In its recent meeting, the leadership of the Gutenberg Research College (GFK) at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) elected Mita Banerjee as its new director. Banerjee previously served as the deputy GFK director and now succeeds former director Siegfried Waldvogel. As professor and chair of American studies at the Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies at JGU, Mita Banerjee is member of the EMTHERA faculty and project co-leader within EMTHERA.
Furthermore, Tobias Bopp was appointed as the new GFK deputy director. The professor and chair of the Institute for Immunology at JGU serves as one of the spokespersons for the research consortium EMTHERA and was previously a deputy member of the GFK leadership committee.
Mita Banerjee expressed the intention of providing critical and constructive support to the JGU presidency in the coming years, thus continuing the path established during Waldvogel’s tenure . The focus is particularly on the excellence strategy, including the application for funding of the Cluster of Excellence initiative EMTHERA together with the Goethe University Frankfurt.
The GFK is one of three strategic advisory bodies at JGU, alongside the Gutenberg Teaching Council and the Gutenberg Council for Young Researchers, and plays a central role in promoting cutting-edge research at the university. It awards fellowships to outstanding researchers and artists to attract them to JGU. The GFK leadership committee also advises the university leadership and departments on strategic matters, including the promotion of research focal points and the restructuring of institutes.
The leadership committee includes representatives from almost all departments of JGU, as well as members from external institutions such as the Federal Institute for Population Research, the Institute of Molecular Biology, and the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research.