Five female researchers from the University of Oldenburg have been included in the excellence portal "AcademiaNet", which was launched by the Robert Bosch Foundation in co-operation with the publishing company "Spektrum der Wissenschaft" and partners from business and science. Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel launched the internet portal, which currently contains the profiles of around 515 outstanding female scientists from German-speaking countries, on 2 November 2010 in Berlin.
Physicist Prof Dr Ulrike Feudel, chemist and Vice President for Research Prof Dr Katharina Al-Shamery, geoscientist Prof Dr Gudrun Massmann, neurobiologist Prof Dr Christiane Richter-Landsberg and historian Prof Dr Tanja Susanne Scheer from the University of Oldenburg are represented in the excellence portal. They were nominated by the German Research Foundation (DFG).
"The inclusion of five of our female professors in the Excellence Portal is a great success for the University and visible proof that we offer our academics the best conditions for research," explained President Prof Dr Babette Simon. The University of Oldenburg has held a top position in university rankings in terms of gender equality for years. 30 per cent of all professorships are held by women, emphasised Simon. Nationwide, only twelve per cent of the highest-paid positions in research are held by women.
According to the initiators, the aim of "AcademiaNet" is to strengthen the visibility and presence of women in important, mostly male-dominated networks. The excellence portal aims to bring outstanding female scientists to the attention of those who want to fill scientific committees or leadership positions, report on research, design conference programmes or consult experts in decision-making.

Prof. Dr Ulrike Feudel, university lecturer for "Theoretical Physics with a focus on Complex Systems" since 2000, studied physics at the HU Berlin, where she also gained her doctorate. She qualified as a professor at the University of Potsdam in 1996 and went to the University of Maryland at College Park (USA) as a DFG Heisenberg Fellow in 1998. Feudel's research focus is on the development of methods for analysing the behaviour of non-linear complex systems and their application in investigating the dynamics and stability of marine ecosystems or the interplay of biological growth with physical transport processes, such as flow patterns in the sea and turbulence.