Prof. Dr. Pascale Ehrenfreund

Prof. Dr. Pascale Ehrenfreund has been the Chairwoman of the Executive Board of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) since August 2015. This puts her at the helm of one of Europe's largest research institutions with a total of 8,000 employees. Ms. Ehrenfreund was President of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) from 2013 until she took office at DLR. Prof. Ehrenfreund studied astronomy and biology at the University of Vienna. She also completed her doctorate there in 1990. Ms. Ehrenfreund then went to the Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands as a fellow of the European Space Agency ESA. She used an APART scholarship from the Austrian Academy of Sciences to write her habilitation thesis in astrochemistry at the University of Vienna on the subject of "Cosmic Dust". From 2001, Ms. Ehrenfreund worked for four years as a professor of astrobiology at the University of Amsterdam and Leiden University, where she is still a visiting professor today. In 2008, Ms. Ehrenfreund completed a Master's degree in Management and International Relations. Also since 2008, she has been Professor of Space Policy and International Affairs at the Space Policy Institute of George Washington University and Lead Investigator at the NASA Astrobiology Institute.

Status: early 2020