Renate Wittern-Sterzel Award for Trailblazing Maternity Protection Laboratory at FAU

Dr. Sabrina Gensberger-Reigl and Dr. Hannah Zenker have been honored with the Renate Wittern-Sterzel Award by FAU for their pioneering in promoting equality and inclusion in research. At the Chair of Food Chemistry, the two scientists have established a maternity protection laboratory that enables pregnant and breastfeeding researchers to continue their experimental work safely without compromising their health or scientific ambitions.

With this initiative, the awardees demonstrate that scientific research and motherhood can go hand in hand. The laboratory is more than a workspace: it is a symbol of progress towards a modern, inclusive, and family-friendly research culture.

In her laudation, Prof. Dr. Renate Wittern-Sterzel, the award’s namesake, emphasized the project as a trailblazing contribution to a family-conscious academic environment. With their maternity protection laboratory, the two researchers have not only broken new organizational ground but also sent a strong societal signal. Their commitment not only brings visibility to the issue of maternity protection in science but also promotes urgently needed structural change in the research landscape.

The Renate Wittern-Sterzel Award recognizes outstanding projects that advance equality, diversity, and inclusion at FAU. The maternity protection laboratory stands as a model for a science that embraces responsibility, puts people at its center, and enables sustainable progress; not only in the lab, but also in the structures that make research possible in the first place.

Further Information: https://www.dies.fau.de/speakers/projekt-initiatorinnen-des-projekts-von-der-theorie-in-die-praxis-mutterschutzlabor-sichtbar-machen-und-chancengleichheit-staerken/

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Category: Allgemein, News keywords: award, family-conscious academic environment, maternity protection lab