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Jörg Vogel new academy member

03/29/2023

The Würzburg infection biologist Jörg Vogel is a new member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. The award ceremony will take place on May 12 in Munich.

Jörg Vogel, infection biologist and expert in the field of RNA biology.
Jörg Vogel, infection biologist and expert in the field of RNA biology. (Image: HIRI / Mario Schmitt)

Jörg Vogel, Director of the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI) and the Institute for Molecular Infection Biology of Julius- Maximilians-Universität (JMU) in Würzburg, has been elected a full member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities. This was now announced by the institution.

"It is an extraordinary pleasure and honor for me to be elected to the largest and one of the most research-oriented German state academies," Jörg Vogel expressed his delight, "and, at the same time, it is a pleasant duty for me to contribute to this community of academics."

Becoming a member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities is one of the most prestigious scientific honors in Bavaria. According to the statutes, members must have contributed to a "significant expansion of knowledge" in their field through their research in order to be admitted. Self-application is ineligible.

For top researchers in Bavaria, this association of scholars is an important interdisciplinary platform. Synergy effects and impulses for new research topics arise in this network. Like hardly any other institution, the Academy facilitates encounters, exchange of experience and cooperation across disciplinary boundaries and generations.

Jörg Vogel

Jörg Vogel has been Managing Director of the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI) in Würzburg since 2017 and Professor and Director of the Institute for Molecular Infection Biology (IMIB) since 2009. A globally recognized scientist in the field of RNA biology, he was awarded the Leibniz Prize in 2017. Vogel is considered a pioneer in the application and development of high-throughput sequencing methods for the analysis of single infected cells and the interactions between pathogenic bacteria and their hosts.

He studied biochemistry at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and at the Imperial College in London (UK). In 1999, he received his PhD from Humboldt-Universität and conducted research at Uppsala University (Sweden) in 2000/2001 and as an EMBO Fellow at Hebrew University in Jerusalem (Israel) in 2002/2003 before establishing an independent junior research group at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin in 2004. 

The Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities

The Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BAdW) is the largest as well as one of the most research-oriented and oldest of the eight state academies in Germany. It conducts innovative long-term research, connects scholars across disciplinary and national boundaries, contributes its scientific expertise to politics and society, promotes young scientists and is a platform for dialogue between science and the public. Full members of the BAdW have their residence or place of work in Bavaria. They are entitled to vote and regularly attend meetings at the Academy.

Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research

The Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI) is the first institution of its kind worldwide to combine ribonucleic acid (RNA) research with infection biology. Based on novel findings from its strong basic research program, the institute’s long-term goal is to develop innovative therapeutic approaches to better diagnose and treat human infections.HIRI is a site of the Braunschweig Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in cooperation with the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU) and is located on the Würzburg Medical Campus.

By Britta Grigull

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