Federal Cross of Merit for Gerhard Bringmann

On 24th September 2020, Bavarian Minister of Science, Bernd Sibler, bestowed the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany on Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Gerhard Bringmann. The occasion is his decades of commitment to research and teaching and the academic self-administration of the University of Würzburg as well as his dedication to the further development of the educational system and, above all, to the reconstruction of higher education in the Democratic Republic of Congo..

Minister of State, Sibler, paid tribute to Bringmann's great academic commitment and thanked the holder of the Order: "Professor Bringmann has earned merits in the service of science not only in Würzburg but also in Africa. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo in particular, he is actively committed to promoting science and research, education and vocational training as well as international awareness, tolerance, international understanding and development cooperation. I am therefore very pleased to present Professor Bringmann with the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, which was awarded to him by the Federal President, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in recognition of his special services."

From 1987 to 2017, Professor Bringmann held a chair at the Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy, since then he has been a senior professor. His scientific focus is in the field of natural product chemistry; in particular, he conducts research on natural active ingredients from tropical plants. To this end, he worked for decades with scientific partners from several African countries and sought new scientific lead structures in the fight against neglected tropical infectious diseases. Over 700 publications and patents document his outstanding scientific work.

In 2003, Professor Bringmann founded the Collaborative Research Center "Detection, Production and Functional Analysis of Active Substances against Infectious Diseases" at the University of Würzburg and was its spokesperson for the entire twelve-year period. In the same year, a partnership agreement was signed between the University of Würzburg and the University of Kinshasa, which not only led to the foundation of today's Forum Afrikazentrum with members from all faculties of the University of Würzburg, but also made it possible to establish a globally unique excellence scholarship system called "Bourse d'Excellence Bringmann aux Universités Congolaises (BEBUC)" in the Democratic Republic of Congo. BEBUC is designed to support academic exchange and the promotion of young academics and is intended to contribute to the reconstruction of a functioning university system in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

To make this possible, Professor Bringmann founded in 2009 the "Förderverein Uni Kinshasa e.V. (fUNIKIN). The BEBUC scholarship programme is financed by the foundation Else Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung, with which the fUNIKIN association has been cooperating since 2010. BEBUC currently supports almost 200 outstanding young people at 25 different institutions in the country.