The Foundation Staff

Henrike Hartmann is the Deputy Secretary General of the Volkswagen Foundation and a member of the executive management as well as head of funding. Previously, she has been in charge of various funding activities in the life sciences, in funding of junior scholars and structural development of the higher education system.

Henrike Hartmann studied pharmacy at the University of Freiburg, and did her PhD in Pharmacology in Heidelberg and Mannheim. She gained her postdoctoral experience at the University of Gainesville, Florida, the Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston and the University of Frankfurt/Main. She is a member of the University Council of the University of Konstanz, the board of trustees of the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing, the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research and the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research. She is also a member of the board of trustees of the University of Frankfurt and a member of the administrative Council of the Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach. 

Program Director in the team "Societal Transformations". Responsible for the initiatives "Challenges for Europe" and "Freigeist Fellowships", as well as for programs in the field of humanities.

Background: Studied Cultural Studies of English speaking Countries, American Studies and European Ethnology at the University of Wuerzburg and the National Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece; Phd in American Studies; previously responsible for conservatories and music academies at the Cusanuswerk, a scholarship program for highly gifted students by the Catholic Church.