The Academy's Senate elected the economist from the University of Cologne in a secret ballot on 26 September 2024. Rockenbach will succeed Professor Dr. Gerald Haug on 1 March 2025. The official handover ceremony will take place on Friday, 21 February 2025 in Halle (Saale).
‘Bettina Rockenbach is an excellent representative of her field. As a long-standing Vice Rector for Research and Innovation at the University of Cologne and as a member of the DFG Senate, she has gained a wealth of experience in science management. She has excellent connections in both German and international science,’ said Gerald Haug after the election.
After her election, Bettina Rockenbach said: ‘[...] As the German National Academy of Sciences, the Leopoldina is one of the first points of contact for independent scientific discourse in Germany for politics and society. I would like to see scientific discussion of the challenges and options for action in society become an even more important part of communication with politics and society. In view of the global nature of the pressing issues for the future, it is important to me to further strengthen cooperation with national and international partners. I look forward to intensifying cooperation with young scientists during my term of office.'
In 2011, Rockenbach accepted a professorship at the University of Cologne, where she researches and teaches as a professor of behavioural economics. Since 2018, she has been the director of the Reinhard Selten Institute of the Universities of Bonn and Cologne. She was the Vice-Rector for Research and Innovation at the University of Cologne from 2016 to 2024.
Prior to that, she was the Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences at the University of Erfurt from 2006 to 2008 and the Vice-President for Research and Young Academics from 2008 to 2011. Her research focuses on the design of mechanisms to promote cooperation in social dilemma situations and of framework conditions for socially responsible economic action. Bettina Rockenbach was elected a member of the Leopoldina in the Section of Economic and Empirical Social Sciences in 2013 and has been deputy senator of this section since 2019.
As the German National Academy of Sciences, the Leopoldina provides independent, science-based policy advice on socially relevant issues. The Leopoldina represents German science in international committees, including providing science-based advice at the annual G7 and G20 summits. It has around 1,700 members from more than thirty countries and combines expertise from almost all research areas. Founded in 1652, the Leopoldina was designated Germany's first national academy of sciences in 2008. As an independent academy of sciences, the Leopoldina is committed to the common good.
We warmly congratulate her on her new position as President of the Leopoldina.
