and Ulm. The chemist's research focus is on nanostructured surfaces, time-resolved nanophotonics and surface photochemistry.