Volker Mosbrugger, the current president of the Polytechnic Society and former director of the Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung (until December 2020), will support the work of the Foundation Board with immediate effect. The Foundation Board oversees the work of the Board of Directors and appoints its members. It decides on the FIAS budget and advises the Board on all matters of strategic importance. In recent years, for example, it has made a significant contribution to the successful restructuring of the research areas at FIAS and provided support in this process.

"Volker Mosbrugger is respectively has been at the top of the major  two Frankfurt civic societies, which have decisively shaped Frankfurt's research, cultural and educational landscape for more than 200 years." enthuses FIAS Chairman Volker Lindenstruth "Through his expertise in leadership, but also through his great scientific background, Prof. Mosbrugger will be a great asset to our Board of Trustees."

Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Volker Mosbrugger studied and obtained his doctorate at the University of Freiburg. After his habilitation in Bonn, he was appointed to the Chair of General Paleontology at the Institute and Museum of Geology and Paleontology at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen. In 2005, Volker Mosbrugger came to Frankfurt, where he took over the directorship of the Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung and in parallel accepted the call of the Goethe University as Professor of Paleontology and Historical Geology. 

As of this year, Mosbrugger retired officially, but continues to remain involved in Frankfurt science; in 2018, he succeeded Walther von Wietzlow as president of the Polytechnische Gesellschaft and also holds other important offices in the Polytechnische Gesellschaft's subsidiary institutes. He is also a member of various associations and scientific societies, such as the German Academy of Sciences, Leopoldina, and the German Academy of Science and Engineering, acatech. 

"I have been following the activities of FIAS for a long time, as I am particularly interested in and fascinated by "complex systems" and the great challenges their analysis poses to the sciences." Volker Mosbrugger is pleased about his appointment to the FIAS Foundation Board. 

"Perhaps over time, the problem areas of the Anthropocene that are particularly close to my heart can be focused on even more closely," he adds, as his personal research interests include the evolution of land plant form and function, as well as the evolution of terrestrial ecosystems and climate. Exploring the impacts of climate change and the associated loss of biodiversity for humans and for the Earth system are central to his research interests.

We look forward to working together!