Cornelia Harte

Cornelia Harte (born June 6, 1914 in Altona ad Elbe ; † June 14, 1998 ) was a German developmental biologist and the first female professor at the University of Cologne .

Life and career

Grave in the Melaten cemetery

Cornelia Harte was born in 1914 as a Dutch woman and child of Johannes Harte, a senior executive, and his wife Anna, née Kuijlaars. The parents encouraged her interest in the natural sciences. After graduating from the Oberlyzeum Liebfrauenschule in Berlin-Charlottenburg , she studied botany, zoology and chemistry at the universities of Berlin and Munich . In 1936 she went to the Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg to at Friedrich Oehlkers , a recognized cytologist and geneticist at, PhD . She characterized her sponsor as follows: "... a professor who, as an outstanding scholar, did not regard women in science as a threat to his existence."

She did her doctorate in 1941 with the topic: Meiosis and crossing-over: Further articles on cytogenetics by Oenothera , a topic on which she published in 1994: evening primrose . In the spring of 1948 her habilitation followed as an assistant at the Botanical Institute in the field of developmental biology with the work of cytological-genetic investigations on splitting Oenothera hybrids . She continued to work in Freiburg as a private lecturer . On December 27, 1950, she was appointed by the University's Board of Trustees on the list of appointments for 1951 for a Scheduled Extraordinary Professorship for Developmental Physiology at the University of Cologne, making her the first woman to hold a professorship at Cologne University. In 1961 she was then appointed to a full professorship. In 1982 she retired .

Cornelia Harte died in 1998 at the age of 84. She was buried in the Melaten cemetery in Cologne (hall 14 (I)).

Effect and aftermath

Scientifically, she stayed true to her field of cytogenetics of higher plants and wrote several textbooks here. Their goal was the quantification and statistical recording of the development process and the development of mathematical models for it.

Foundations and advancement of women

Cornelia Harte was very committed to the promotion and networking of women in science, was active in the German Association of Women Academics as chairwoman of the Cologne local group and deputy national chairwoman - also internationally - and initiated the working group for female university teachers. In the last years of her life, she donated a considerable amount to the University of Cologne to promote women. She donated a 5000 euro prize for outstanding scientific quantitative studies in the field of developmental biology for her specialist area, which is awarded by the Society for Developmental Biology, which she once co-founded and of which she was also chair (honorary chair 1998). It was named after the founder "Cornelia Harte Prize" and was awarded for the first time in 2003 and the second time in 2009.

Cornelia Harte mentoring program

Since 2001, in memory of Cornelia Harte, the University of Cologne has sponsored a program to support (doctoral) students, female postdocs and post-doctoral candidates.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ratzer Brigitte: "Women in Technology - Daniela Düsentrieb or Florence Nightingale?" in: Wuketits F. (Hg): Schöne Welt - Frauenwelt ?, Kapfenberg 1998. Two quotations (excerpt, accessed February 2016)
2. ↑ Google Books: [1]
3. ^ Google Books: Harte: Oenothera
4. ↑ Springer link with table of contents
5. ↑ [2] (Google Books :) in Leo Haupts: The University of Cologne in the transition from National Socialism to the Federal Republic , Böhlau, Cologne 2007, p. 688
6. ↑ Renate Strohmeier: Lexicon of the natural scientists and women of Europe. From antiquity to the 20th century , Verlag Harri Deutsch, Thun & Frankfurt a. M., 1998. pp. 129–30 [3] Google Books: Cornelia Harte with picture
7. ^ CHM programs at the University of Cologne

Web links

• Literature by and about Cornelia Harte in the catalog of the German National Library