Annette Beck-Sickinger
Annette Gabriele Beck-Sickinger (born 28 October 1960) is a German chemist and biologist. She has been a full professor of Biochemistry and Bioorganic Chemistry at the University of Leipzig since 1999. Career. Annette G. Beck-Sickinger studied chemistry (diploma in 1986) and biology (diploma in 1990) at the University of Tübingen (Germany) and received her Ph. D. under the supervision of Günther Jung (Organic Chemistry, University of Tübingen). She was working as research fellow with R. A. Houghten (Scripps Clinic & Research Foundation, La Jolla, USA 1988) and T. W. Schwartz (Rigshospitalet Kopenhagen, Denmark 1992) and performed  a post-doctorate with E. Carafoli (Laboratory of Biochemistry, ETH Zürich, 1990-1991). She was appointed as assistant professor of Pharmaceutical Biochemistry at ETH Zürich (1997-1999). Since October 1999, she is full professor of Biochemistry and Bioorganic Chemistry at the University of Leipzig. In 2009 she spent a sabbatical at Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN) as visiting professor. Annette Beck-Sickinger was a member of the Board of the German Chemical Society (Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker, 2004-2012; Vice-President 2006-2008) and of the DFG panel "Biochemistry" (2004-2012). Since 2017 she is member of the Board of the German  Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (gbm) and Vice-President. She was a member of the German Council of Science and Humanities (Wissenschaftsrat) from 2012-2018, and has been awarded with many prices including the Leonidas Zervas Award of the European Peptide Society, the gold medal of the Max-Bergmann-Kreis, the Leipzig Science Award (2016) and the Albrecht Kossel Price of the German Chemical Society (2018). She was honoured with the membership of the Saxonian Academy of Science in 2009 and in 2012, she became an elected member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. In 2017, she  was awarded with the Saxonian Order of Merit. She is a member of the German Chemical Society, the Saxonian Academy of Sciences and the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. She is known for her work on peptide signaling; she has coauthored reference works on combinatorial chemistry as applied to peptides and has participated in International Union of Pharmacology projects on standardization of nomenclature for G protein-coupled receptor peptide ligands. Controversy. In March 2015, Beck-Sickinger was at the center of a controversy related to comments made during correspondence with an internship applicant in which she stated she would not  accept any male students from India. The University declined to publish e-mails between Prof. Dr. Annette Beck-Sickinger and the student from India. However, the rector of the university, Prof. Dr. Beate Schücking as well as the students council of the university had the opportunity to review all relevant e-mails. Two independent statements have been published claiming that the mail published by the Indian student was faked as it only contained parts of the email conversation and that the student was declined for formal reasons. Germany's ambassador to India wrote a letter condemning Beck-Sickinger and, stating : "Your oversimplifying and discriminating generalisation is an offence to women and men ardently committed to furthering women's empowerment in India; and is an offence to millions of law-abiding, tolerant, open-minded and hard-working Indians. Let's be clear: India is not a country of rapists," he wrote. "I would encourage you to learn more about the diverse, dynamic and fascinating country and the many welcoming and open-minded people of India so that you could correct a simplistic image, which – in my opinion – is particularly unsuitable for a professor and teacher."