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Prof. Dr. Annette Prochnow is acting Scientific Director of the ATB

Prof. Dr. Annette Prochnow (Foto: Grimm/ATB)

Jan 2, 2018:   As from January 1, 2018, Prof. Dr. rer. agr. habil. Annette Prochnow is acting Scientific Director of the Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy (ATB).

After 13 years at the head of the institute, Prof. Dr. Reiner Brunsch has resigned from his duties and laid down the overall responsibility for the ATB at the end of 2017. "I would like to concentrate again on scientific work, which in my function as Scientific Director of the ATB has come too short in recent years," Prof. Brunsch explains his decision.  

Prof. Dr. Annette Prochnow is head of ATB's department Technology Assessment and Substance Cycles since 2003. In 2011, she has been appointed joint professor of "Utilization Strategies for Bioresources" at the Faculty of Life Sciences at Humboldt University Berlin. Her research focuses on assessing bio-economic production systems for the provision of food, biomaterials and bioenergy in terms of land use, greenhouse gas emissions, water productivity and adaptation to climate change. 

In July 2017, the General Assembly of the Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy (ATB) decided to strategically and future-oriented strengthen the institute's profile by realizing a joint appointment with the Humboldt University Berlin and to provisionally assign Prof. Dr. Annette Prochnow as the acting head of the ATB. 

Prof. Dr. Annette Prochnow is the first woman to head the institute. She has been a member of the ATB Executive Board since May 2016. With great commitment she has contributed to the strategic orientation of research on bio-economic production systems and she took an active role in the development of the ATB into an internationally renowned institution.  

ATB's research at the interface of biological and technical systems aims to provide fundamental scientific knowledge for sustainable bio-economic production systems. It develops and integrates new technologies and management strategies for a knowledge-based, site-specific production of biomass and its use for food, as bio-based materials and bio-energy - from basic research to application.

Contact:
Helene Foltan – Public Relations
Tel.: 0331 5699-820, E-Mail: presse@spam.atb-potsdam.de