PD Dr Christine E. Hellweg takes over as Vice Director of the Institute from PD Dr Ruth Hemmersbach

Christine Hellweg holds a doctorate in veterinary medicine and has headed the Department of Radiation Biology since 2015. With many years of experience in life sciences in space, especially in radiation biology, she is looking forward to the new challenges in the management of the institute alongside Prof Dr Jens Jordan. In her role as Head of Department in Radiation Biology, she mainly dealt with cosmic radiation, dosimetry, biological effects and radiation protection, air quality in the aircraft cabin as well as microbiological and astrobiological issues. She wrote her doctoral thesis in radiation biology. She has worked as a research assistant at the Institute of Aerospace Medicine since 2004. She is also a private lecturer in immunology at the Freie Universität (FU) Berlin.

“I took my first steps in radiobiological research at this institute many years ago and quickly realised that the field of space life sciences is my passion. That's why I'm all the more delighted to now be able to lead the institute together with Prof Dr Jens Jordan as a biological-medical duo and to further develop the aerospace medicine of tomorrow with a team of around 207 employees,” says Christine Hellweg about her new role at the Institute of Aerospace Medicine.

At the end of October 2024, a new chapter in PD Dr Ruth Hemmersbach's life began with her professional retirement. She can look back on an impressive 40 years of work at DLR, starting as a student assistant, then as a graduate student, doctoral candidate, group leader and head of the Gravitational Biology Department, before taking on additional responsibility as Vice Director of the Institute in 2017. Her research focused on the field of cellular gravitational biology, specifically in life science space research. Her work on the functioning of the gravitational sensor of cells is a particular highlight here. As Principal Investigator, Ruth Hemmersbach was also involved in numerous space experiments and established the Ground-based Facility Programme for the simulation of weightlessness and, together with Prof. Andreas Meyer, the life science part of the DLR-Mapheus programme.

In her role as head of department, she was particularly successful in promoting a positive team-orientated working atmosphere and at the same time the development needs and wishes of employees. She successfully guided numerous diploma, Bachelor's and Master's students and doctoral candidates to their degrees. In addition, she was involved for many years in activities to promote scientific careers for women. In DLR's internal mentoring programme, she accompanied three group leaders as a mentor.