Max Planck Director Peter H. Seeberger Elected Vice President of the DFG

MPIKG | On 7 July, the members of the German Research Foundation (DFG) elected Max Planck Director Peter H. Seeberger as Vice President. The Potsdam-based biochemist will initially be a member of the Executive Committee of the largest research funding organization and central self-governing institution for science in Germany for an initial period of four years.

Peter H. Seeberger has been head of the Department of Biomolecular Systems at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in the Potsdam Science Park since 2009. He is Professor of Organic Chemistry at the Free University of Berlin and Honorary Professor at the University of Potsdam and leads sub-projects in several coordinated programs of the DFG. In addition, Seeberger is a member of the Senate of the Max Planck Society. From autumn 2021, he will also teach as a Newton-Abraham Visiting Professor at the University of Oxford. Seeberger has received numerous awards. “I am delighted to be elected Vice President of the DFG, in which I will be particularly committed to the freedom of research and to young researchers,” says Peter Seeberger.

His research group conducts research at the interface between chemistry and biology. In addition to discoveries in the field of synthesis of complex sugars, Peter H. Seeberger is developing new sugar-based vaccine candidates. Research into the material properties of complex sugars is at the heart of his work. As the (co-)founder of several start-up companies, he puts his basic research into practice.

About the DFG
The General Assembly of the DFG elects its Vice-Presidents for a maximum of two terms of office of four years each. In addition to Peter H. Seeberger, three other people were elected to the Presidium in July 2021.

Press releases of the MPIKG

Further information on Peter H. Seeberger and his Department of Biomolecular Systems can be found here.