Andreas Voßkuhle has held the Chair of Public Law at Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg im Breisgau since 1999 and is Director of the Institute for Political Science and Philosophy of Law (Dept. I).
He studied law in Bayreuth and Munich, obtaining his doctorate in Munich in 1992 and completing his habilitation in Augsburg in 1998. His work is centred on constitutional law, general administrative law as well as constitutional and legal theory. In July 2007, he was elected Rector of the University of Freiburg, taking office on 1 April 12018. In May 2008, he was appointed Judge and Vice President of the Federal Constitutional Court, and in March 2010 President of the Federal Constitutional Court. His twelve-year term of office ended in June 2020. Andreas Voßkuhle has been a full member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities since 2007 and of the German National Academy of Sciences – Leopoldina since 2018. He was a member of Comité 255 from 2014 to 2022. Andreas Voßkuhle is currently President of the Senate of the German National Foundation, Chairman of “Gegen Vergessen – für Demokratie e. V.” and a member of the Mercator Foundation’s Advisory Board and of the Karenzzeitgremium in accordance with 6c of the German Federal Ministries Act (BMinG). He has received numerous honours, commendations and awards.
Andreas Voßkuhle has been a member of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Council since February 2016; he was elected as its Chairman in June 2022.

Markus Stoffel has been Professor of Metabolic Diseases at the Institute of Molecular Health Sciences at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich since 2006. After studying medicine in Cambridge (UK) and Bonn and a two-year residency at Klinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf, he performed a post-doctoral research sojourn at the University of Chicago’s Howard Hughes Medical Institute. In 1995 he became an assistant professor, and in 1999 was appointed full professor and head of the Metabolic Diseases Laboratory at Rockefeller University in New York (US). His main research interests include molecular mechanisms regulating glucose and lipid homeostasis, insulin secretion, insulin signalling and the development of oligonucleotide-based therapies for metabolic diseases.
Markus Stoffel has been a member of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Council since June 2015; he was elected its Deputy Chairman in June 2022.

Katja Becker has been President of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation – DFG) since 2020.
She studied medicine at the University of Heidelberg, where she also obtained her doctorate and completed her habilitation. After heading a junior research group at the Centre for Infection Research at the University of Würzburg, she took on a professorship in biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Giessen. Guest teaching and research assignments have taken her to Africa, Australia, Switzerland, the UK and the US. Her research interests, as demonstrated by more than 300 publications, range from cellular thiol metabolism, the structure and function of redox-active proteins and development of rational medication to combatting tumour and infectious diseases, in particular tropical malaria. Up until 2019, she served as coordinator of DFG Priority Program 1710, which explores the thiol-based regulation of enzymes, and acted as spokesperson for the LOEWE Center DRUID, which is devoted to the development of new medication, vaccines and diagnostics against neglected tropical diseases. Katja Becker was Vice President of the University of Giessen from 2009 to 2012, and Vice President of the DFG from 2014 to 2019. Her work has been distinguished with the Ludolf Krehl Prize, the Carus Medal, the Rudolf Leuckart Medal and membership in et al the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. From 2021 to 2023, Katja Becker was Chair of the Governing Board of the Global Research Council (GRC). Katja Becker was confirmed for another four years in office at the DFG Annual Meeting in the summer of 2023.
Katja Becker has been a member of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Council since February 2020.

Monika Betzler holds the Chair of Practical Philosophy and Ethics at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich.
She is Spokesperson at the interfaculty Center for Ethics and Philosophy in Practice (ZEPP) and Director of the Executive Master’s degree programme “Philosophy Politics Economics” (PPW). She is also a member of the UNESCO International Bioethics Committee. Her research and teaching are concentrated in the fields of moral psychology, normative ethics and the theory of normativity. Her current research interests range across the ethics of relationships, the normativity of personal projects, the rational role of emotions, empathy as a normative phenomenon and autonomy.
Monika Betzler has been a member of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Council since February 2022.

Martina Brockmeier has been President of the Leibniz Association since 1 July 2022.
Previous to this, she served as Chair of the German Council of Science and Humanities. Martina Brockmeier is an agricultural economist and holds a W3 professorship in International Agricultural Trade and Food Security at the University of Hohenheim. At the heart of her research are global general equilibrium modeling and agricultural economics and policy, in particular international trade agreements and their impact on developing countries and global food security. She is currently on leave to perform the office of President of the Leibniz Association.
Martina Brockmeier has been a member of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Council since June 2022.

Karsten Fischer holds the Chair of Political Theory at Geschwister-Scholl-Institute for Political Science at Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich.
His teaching and research is focused on the history of political ideas, politics and religion, democratic theory, authoritarian populism and political psychology.
Karsten Fischer has been a member of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Council since June 2022.

Michael Hallek has been the Director of Clinic I for Internal Medicine at Cologne University Hospital since 2003 and Director of the Centre for Integrated Oncology (CIO) Cologne Bonn since 2007.
He studied medicine in Regensburg, Munich and Paris from 1978 to 1985, completing his scientific and clinical training as a haematologist and oncologist in Munich and Harvard over the period 1985 to 1994. In 1996, he founded the German CLL Study Group, the world’s largest study group on chronic lymphocytic leukaemia. He was elected Chairman of the Board of the Expert Council on Health & Care at the German Federal Ministry of Health in 2023.
He has been working for the Fritz Thyssen Foundation on the commission for the assessment of medical applications since 2006; in 2020, he was appointed to the Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Council.

Katharina Heyden is Full Professor of Ancient History of Christianity and Interreligious Studies at the University of Bern. She studied theology and interrelated subjects in Berlin, Jerusalem and Rome, obtaining her doctorate in Jena in 2008 and completing her habilitation in Göttingen in 2013. Her research is concentrated on religious coexistence and conflicts and the associated historical co-production of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, with a focus on literary dialogues, shared places of worship, narrative traditions, notions of holiness, theories of history, images of God and lifestyles. She has had research visits to the University of Chicago in 2022 and IAS Princeton in 2024.
Katharina Heyden has been a member of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Council since June 2022.

Dorothea Kübler is Director of the Department of Market Behaviour at Social Science Research Centre Berlin and Professor of Economics at the Technical University of Berlin.
Her research applies experimental methods and game theory to investigate decision-making behaviour and market design. Her work ranges from inter alia the central allocation of university places in Germany, the role of social and moral norms in behavior, educational decisions, discrimination and the significance of artificial intelligence for the labour market. Dorothea Kübler was awarded the Schader Prize in 2020 and the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities Prize in 2023.
Dorothea Kübler has been a member of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Council since February 2024.

Jörn Leonhard has been Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg im Breisgau since 2006.
He completed his studies in 1992 with a Master’s degree in Modern History at the University of Oxford, obtaining a Master’s degree from Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg in 1994. He received his doctorate there in 1998, with his thesis comparing the historical semantics of “liberalism” in the 19th century in the European context. From 1998 to 2003, he worked as a Fellow and Tutor in Modern History at the University of Oxford, before completing his habilitation in Heidelberg in 2004 with a thesis on the relationship between the experience of war and nation-building in Europe and the US between 1750 and 1914. He held the Friedrich Schiller Lectureship in European History at the University of Jena’s Institute of History from 2004 to 2006.
Jörn Leonhard has received numerous honours, commendations and awards for his scholarly work, including the German Research Foundation’s Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize in 2024.
Jörn Leonhard has been a member of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Council since February 2022.

Steffen Martus has been Professor of Modern German Literature at Humboldt University in Berlin since 2010.
He studied German philology, sociology and philosophy in Regensburg, obtained his doctorate in 1998 with his study “Friedrich von Hagedorn – Konstellationen der Aufklärung” (1998 Humboldt Prize) and completed his habilitation in 2006 with his study “Werkpolitik” on the literary history of critical communication from the 17th to the 20th century. Steffen Martus worked as a research assistant at the Institute for German Literature at Humboldt University in Berlin, where he was appointed junior professor in 2002; this was followed by professorships at Friedrich Alexander University in Erlangen-Nuremberg and Christian Albrechts University in Kiel in 2006 and 2008. Among his research interests are 18th century history (“Aufklärung. Das deutsche 18. Jahrhundert – ein Epochenbild. Rowohlt Berlin 2015”) and the contemporary era (“Erzählte Welt. Eine Literaturgeschichte der Gegenwart 1989 bis zur Gegenwart, Rowohlt Berlin 2025”) as well as the theory and history of science in the humanities (“Geistesarbeit. A Praxeology of the Humanities, Suhrkamp 2022”, together with C. Spoerhase).
His biography of the Brothers Grimm (2009) was nominated for the Leipzig Book Fair Prize; in 2015 he was awarded the German Research Foundation’s Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize.
Steffen Martus has been a member of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Council since February 2024.

Armin Nassehi has held the Chair of General Sociology and Social Theory at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich since 1998.
Following studies in educational science, philosophy and sociology, he received his doctorate from the University of Münster in 1992. He completed his habilitation there in 1994. He has been a member of the Board of the Research Institute for Philosophy in Hanover since 2012, of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina since 2020, of the Bavarian Ethics Council since 2020 and of the German Ethics Council since 2024.
Armin Nassehi has been a member of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Council since June 2017.

Photo: Marc Müller/LMU (processed by FTS)

Hermann Parzinger is a scholar of German prehistory and an archaeologist specialising in Eurasian prehistory and protohistory. His discoveries of a princely Scythian tomb and the ice mummy of a Scythian warrior have earned him fame above and beyond the world of experts. Hermann Parzinger was director and later president of the German Archaeological Institute from 1990 to 2008 and President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation from 2008 to 2025. In 1998, Hermann Parzinger became the first archaeologist to receive the German Research Foundation’s Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize, and in 2012 he was commended with the Federal Republic of Germany’s Grand Cross of Merit with Star. He has been a member of the Order Pour le mérite since 2011 and Chancellor of the Order since 2021. In 2018, he became Executive President of Europa Nostra, the largest European cultural heritage network.
Hermann Parzinger has been a member of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Council since February 2018.

Valeska von Rosen has held the Chair of Modern Art History at Heinrich Heine University of Düsseldorf since 2019.
She obtained her doctorate from the Free University of Berlin in 2001 and completed her habilitation at the Free University of Berlin in 2006 after receiving scholarships from Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History in Rome, the German Research Foundation and the Gerda Henkel Foundation as well as performing visiting professorships at Friedrich Schiller University of Jena and the University of Potsdam. In 2006, she was appointed to the Chair of General Art History at Ruhr University Bochum, a post which she held until 2019. She was a fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin in 2006/07 and of the International Research Center Morphomata at the University of Cologne in 2015. She was supported by an “Opus magnum” fellowship from the Volkswagen Foundation from 2021 to 2023. From 2016 to 2020 she was a member of the German Research Foundation’s Review Board 103 Art, Music, Theater and Media Studies. She was awarded the Hans Janssen Prize for European Art History by the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities in 2000, the Dr. Peter Deubner Prize for Current Art Historical Research in 2003 and the Aby Warburg Foundation Hamburg’s Martin Warnke Medal in 2023. She serves inter alia as advisor to the Gerda Henkel Foundation and is a member of the Board of Trustees at the Centro tedesco di studi veneziani – German Study Center in Venice.
Valeska von Rosen has been a member of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Council since June 2024.