Dr. rer. nat. Luiza Bengtsson

Since Sept 2024 Head of Museum & Society Department, Botanical Garden Berlin

2024 Freelance lecturer, German University of Applied Sciences for Health and Sport, Berlin

2023 Head of Berlin Science Week, Falling Walls Foundation gGmbh, Berlin

2011 - 2022 Coordinator Knowledge Transfer and Outreach, Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association, Berlin

2020 - 2021 Associate Researcher, Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society, Berlin

2002 - 2011 Scientist at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association, Berlin (2007-2011) | at the Freie Universität Berlin (2005-2007) | at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, USA (2002-2005)

2002 Doctorate (Dr. rer. nat.), Free University of Berlin, Institute of Chemistry & Biochemistry, Berlin

1998 Master of Science, Lunds Universitet, Lund, Sweden

EXPERT CONTRIBUTIONS

Expert and Vice-Chair for the European Commission in FP7, H2020 and Horizon Europe in various funding schemes (since 2009) and Slovak Research Agency (2024) | Member Advisory Group for the European Open Science Cloud Association, Task Force "Upskilling countries for EOSC" (2021-2022) | Member Advisory Board Forum Open Innovation of the Stifterverband/BMBF (2021 - 2022) | Member Working Group Knowledge Transfer in the Helmholtz Association (2018-2022).

Invited speaker at national and international conferences and events for lay audiences on topics such as open science, science communication and biomedical research since 1999.

SELECTED PROJECTS

2023 Berlin Science Week

Ten-day science festival: exhibitions, workshops, debates, lectures, art installations, performances, excursions and more. 250 events in person and digitally, 180 participating organisations (20% international); budget: €700k, 35,000 visitors (increase 2x compared to previous year).

2017 - 2021 EU project ORION for the promotion of Open Science

Horizon 2020, Science with and for Society; budget €3.2 million, MDC share: €640k.

Co-creation initiatives: Citizen science (SMOVE project), art-science collaborations (ÆON project), international public dialogue on disruptive technologies.

Open science training: 16 countries, >500 participants, MOOC >300 participants, ORION open science podcast (>8,000 downloads).

2020 - 2021 Medical Impulse Team of the Digital Urban Center for Aging and Health, a project on the digitalisation of care, bundling of intersectoral and interdisciplinary expertise, accompanying research.

2020 - 2022 Citizen Science Strategy for Germany 2030 working group, participatory project (219 people from 136 organisations) to analyse the present and define the desirable future for citizen science in Germany.

2011 - 2022 Long Night of Science at the MDC: Annually: > 100 programme items, >100 researchers involved, 5,000 - 8,000 visitors.

2011 - 2022 STEM promotion / school outreach

Lab meets teacher, an advanced training programme for science teachers, accredited by the relevant authorities at state level, face-to-face events: approx. 100 teachers/year, online: approx. 400 teachers/year, evaluation: >95% of participants would recommend the programme to others.

MINT-promoting events: MINT400 forum, UniStemDay, chemistry teachers' conference, Jugend forscht, lectures, discussion groups, interest groups, various projects with teachers and pupils.