Leopoldina Medal of Merit for Bärbel Friedrich

As the Leopoldina is reporting, Prof. Dr. Bärbel Friedrich is honored for her exemplary achievements on behalf of the academy, her commitment to science policy and her contribution to research ethics. The award has been conferred at the traditional Leopoldina Christmas Lecture in Halle (Saale).

Bärbel Friedrich is receiving the Leopoldina’s Medal of Merit in recognition of her exemplary nature of her work on behalf of the Academy, particularly in the field of science-based advice for policymakers and society. Friedrich was vice-president of the Leopoldina from 2005 to 2015. She headed or was a member of various Academy working groups including those on bioenergy, green gene technology, individualised medicine, synthetic biology, the handling of security-relevant research and genome surgery. Prof. Friedrich always also took care to address the ethical issues involved in modern-day biology.

“Bärbel Friedrich particularly excelled in her contribution to the science-based policy advice provided by the Leopoldina. Without her exceptional dedication, her clear view of things and her reliability, Leopoldina’s advice for policymakers and society would not be as advanced as it is today,” said Prof. Jörg Hacker.

Born in 1945 in Göttingen, Bärbel Friedrich studied biology at Universität Göttingen and obtained her doctorate in microbiology in 1973. She went on to work as a post-doctoral research associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge (USA) before earning her post-doctoral qualification in Göttingen. Between 1985 and 1994 Friedrich researched and taught as a professor at the Freie Universität Berlin before taking up a professorship at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. She was one of the founders of the Cluster of Excellence UniCat in 2007 and belonged to UniCat until 2012.