A new autobiography has been published in the Lives in Chemistry (LiC) series, edited by a board of the History of Chemistry Division of the German Chemical Society (GDCh). It is likely the very first autobiography by a female chemist, at least from Germany.
The beautifully designed book with many images, provides a personal insight into Katharina Kohse-Höinghaus’s scientific career and the personal experiences that shaped her remarkable success in a traditionally male-dominated international and interdisciplinary field.
“To me, science is a creative life-form, like music or art.” — Katharina Kohse-Höinghaus
An Early Start to a Lifelong Love for Science
The publisher describes her as someone for whom science was a lifelong passion, starting early and leading to a distinguished academic career. Katharina Kohse-Höinghaus, born in 1951, studied chemistry at Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany, where she received her Ph.D. in 1978. From 1979 to 1994, she worked at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Stuttgart, Germany, and finished her habilitation at the University of Stuttgart in 1992. She was a Professor of Physical Chemistry at Bielefeld University from 1994 until 2017, and from 2017 to 2024, she was a senior professor at the same university.
“I did not start my University education with a plan to become a Professor. The path developed step by step as I followed my curiosity, which was the driving force behind my research topics and projects”— Katharina Kohse-Höinghaus
Creating New Trails
The book cover says that she consistently “created new trails” between the fields of physics, chemistry, materials science, and engineering, focusing on combustion, pollutant emissions, and new analytical techniques. Her work also addressed challenges such as balancing a dual-career family. These experiences led her to create innovative initiatives, including very early science education programs for children and students, such as the teutolab in 2000 at the University of Bielelfeld, or the foundation of Women in Combustion, an international platform supporting early-career female scientists in technical fields.
Katharina Kohse-Höinghaus has received numerous awards, including the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, and is a member of several scientific academies, including the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Her work is reflected in various advisory roles, including the ESYS project for sustainable energy and the Leopoldina working group on air pollution.
“… it is important to stay on when you have a vision, and not give up on your goals because others think you should”— Katharina Kohse-Höinghaus
- Burning for Science-A Woman in a Technical Field,
Katharina Kohse-Höinghaus,
GNT-Verlag, Berlin, 2025.
Hardcover 17 × 24 cm, 314 p., 227 figs
ISBN 978-3-86225-137-7
Official release date (January 13, 2025)
