Cover Stories

Cover Stories

Careers with obstacles – Women in academia

From the USA via Europe to Asia; in South America just as in Africa. Female researchers everywhere are underrepresented in leading positions and are confronted with similar problems. Female Humboldtians in the most diverse countries, disciplines and career stages are reporting on their experiences. What emerges is a very personal picture which, although it would not count as representative if strict statistical criteria were applied, is a very revealing one.

Humboldtians in Focus

Humboldtians in Focus

Chemistry is our life

The main lecture hall at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg is bubbling with excitement. Students are thronging in the corridors and stairways, trying to bag one of the much sought-after seats in the hall. The chant “RUDI, RUDI, RUDI” echoes through the hall. The Magic Show’s audience want to see the star – and there are still 90 minutes to go before it starts.

Interviews

Interviews

Losing out on brain power

Only about one in eight top positions in German research was held by a woman in 2007. A conversation with Chemist Katharina Kohse-Höinghaus about causes and remedies.

Opinions

Opinions

Equal Opportunities: we need sanctions that bite

Programmes promoting women are often ineffective – because they are unspecified. They fail to quantify the hoped-for proportion of women. Nobody has to worry about painful consequences if the quotas are not met – there are no quotas to meet.

View onto Germany

View onto Germany

America, you’re (slightly) better off

Are the United States a utopia for immigrants, whilst being German is still a question of skin colour? The experiences of an American journalist with Greek roots in Berlin.

News from the Foundation

News from the Foundation

Two Humboldtians Receive the Nobel Prize for Economics

This year’s Nobel Prize for Economics is shared by the Reimar Lüst Award Winner Elinor Ostrom and the Humboldt Research Award Winner Oliver E. Williamson.