Wissenschaftsrat

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Chair and Secretary General

Professor Dr Wolfgang Wick | Chair

Wolfgang Wick has been chairman of the German Science and Humanities Council (WR/Wissenschaftsrat) since 1 February 2023. Wick is a professor of neurology and works as a neuro-oncologist at Heidelberg University Hospital. Since 2021, he has been a member of the science policy advisory body of the federal and state governments, and since 2022, he has been chairman of the WR Medicine Committee.

Wolfgang Wick, Vorsitzender des Wissenschaftsrats ab Februar 2023

Wolfgang Wick is Medical Director of the Neurological Clinic at Heidelberg University Hospital, Center Spokesperson of the Head Clinic based there, and Head of Department of Neurooncology at the German Cancer Research Center. Wick's research includes brain tumors, tumor immunology, biomarker development, imaging and stroke care.

 Over the course of his career to date, Wick has received numerous honors, including the German Cancer Prize in 2015 and the Heinrich Pette Prize of the German Society of Neurology (DGN) in 2006 (now the Science Prize of the DGN).

 In 2019, Wick was named to Clarivate Analytics' list of Highly Cited Researchers. The international award names researchers whose publications have been cited most frequently worldwide in their respective fields.

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Esther Seng | Secretary General

Generalsekretärin des Wissenschaftsrats, Esther Seng

Esther Seng was born in Munich in 1975. Since 2019, the fully qualified lawyer has headed the Division for Policy Issues, Digitalisation and Transfer at the Higher Education and Science Department of the Federal Ministry of Research and Space (BMFTR). In this role, she was responsible for the conception and implementation of activities for the strategic development of the science system, among other things. Her work focussed on federal-state cooperation and science policy as well as general science management issues. Her tasks included the reorganisation of the Pact for Research and Innovation and the further development of instruments to strengthen the transfer of knowledge from science.

Esther Seng is Secretary General of the German Science and Humanities Council since 1 July 2025.

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