Prof. Catherina G. Becker Becomes New CMCB Director

Neurobiologist Prof. Catherina G. Becker takes on the role of director of the Center for Molecular and Cellular Bioengineering (CMCB) of TU Dresden. She succeeds Prof. Michael Schroeder who led the unit since the beginning of 2022. Prof. Becker will be supported by two new deputy directors – Prof. Stefan Diez (B CUBE) and Prof. Simon Alberti (BIOTEC).

Catherina Becker is an Alexander von Humboldt Professor and Chair for Neural Development and Regeneration at TU Dresden since 2021. Her research group at the Center for Regenerative Therapies Dresden (CRTD) studies the mechanisms behind successful spinal cord regeneration in zebrafish. Over the past two years, Prof. Becker served as one of two deputy directors at the CMCB. Currently, she also serves as a deputy director of the CRTD.

“I am happy to take the leadership of the CMCB over from Prof. Schroeder,” says Prof. Becker. “I am looking forward to guard and grow the outstanding scientific environment that nurtures our excellent discovery and translation science and to drive the exciting strategic and structural changes as TU Dresden is getting ready for the next application as Excellence University.”

About Prof. Catherina Becker
Throughout her scientific career, Catherina Becker has focused on neurobiology, studying development and regeneration of various animals.

Catherina Becker received her PhD in 1993 from the University of Bremen. Afterwards, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich and later at the University of California at Irvine, USA. In 1998, she came back to Germany to start the Becker research group at the Center for Molecular Neurobiology Hamburg (ZMNH). In 2005, the Becker group moved to University of Edinburgh in Scotland, where Catherina Becker was appointed as Senior Lecturer and a Professor in 2013. Between 2015 and 2017, she served as a director of the Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences. In 2021, Prof. Becker has moved to Dresden and became a Professor of Neural Development and Regeneration at TU Dresden.

Prof. Becker has received multiple honors in her career. In 2014, she was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology (FRSB). She has received the Suffrage Science Award from the MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences as well as the Eurolife Distinguished Lecturer Medal in 2016. In 2021, she was awarded a prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Professorship, Germany’s most highly endowed research prize.

Prof. Becker leads the Becker research group together with her husband and collaborator, Prof. Thomas Becker. The couple has two children.