Biography

Barbara Ruth Albert studied chemistry in Bonn, Germany, and received her PhD in 1995, with Professor M. Jansen.
This was followed by research at the Materials Research Laboratory at the University of California Santa Barbara, U.S.A., with Professor A. K. Cheetham and at the Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, Germany, with Professor J. Beck. She completed her habilitation (Bonn, 2000), before she accepted an offer of a full professorship for solid-state chemistry and materials science in Hamburg (2001).
In 2005 Barbara Ruth Albert accepted a post as Full Professor for Inorganic Solid State Chemistry at the Technische Universität Darmstadt and from 2007 till 2011 she also held the position of the Dean of the chemistry department at the Technische Universität Darmstadt. Since 2007 she is European Editor of Solid State Sciences, an Elsevier journal. Prof. Albert is an expert in all areas of boron chemistry, ranging from synthesis, theoretical calculations over structural features to the development of new functional materials. Her team works on new analytical approaches as well as forefront applications in solid state chemistry.
Her awards include a grant from the Alexander von Humboldt foundation, a Lise-Meitner grant, the ADUC, and the Bennigsen-Foerder awards.

With the election of Barbara Ruth Albert 2012 as president of the German Chemical Society, the GDCh was led by the first female chair. 

Besides loving her research, Barbara Albert wants to help to modernize the working world of tomorrow. She envisions a better balanced life concerning profession, career and family life – for men and women, aiming at more economical justice and equilibrium with regards to content and significance.
Top priority on her free time holds Nils, her eight-year old son.