Renée Schroeder (born 18 May 1953, in

João Monlevade João Monlevade is a Brazilian municipality located in the state of Minas Gerais. The city belongs to the mesoregion Metropolitana de Belo Horizonte and to the microregion of Itabira. As of 2020, the estimated population was 80,416. See also ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

) is an Austrian researcher and university professor at the Department of Biochemistry at the Max F. Perutz Laboratories of the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich hist ...

and the Medical University of Vienna.

Life

Renée Schroeder was born on Brazil where her father worked as an electrical engineer. They left Brazil when she was 14.Renée Schroeder
wien.gv.at, Retrieved 26 July 2016 Her research is in the field of biochemistry, especially on RNA ( ribonucleic acid). From June 2001 to November 2005, she was on the Bioethics Commission, launched by the Austrian government. From 2005 to 2010, she was Vice-President of the Fund for Scientific Research and in 2010 member of the Council for Research and Technology Development since September. She has also repeatedly been critical of the Austrian education and research policy. In particular, she criticized discrimination against women within the university structures, so she is particularly involved in the promotion of

women in science The presence of women in science spans the earliest times of the history of science wherein they have made significant contributions. Historians with an interest in gender and science have researched the scientific endeavors and accomplishments ...

. This long-lasting commitment earned her the 2001 Special Honor Award "For Women in Science", donated by

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

and the company L'Oreal, and in 2007, she was awarded the Vienna Women's Prize (''Wiener Frauenpreis''). Schroeder also spoke frequently about the church and religion as well as about women and their worldview. In 2003, Schroeder was elected the second woman member of the Division of Mathematics and the Natural Sciences of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. In May 2012, Renée Schroeder resigned from the Academy, to protest the lack of promotion of excellence and the high proportion of Catholic German Student Fraternity members in the Academy. On September 1, 2022, she was appointed honorary senator at the

because of her "outstanding commitment to the university and to the fulfillment of its scientific tasks."

Awards & Honours

* 1984:

Theodor Körner Prize The Theodor Körner Prize ( German: ''Theodor-Körner-Preis'') is a set of annual Austrian awards bestowed by the Theodor Körner Fund in recognition of cultural and/or scientific advances. The prize is awarded at the University of Vienna. The pri ...

* 2001 Special Honour Award "For Women in Science" * 2002 Austrian Scientist of the Year (elected by the Austrian Science Journalists). * 2003

Wittgenstein Award The Wittgenstein Award (german: Wittgenstein-Preis) is an Austrian science award supporting the notion that "scientists should be guaranteed the greatest possible freedom and flexibility in the performance of their research." The prize money of up ...

* 2005 Prize of the City of Vienna for Natural and Technical Sciences * 2006

Grand Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria The Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria (german: Ehrenzeichen für Verdienste um die Republik Österreich) is a state decoration of the Republic of Austria. It is divided into 15 classes and is the highest award in the A ...

* 2007 Vienna Women's Prize (''Wiener Frauenpreis'') * 2011 Eduard Buchner Prize * 2012 Austrian Science Book of the Year 2012 Award, category Medicine and Biology, for ''Die Henne und das Ei. Auf der Suche nach dem Ursprung des Lebens'' (The Hen and the Egg. In search of the origin of life) * 2015 Golden Decoration of Honour for Services to the Province of Vienna * 2017 Austrian Science Book of the Year 2017 Award for ''Die Erfindung des Menschen: Wie wir die Evolution überlisten'' (The invention of man: How we outwit evolution) * 2022 Honorary senator (''Ehrensenatorin'') at the

''Three Honorary Senators at the University of Vienna''
in the University of Vienna Media Portal, September 2, 2022.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Schroeder, Renee Living people 1953 births Academic staff of the University of Vienna Members of the European Molecular Biology Organization Theodor Körner Prize recipients Austrian biochemists