Half of the 14-member Board of Trustees is appointed by each of the Foundation`s founders, i.e. the federal government and the state government of Lower Saxony. The term of office of the trustees is five years and can be extended once for another five years. The Board of Trustees is free in its decisions and bound only by our statutes.

Members of the Board of Trustees

Björn Thümler
(Chairperson)
Member of the Landtag (State Parliament) of Lower Saxony, formerly Minister of Science and Culture of Lower Saxony (Nov. 2017-2022)
(Photo: MWK/brauers.com)

Professor Dr. Hans Michael Heinig
(Vice Chairperson)
Chair for Public Law and Ecclesiastical Law, University of Göttingen

Bettina Stark-Watzinger
(Vice Chairperson)
Federal Minister for Education and Research

Professor Dr. Thomas Carell
Professor of Organic Chemistry, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich

Professor Dr. Vanessa Miriam Carlow
Head of Institute for Sustainable Urbanism, TU Braunschweig

Professor Dr. Cornelia Denz
President of the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, the National Metrology Institute of Germany; Professor of Experimental Physics and Gender Research in Physics

Professor Dr. Claudia Eckert
Managing Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied and Integrated Security (AISEC); Chair of IT Security, Technical University of Munich

Professor Dr. Christine Falk
Director of the Institut for Transplantation Immunology, Hannover Medical School (MHH), Hannover

Professor Dr. Jens Martin Gurr
Chair in British and Anglophone Literature and Culture at the University of Duisburg-Essen (Foto: Daniel Schumann/Universität Duisburg-Essen)

Elke Hannack
Vice President of the German Confederation of Trade Unions
(Foto: DGB/Simone M. Neumann)

Professor Dr. Sebastian Lehnhoff
Professor for Energy Informatics at the University of Oldenburg, Chairman of the Board of OFFIS e.V.

Professor Dr. Peter Schrijver
Chair for Celtic languages and culture, Utrecht University

Hiltrud Werner
former Member of the Management Board, Volkswagen Group, Integrity and Legal Affairs

Professor Dr. Birgitta Wolff
Rectorate, University of Wuppertal
(Foto: Uwe Dettmar)