Brigitte Mühlenbruch (born July 20th 1936) is a German chemist. She is the President of the

European Platform of Women Scientists The European Platform of Women Scientists EPWS is an umbrella organisation bringing together networks of women scientists and organisations committed to gender equality in research in all disciplines in Europe 27 and the countries associated to ...

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

. She is a member of the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...

's Network of Women in Decision Making in Politics and the Economy, and Vice President of the Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard Foundation in Germany.

Life

After finishing her PhD in

Pharmaceutical Chemistry Medicinal or pharmaceutical chemistry is a scientific discipline at the intersection of chemistry and pharmacy involved with designing and developing pharmaceutical drugs. Medicinal chemistry involves the identification, synthesis and developmen ...

, Mühlenbruch worked as a scientist at the

University of Bonn The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (german: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the ( en, Rhine U ...

for almost 20 years before becoming the University's first Equal Opportunities Commissioner. Since the late 1980s her research and concept development have focused on

gender equality Gender equality, also known as sexual equality or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making; and the state of valuing d ...

, gender mainstreaming, and programmes and processes regarding the recruitment and retention of women scientists in Germany as well as at the EU level. In 1996 she was awarded with the German Federal Cross of Merit. That same year she was co-author of the book 100 Jahre Frauenstudium : Frauen der Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn alongside Annette Kuhn, Valentine Rothe. She spoke at an international conference, Barriers to women's career in Academia: A dialogue between social psychology and policy, sponsored by the

European Science Foundation The European Science Foundation (ESF) is an association of 11 member organizations devoted to scientific research in 8 European countries. ESF is an independent, non-governmental, non-profit organisation that promotes the highest quality science ...

and held in

Perugia Perugia (, , ; lat, Perusia) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber, and of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part o ...

on the 6 October 2001. In 2003, Mühlenbruch was a member of the Steering Committee for the Study on Networks of Women Scientists in Brussels which confirmed the need of a network for women scientists at European level. Mühlenbruch was Managing Director of the Center of Excellence Women and Science (CEWS) in

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

from 2000 until 2005, managing several research projects funded by the German government and the EU in the field of gender equality in science. Under her leadership, CEWS drafted the winning proposal for the establishment of the European Platform of Women Scientists and signed the contract with the European Commission in 2005. Brigitte Mühlenbruch was on the Founding Board (the democratic decision-making body) of the

until its formal establishment as an

AISBL Laws regulating nonprofit organizations, nonprofit corporations, non-governmental organizations, and voluntary associations vary in different jurisdictions. Australia In Australia, nonprofit organizations include trade unions, charitable entities ...

. In 2005 she and Almuthe Schlüter wrote a paper for the European Commission about Databases of Women Scientists: Overview, Best Practice Guideline and Future Perspectives. At the EPWS Paris Conference "New Perspectives on Women Scientists Careers in Europe" which held on June 11, 2014 at the

French Ministry of Higher Education and Research The Minister of Higher Education and Research (formerly Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation or ) is a cabinet position in the French Government overseeing university-level education and research. The ministry is headquartere ...

, Amphitheater Stourdzé, Paris, Mühlenbruch gave the welcome address.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Muhlenbruch, Brigitte 1936 births Living people 20th-century German chemists 20th-century German women scientists German women chemists Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany