Press Release | Tuesday, 1 March 2011
Jörg Hacker, President of the German National Academy of Sciences, draws positive balance after one year in office
The President of the Leopoldina, Jörg Hacker, is pleased with the developments of the German National Academy of Sciences after his first year in office. “The Leopoldina contributes actively and independently to political decision-making processes. Recommendations, such as the Statement on preimplantation genetic diagnosis issued at the beginning of the year, demonstrate how socially-relevant topics are able to be taken up, studied in an interdisciplinary manner and introduced into public discussion,” explains Hacker. In order to strengthen the Academy’s position in giving advice to society and policy makers, the Leopoldina has established seven standing committees in which high-ranking scientists study socially-relevant topics for the future.
Microbiologist Prof. Jörg Hacker has been the XXVI President of the Leopoldina since 1 March 2010. He is the first President to lead the Academy full-time. The German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina became Germany’s National Academy of Sciences in July 2008. Some of the main tasks linked to this are: providing independently science-based advice on policy and social matters, developing expert reports on relevant scientific matters and introducing them to national and international discourse as well as providing support in decision-making procedures.
Last year the Leopoldina issued three statements. The drafting of these statements was led by the Leopoldina and done in collaboration with other academies. The statement published in January 2011 on “preimplantation genetic diagnosis” recommended allowing this diagnosis procedure in Germany under tight restrictions. This would allow families at high risk of having a child with a severe hereditary disease to have a child that is not affected by this disease. The statement issued in October 2010 on “predictive genetic diagnostics” expressed recommendations for dealing with a still-young, seminal branch of medicine: genetic testing on healthy people to prevent diseases. In light of the amendment to the EU directive on animal testing, the Leopoldina furthermore provided a differentiated balancing of interests between animal protection and the needs of health research.
“The voice of science and the clustered expertise of the excellent researchers gathered at the Leopoldina are more and more in demand. Our recommendations on many other topics are being eagerly awaited. Thus, it is not difficult to continue along the path set out by my predecessor Prof. Volker ter Meulen,” says Leopoldina President Jörg Hacker. A new workgroup entitled “Personalised Medicine” was recently established to study the challenges faced by the forms of diagnosis and therapy that will be more tailored to the patient in the future.
The Academy has also set up seven standing committees in order to be able to work more intensively on topics of the future. These groups deal with “Health”, “Ageing and Fertility”, “Structure of the research system”, “Acceptance of new technologies”, “Life Sciences”, “Climate, Energy and the Environment” and “Science and Ethics”. The task of the seven standing committees is to follow scientific discussion in their respective fields, investigate and discuss important future topics and to initiate activities in the area of policy advice. The results of this could be short-term statements on acute issues or middle or long term statements on future topics for which larger, interdisciplinary workgroups are employed.
