Brigitte Voit (born 1963 in
Bayreuth
Bayreuth ( or ; High Franconian German, Upper Franconian: Bareid, ) is a Town#Germany, town in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Franconian Jura and the Fichtel Mountains. The town's roots date back to 11 ...
) is a German chemist and professor of
chemistry
Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...
. She holds the chair Organic Chemistry of Polymers at the Faculty of Chemistry of the
TU Dresden
TU Dresden (for , abbreviated as TUD), also as the Dresden University of Technology, is a public research university in Dresden, Germany. It is the largest institute of higher education in the city of Dresden, the largest university in Saxony a ...
and is head of the Institute of
Macromolecular Chemistry
A macromolecule is a "molecule of high relative molecular mass, the structure of which essentially comprises the multiple repetition of units derived, actually or conceptually, from molecules of low relative molecular mass." Polymers are physi ...
at the
Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research (
IPF Dresden) in
Dresden
Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...
. From September 1, 2002, to July 31, 2022, she was also member of the Board of Management/CSO of the IPF Dresden.
Academic career
Voit studied chemistry at the
University of Bayreuth
The University of Bayreuth (German: Universität Bayreuth) is a public research university located in Bayreuth, Germany. It is one of the youngest German universities. It is broadly organized into seven undergraduate and graduate faculties, with ...
(1982–1987) and was awarded her PhD with distinctions in 1990.
During her PhD, she was a visiting researcher at the
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it ...
. After a postdoctoral stay at the
Eastman Kodak
The Eastman Kodak Company, referred to simply as Kodak (), is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in film photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorporated i ...
(now
Kodak
The Eastman Kodak Company, referred to simply as Kodak (), is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in film photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorporated i ...
) research laboratories in
Rochester, NY
Rochester is a city in and the county seat, seat of government of Monroe County, New York, United States. It is the List of municipalities in New York, fourth-most populous city and 10th most-populated municipality in New York, with a populati ...
, USA, she received her habilitation from the
Technical University of Munich
The Technical University of Munich (TUM or TU Munich; ) is a public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. It specializes in engineering, technology, medicine, and applied and natural sciences.
Established in 1868 by King Ludwig II ...
in 1996. In 1997 she accepted a full professorship at the TU Dresden, and simultaneously the position as head of the Institute Macromolecular Chemistry at the Leibniz-Institute of Polymer Research Dresden (IPF Dresden).
She is a principal investigator in two so-called Clusters of Excellence, the "Center for Regenerative Therapies Dresden" (CRTD) and the
"Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden" (CfAED), which were distinguished by the
German Universities Excellence Initiative
The Excellence Initiative of the German Council of Science and Humanities and the German Research Foundation (DFG) aims to promote cutting-edge research and to create outstanding conditions for young scholars at universities, to deepen coopera ...
. From 2011 to 2017 she acted as a speaker of Section D (Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Engineering) of the
Leibniz Association
The Leibniz Association (German: ''Leibniz-Gemeinschaft'' or ''Wissenschaftsgemeinschaft Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz'') is a union of German non-university research institutes from various disciplines.
Funding and Structure
As of 2020, 96 non-u ...
and was a member of the Leibniz board. Since 2015 she chairs the Board of Management of the Materialforschungsverbund Dresden (MFD - Materials Research Network Dresden).
Voit is a member of the chemistry review board of the
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
The German Research Foundation ( ; DFG ) is a German research funding organization, which functions as a self-governing institution for the promotion of science and research in the Federal Republic of Germany. In 2019, the DFG had a funding bu ...
(DFG) and of the
European Research Council
The European Research Council (ERC) is a public body for funding of scientific and technological research conducted within the European Union (EU). Established by the European Commission in 2007, the ERC is composed of an independent Scientific ...
(ERC) Evaluation Panel for Starting Grants. She is a board member of several chemistry related scientific journals, for example
Angewandte Chemie
''Angewandte Chemie'' (, meaning "Applied Chemistry") is a weekly peer-reviewed scientific journal that is published by Wiley-VCH on behalf of the German Chemical Society (Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker). Publishing formats include feature-length ...
, and part of the executive advisory board of all macromolecular journals of
Wiley.
Also, Brigitte Voit is a board member of a number of foundations, such as the Georg-Manecke foundation of the
Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker
The German Chemical Society () is a learned society and professional association founded in 1949 to represent the interests of German chemists in local, national and international contexts. GDCh "brings together people working in chemistry and th ...
(GDCh) and the
Karl Heinz Beckurts
Karl Heinz Beckurts (born 16 May 1930 in Rheydt; murdered 9 July 1986 in Straßlach near Munich) was a German physicist and research manager.
With Karl Wirtz, he wrote a textbook on neutron physics. He was co-editor of the journal '' Nukleonik' ...
foundation, and belongs to the board of trustees of the
Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing
The Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (), or BAM, is a German research institute in the field of materials science.
History
The institute's origins start in 1871, the year in which Germany was unified, as the ''Mechanisch-Tec ...
and the
DECHEMA
DECHEMA is an abbreviation for "Deutsche Gesellschaft für chemisches Apparatewesen" (German Society for Chemical Apparatus), though it has since been expanded to "''Deutsche Gesellschaft für Chemische Technik und Biotechnologie''" (German Societ ...
, the German Society for Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology.
In 2017 she was honored by the "Sächsicher Verdienstorden" (Order of Merit of the Free State of Saxony), and in 2018 she received the Hermann Staudinger Award of the GDCh.
Research
Brigitte Voit research field comprises different areas of polymer related science. She works on
dendrimers
Dendrimers are highly ordered, branched polymeric molecules. Synonymous terms for dendrimer include arborols and cascade molecules. Typically, dendrimers are symmetric about the core, and often adopt a spherical three-dimensional morphology. The ...
and hyperbranched polymers, optical and thermo-sensitive polymer materials, graft and
block copolymers, nanostructure formation via controlled polymer synthesis and efficient polymer analogous reactions. She is also interested in responsive and bioactive polymers and
hydrogels
A hydrogel is a biphasic material, a mixture of porous and permeable solids and at least 10% of water or other interstitial fluid. The solid phase is a water insoluble three dimensional network of polymers, having absorbed a large amount of ...
and worked on polymers for
microelectronics
Microelectronics is a subfield of electronics. As the name suggests, microelectronics relates to the study and manufacture (or microfabrication) of very small electronic designs and components. Usually, but not always, this means micrometre ...
and
organic electronics
Organic electronics is a field of materials science concerning the design, Chemical synthesis, synthesis, characterization, and application of Organic compound, organic molecules or polymers that show desirable Electronics, electronic properties ...
.
Publications
Voit has published more than 600 articles in peer-reviewed international scientific journals which were cited more than 16000 times,
and holds over 35 patents and patent applications.
References
External links
Prof. Dr. Brigitte Voit Leibniz-Institut für Polymerforschung Dresden*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Voit, Brigitte
Academic staff of TU Dresden
Living people
1963 births
21st-century German chemists
21st-century German inventors
University of Bayreuth alumni
German women chemists
21st-century women inventors
Recipients of the Order of Merit of the Free State of Saxony
Technical University of Munich alumni
People from Bayreuth