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Leibniz Program

Jörg Vogel appointed to the selection committee

Würzburg, November 2, 2022—Jörg Vogel, Director of the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI) in Würzburg, will serve on the selection committee for the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Program starting in 2023. This was announced recently by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG). The biochemist will be a member of this committee until the end of 2030. The board nominates candidates for the Leibniz Prize, the most important research funding award in Germany.

The appointee said he was honored, pleased and obliged by the appointment. "I am very much looking forward to contributing to the selection of the candidates proposed for the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize in the future," Vogel said. At the same time, the HIRI director—who is also a professor at the Julius-Maximilians-Universität (JMU) of Würzburg and heads the Institute for Molecular Infection Biology (IMIB) there—expressed his gratitude for the recognition of his academic work. "The selection committee for Germany's most important research funding award brings together particularly distinguished and experienced scientists who have outstanding knowledge of the research landscape," Vogel said. He added he was very grateful for the trust the DFG had placed in him by appointing him.

The Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize

The Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize is the most important and prestigious research funding award in Germany. Established in 1985 by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft; DFG for short), the Leibniz Program aims to improve the working conditions of outstanding scientists, expand their research opportunities, relieve them of administrative workloads and facilitate the employment of particularly qualified scientists. The award is endowed with up to 2.5 million euros and is granted up to ten times a year. Funding is only given on the recommendation of third parties. The decision on the award winners is made by the main committee on the basis of a recommendation by the selection committee for the Leibniz Program.

Jörg Vogel

Jörg Vogel has been Managing Director of the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI) in Würzburg since 2017 and Professor and Director of the Institute for Molecular Infection Biology (IMIB) since 2009. A globally recognized scientist in the field of RNA biology, he was awarded the Leibniz Prize in 2017. Vogel is considered a pioneer in the application and development of high-throughput sequencing methods for the analysis of single infected cells and the interactions between pathogenic bacteria and their hosts. He studied biochemistry at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and at the Imperial College in London (UK). In 1999, he received his PhD from Humboldt-Universität and conducted research at Uppsala University (Sweden) in 2000/2001 and as an EMBO Fellow at Hebrew University in Jerusalem (Israel) in 2002/2003 before establishing an independent junior research group at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin in 2004. 

Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research

The Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI) is the first institution of its kind worldwide to combine ribonucleic acid (RNA) research with infection biology. Based on novel findings from its strong basic research program, the institute’s long-term goal is to develop innovative therapeutic approaches to better diagnose and treat human infections.

HIRI is a site of the Braunschweig Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in cooperation with the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU) and is located on the Würzburg Medical Campus.

 

Britta Grigull

Press contact

Dr Britta Grigull