Researcher Patrick Cramer becomes Max Planck President in Munich
Created: 06/25/2022, 21:35
By: Thomas Copytz
Corona fist to welcome: Patrick Cramer welcomes Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) to the new Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Natural Sciences in Göttingen.
© Hubert Jelinek
The founding ceremony for Germany's largest Max Planck Institute takes place in Göttingen.
Researcher Patrick Cramer becomes President of the MPG in Munich.
Göttingen – A director for a successful film could not have staged it better: On Thursday (June 23, 2022) it will be announced that the Göttingen MPI researcher Patrick Cramer will lead the huge and important Max Planck Society as President.
On Saturday (June 25, 2022) Cramer will be on stage in the Manfred-Eigen-Saal on the MPI campus in Göttingen to welcome more than 300 guests to the founding ceremony of "his" institute, the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Natural Sciences Guests will then - unintentionally - become the focus of the same from now on, as reported by hna.de.
Nevertheless, the speakers such as Prime Minister Stephan Weil, Science Minister Björn Thümler, the Scientific Vice President of the MPG, Asiva Akhtar, Veronika von Messling (Federal Ministry of Education and Research) and Mayor Petra Broistedt emphasized the importance of the new MPI in addition to Cramer's election.
This will be the largest of all existing ones in the Max Planck Society and could also be a model for further mergers.
Göttingen: Unique and largest Max Planck Institute in Germany
Because it is not new, but it is a unique construct from the fusion of two large and successful MPIs, the one for Experimental Medicine and the one for Biophysical Chemistry, "the" Nobel Prize winner forge - from which such as Manfred Eigen, Erwin Neher and Stefan Hell as a result of their groundbreaking research results.
Founding ceremony of the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Natural Sciences in Göttingen: Nobel Prize winner Stefan Hell (left) congratulates his colleague Patrick Cramer, who will become President of the Max Planck Society.
© Hubert Jelinek
Patrick Cramer mentioned that the merger was ultimately a continuation of Manfred Eigen's line: In 1971 he had already initiated the merger of the two MPIs for spectroscopy and for physical chemistry in Göttingen to form the MPI for biophysical chemistry.
Cramer summarized: “Our effort was worth it, we managed the merger in record time.
The institute is unique.”
Foundation of the Max Planck Institute makes Prime Minister Weil happy
All of this made Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) happy, even to the point that he was briefly “at the top end” of the euphoria scale available to him.
He emphasized the outstanding work of the MPI institutes in Göttingen.
"If the MPG were organized centrally, as it is here in Göttingen, then it would easily be comparable to Stanford and Harvard in the USA." Weil concluded: "You see a completely satisfied prime minister.
It's not easy in these times.
And that will change once you leave this room.”
Founding of the Max Planck Institute: Minister of Science Thümler stands out
Maybe even when Science Minister Björn Thümler contradicted his “boss” – unnecessarily and clumsily: “I’ll leave it open whether you compare the research here with Stanford or other renowned institutions worldwide...” He congratulated the “spectacularly fast fusion” and to create new scientific spaces.
With this unique process, Lower Saxony is moving into the focus of the MPG research landscape.
The new institute has "the next Nobel Prize in mind, so to speak".
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Career jump to Munich: Patrick Cramer will leave in June 2023
Speaking of Nobel Prize winners: when such a person, in the person of Stefan Hell, presents flowers to a research colleague at the MPI for Multidisciplinary Natural Sciences, then that also documents the career leap of Cramer, who from June 2023 will be the Managing Director of the new MPI in Göttingen, President of the Max Planck society becomes.
Cramer was the “man of the day” at the founding ceremony in Göttingen on Friday, ahead of Prime Minister Stephan Weil.
And another sentence from Patrick Cramer sticks in your head: "Only those who move remain at the top." This was not meant as a warning, but as a synonym for the MPI employees.
"You are all movers of research," he said, looking around the room - and also including the entire staff, the politicians and representatives of other institutes and the university.
Present with symbolic power: a crate of Einbecker bock beer
Of course, the mayor brought the most spectacular gift with her.
Petra Broistedt put a crate of Einbecker Bock beer on the stage.
It stood there as a symbol for the Göttingen-Munich connection.
In the middle of the 17th century, the people of Munich had recruited the Einbeck master brewer Pichler, the “inventor” of bock beer.
From then on he brewed it in the Hofbräuhaus.
Illustrious team at the founding ceremony of the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Natural Sciences in Göttingen: with Prime Minister Stephan Weil (4th from right), Science Minister Björn Thümler (2nd from right), Nobel Prize winner Stefan Hell (middle), Managing Director Patrick Cramer (6th from .5.), Melina Schuh (2nd from left) and Mayor Petra Broistedt (right).
© Hubert Jelinek
The crate of bock beer also symbolized Patrick Cramer's departure to the MPG headquarters in Munich on Friday.
Incidentally, the Einbecker Bock beer remained legendary and successful even after Pichler left.
Also a good omen in relation to the post-Cramer era at the new MPI in Göttingen.
After the ceremony, which also included exciting short presentations on research projects by Stefan Glöggler (metabolism imaging), Marieke Oudelaar (3D genomes), Jost Kollmeier (real-time MRI) and Constanze Depp (Alzheimer research), the celebrations continued summer party on.
(Thomas Copytz)