Dr. Matthias Urmann, Associate Vice President, Head of Insuline & Peptide, Diabetes Research & Translational Medicine, Sanofi-Aventis Deutschland GmbH, Frankfurt, Germany, has been elected President of the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh, German Chemical Society) for 2018 and 2019. He succeeds Professor Thisbe K. Lindhorst, Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, Germany.
Matthias Urmann studied chemistry at the University of Heidelberg, Germany. He gained his Ph.D. from the same university in 1992 under the supervision of Professor Günter Helmchen. After postdoctoral research at Harvard University, Cambridge, USA, in the lab of Professor E. J. Corey, he returned to Germany and became Laboratory Leader in the field of medicinal chemistry at Hoechst AG, Frankfurt in 1993.Since 2010, he is Head of Insulins & Peptides within Diabetes Research & Translational Medicine at Sanofi-Aventis Deutschland GmbH, Frankfurt, Germany.
Matthias Urmann focusses on new therapeutic approaches for the treatment of diabetes. He is a member of the GDCh since 1985, and active in the Liebig Association for Organic Chemistry and the Medical Chemistry Section and board member of Science4Life, an initiative that helps young entrepreneurs in the field of life sciences and chemistry find their way to self-employment.
- Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (German Chemical Society, GDCH), Frankfurt Germany
