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Building the Future of Metrology and Energy Infrastructure in a World of Global Challenges: Women’s Energy Leading Change
WIMER session and panel discussion as part of the ICME 2025.
When: June 24th, 2025, 17:40 - 18:40
Where: Hotel Dupanloup, Université d’Orléans, France
About:
In a world facing political tensions, climate emergencies, and rising uncertainties, the need for resilient scientific infrastructures has never been greater. At the forefront of this transformation are women whose expertise and energy are driving innovation in metrology, energy research, and digital infrastructure.
This panel brougth together leading female voices to discuss how infrastructures like WIMER can adapt and thrive in times of crisis. Key questions were:
How do global conflicts, funding cuts, and climate change reshape the future of measurement science?
And how can diverse leadership foster stronger, more agile infrastructures for the challenges ahead?
(Inner Mongolia University of Technology)
(University of Kent)
Panelists:
Burning for Science – A Woman in a Technical Field
The seminar toke place in honor of International Women’s Day (March, 8th). Katharina Kohse-Höinghaus, a female pioneer in the field of combustion, presented selected examples from recent combustion chemistry research and offered some reflections on important elements and prerequisites for an academic career. She shared selected insights into her own journey from student to professor, mother, educator and mentor, soliciting questions from the audience. She ended her talk with a short reading of few passages from her book Burning for Science – A Woman in a Technical Field, which was published in January 2025 under the auspices of the German Chemical Society in the series Lives in Chemistry (l-i-c.org) and is looking back on around 50 years of active engagement in science.
Katharina Kohse-Höinghaus is a Senior Professor of Physical Chemistry at Bielefeld University, Germany, with a profile combining chemistry, physics, and engineering to study high-temperature processes. Research periods, guest and honorary professorships brought her to institutions in Europe, USA and Asia. She was honored with prestigious awards and lectureships, including the German Cross of the Order of Merit, the Giulio Natta Medal in Chemical Engineering, the Walther Nernst Medal in Physical Chemistry, and the Alfred Egerton Gold Medal for Combustion Science. She is a Fellow of several societies and received awards for international scientific cooperation by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the People's Republic of China. She is a member of six academies, including the German National Academies of Sciences and Engineering, the European Academy of Sciences, and CAS as a Foreign Member. She was President of the Bunsen Society and of the Combustion Institute. Also, she served in numerous academic functions, including the German Council of Sciences and the Humanities, the International Advisory Board of the Humboldt Foundation, and the Senates of the German Research Foundation and the Helmholtz Association. She is also a pioneer of hands-on science activities for schools.
Participation of Latin American women in metrology, challenges and opportunities in industry and academia
Carla-Cristina López-Canchola holds a Master's degree in Metrology from the Universidad de Guanajuato. Her academic work focuses on the participation of Latin American women in metrology, examining the challenges and opportunities they face in both industry and academia.
In December 2024, she co-authored the article “Participation of Latin American Women in Metrology: Challenges and Opportunities in Industry and Research/Academia,” published in Measurement Sensors. This study highlights the experiences of women in metrology across Latin America, identifying systemic barriers and emphasizing the importance of role models and institutional support in fostering greater inclusion in the field. López-Canchola presented these findings at the IMEKO 2024 World Congress in Hamburg, Germany. Her presentation focused on the contributions and challenges faced by Latin American women in metrology, underscoring their critical role in advancing precision measurement and achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Through her research and advocacy, Carla-Cristina López-Canchola is helping to amplify the voices of women in science and promote greater equity in technical fields across Latin America.
Sustainability through Precision: Women Leading Metrology and Energy
This panel discussion was part of the WIMER session, held on August 28, 2024, during the XXIV IMEKO World Congress in Hamburg, Germany. It focused on the influential role of women leaders in metrology and energy, highlighting how their innovative approaches and precise measurements are advancing sustainable practices and shaping policy. The session also underscored the value of diversity in research, emphasizing how inclusive teams foster fresh perspectives, creativity, and talent.
Panelists shared personal insights and professional experiences, offering a compelling look into the latest developments in their fields and the significant impact of their work. Their stories aimed to inspire and empower the next generation of women to pursue careers in these crucial areas. The discussion further deepened our understanding of how measurement accuracy and energy innovation are fundamental to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Moderator
Dr.-Ing. Dorothea Knopf is head of the “Mass – Dissemination of the Unit” department at PTB in Braunschweig, Germany. She studied electrical engineering at the Technical University of Ilmenau and earned her PhD in engineering there in 1997. Her career at PTB began in 1993 in metrology in chemistry, followed by work in gas analysis, legal metrology, and a traineeship in the Presidential Staff. Since 2012, she has led PTB’s mass metrology efforts, overseeing the realization of the mass unit from 1 mg to 5000 kg, calibration of weighing instruments, and digital certification.
Her expertise spans conformity assessment, standardization, quality infrastructure, and digital transformation. Dr. Knopf co-convenes the OIML R76 revision and chairs the CEN committee on weighing instruments. She has contributed to research on automatic weighing systems, the Planck-Balance, and gas calibration standards.
An advocate for women in science, she supports gender equity in STEM through PTB initiatives like WIMER.
Panelists
Dr. Cui Shan is Head of the Acoustics, Chemical & Temperature Metrology Cluster at Singapore’s National Metrology Centre (NMC), part of A*STAR. She holds a Bachelor’s and PhD in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Nanyang Technological University. Since joining NMC in 2009, she has led the development of national measurement standards for acoustics, vibration, chemical, and temperature measurements. Dr. Cui pioneers data-driven metrology, including self-diagnosis and self-healing sensor networks that enhance IoT measurement reliability. Her work ensures measurement traceability to SI units, underpinning Singapore’s technological progress, while promoting safety, sustainability, and innovation through advanced metrology.
She is also an advocate for women in STEM and actively supports the advancement of women in metrology. In 2023, she was named one of the Singapore 100 Women in Tech for her impactful contributions.
Prof. Dr. sc. Lovorka Grgec-Bermanec is a Full Professor at the University of Zagreb’s Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture, where she leads the Laboratory for Process Measurements. She earned her Master’s and PhD degrees there, completing her doctorate in 2006 on primary pressure standards. Her expertise includes pressure and temperature metrology, calibration techniques, and uncertainty analysis. She has made significant contributions to the development of Croatia’s national measurement standards and has been involved in international interlaboratory comparisons to ensure traceability. Prof. Grgec-Bermanec is active in EURAMET projects and serves as Scientific Secretary of IMEKO TC16. She is also a dedicated mentor and advocate for women in metrology, promoting gender equity in science and engineering.
Dr. Annette Röttger is a physicist and member of the Presidential Board at Germany’s national metrology institute, PTB. She earned her doctorate in physics from TU Braunschweig in 1995 and has worked at PTB since 1992. As former Head of Division 6, she contributed significantly to standards in radiation protection. She chairs the European Metrology Network for Radiation Protection and sits on the EURAMET Board of Directors. Her research spans nuclear and environmental physics, with a focus on radon metrology. Dr. Röttger also leads national radiological protection committees. She co-founded the WissensForscher-Initiative to promote science education among children and actively supports women in STEM through mentoring and public engagement.
Dr. Marina Romanchikova is a Scientist at the UK's National Physical Laboratory (NPL), specializing in data quality and metadata standards within the Data Science team. She earned her MSc in Medical Informatics from the University of Heidelberg, focusing on medical image processing and hospital information systems. In 2010, she completed her PhD on Monte Carlo dosimetry for targeted radionuclide therapy at the Institute of Cancer Research in Sutton, UK. Prior to joining NPL in 2017, she worked as a radiotherapy research physicist at Cambridge University Hospitals, developing methods for medical image curation and analysis. Her current research interests include quantitative quality assessment of medical images, harmonization of healthcare data from diverse sources, and the application of machine learning in healthcare. Dr. Romanchikova is also involved in automated data quality assurance, contributing to the reliability and traceability of scientific data. She advocates for diversity and inclusion in science, sharing her experiences to inspire others in the field.
Ms. Winfried Kimuya
Life is ONE unknown adventure, have fun!
The event toke place March 7th, 2024 at 15:00 CET and was dedicated to the International Women's Day.
Dr. Yanfei Yang, originally from Chengdu, China, earned her PhD in Physics from Georgetown University in Washington DC. During her doctoral studies, she specialized in growing carbon nanotubes and creating numerous carbon nanotube field-effect transistors. Her dedication to uncovering signs of superconductivity in carbon nanotube samples spanned five years, culminating in her thesis defense showcasing potential evidence of its existence. In 2012, Dr. Yang joined the Quantum Conductance project at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), focusing on the development of a quantum Hall resistance standard based on epitaxial graphene. After five years, she co-founded Graphene Waves to bring graphene technology to the electrical calibration industry. More recently, Dr. Yang has returned to NIST to further advance graphene-based resistance standards.
The Future of Metrology and Energy Research: Women Pioneers and Innovators
The event took place on September 5th, 2023 at PTB Braunschweig, Germany, as part of the International Conference on Measurements of Energy.
Featuring a panel discussion, the event aimed to explore the invaluable contributions of women in metrology and energy research, emphasizing their pivotal role in shaping the future of these industries. Three accomplished women in these fields served as esteemed panelists, providing diverse perspectives and expertise.
The discussion delved into key points, including inspiring the next generation of women, addressing gender bias, highlighting the significance of mentorship and networking, and fostering a supportive work environment.
Moderator
Dr. Zeynep Serinyel received her B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from Middle East Technical University and her PhD in Physical Chemistry from National University of Galway Ireland in 2011. After a postdoctoral position at LRGP, a CNRS laboratory, she is currently an Associate Professor in chemistry, at the University of Orléans and affiliated with the ICARE laboratory (CNRS) since 2013. Since her doctoral studies, her research interest has been focused on chemical kinetics of hydrocarbons and mostly of oxygenated biofuels. Her research activities cover both experimental and detailed kinetic modeling (model development) aspects. She served as colloquium co-chair in combustion related meetings and is currently the secretary of the French section of the Combustion Institute. She co-authored >40 papers and has >40 contributions in international events.
Panelists
Dr. Benoîte Lefort earned her Ph.D. in Chemical Kinetics from the University of Lille (France) in 2006. After that, she spent two years as a postdoctoral researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Washington DC, USA. Later, in 2009, she joined the University of Burgundy.
Through her hard work and dedication, Dr. Lefort achieved the position of full Professor in 2022. She now leads the Chemical Kinetics and Combustion division at the DRIVE laboratory in Nevers.
Jun.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Federica Ferraro was appointed Junior Professor in Alternative Aviation Propulsion Systems at IFAS, TU Braunschweig in May 2023. Prior to this role, she was a postdoctoral researcher and research group leader at the Institute for Simulation of reactive Thermo-Fluid Systems (STFS) at the Technical University of Darmstadt.
Her research focuses on numerical modeling and simulations of reacting flows for innovative sustainable technologies. The overall objective of Ferraro’s research activities is to contribute to the development of future climate-neutral, efficient combustion systems for transportation and power generation sectors.
Dr.-Ing. Gisa Foyer received her doctoral degree in civil engineering from the Technische Universität Braunschweig in 2013. She is a researcher at PTB since then and has worked in the department Solid Mechanics until 2018 as a postdoctoral researcher and project manager in the fields of force and torque measurement. 2018 she became head of the working group Communications Technology of Weighing Instruments in the department Mass. Her work include software testing on weighing instruments and digitalisation of calibration certificates for weights and mass standards. She is the among other committee work the lead of the NoBoMet project group Digital certificates in Metrology which develops digital formats for certificates under the European directives 2014/31/EU (NAWID) and 2014/32/EU (MID).
Dr. Tara Liebiesh works at Germany’s National Metrology Institute PTB as a strategy officer in the Division Optics. In this role she has developed many large-scale infrastructure and collaborative initiatives. She enjoys ensuring that partners from academia, industry and government can work together to achieve scientific endeavors. Her work builds on her research in atomic physics with publications on Rydberg atoms, compact atomic devices and a thorough article on the revised SI. Currently, her work includes developing a new Clock Building and a concept for an optical fiber research network for simultaneous quantum communication and metrology operation, as well as serving as the scientific manager of the excellence cluster QuantumFrontiers and as a co-coordinator of the QVLS-iLab Ion and Atom Trap Technology.
Yan Yan Beer has been a dedicated PhD student at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), the Division of Biochemistry, since 2021. Her project is related to the development of a reference method for the quantification of viral load. She received her Master's degree in Molecular Life Sciences from the Hogeschool van Arnhem en Nijmegen, The Netherlands. From 2012-2016, Yan Yan worked at the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research, Braunschweig, Germany as a biological laboratory technician focusing on microbiology, molecular biology, biochemistry, and cell biology.
Katharina Kohse-Höinghaus
Professor Katharina Kohse-Höinghaus held a Chair of Physical Chemistry at Bielefeld University until 2017, where she remains as a Senior Professor since. She has studied chemistry in Bochum with a Ph.D. thesis in atmospheric chemistry and performed her habilitation in engineering in Stuttgart. Research periods and honorary professorships brought her to several continents. She served in multiple academic functions, including the German Council for Science and the Humanities, the Senates of DFG and the Helmholtz Association, and the International Advisory Board of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. She was the President of the International Combustion Institute, an umbrella organization of 35 national societies, and of the German Bunsengesellschaft for Physical Chemistry. Katharina Kohse-Höinghaus received multiple awards. She was honored with the Cross of the Order of Merit of the German Federal Republic and is a member of six academies, including the Chinese and European Academy of Sciences, Leopoldina, and acatech. In addition to her research on diagnostics and chemistry of high-temperature processes, she is also a pioneer of science activities for children and young adults.
International Women's Day
Date: 8th March 2023
Source: Philipp Arnoldt/TU Braunschweig
Angela Ittel
Professor Dr. Angela Ittel has been the president of the Technical University of Braunschweig since July 2021. Prior to this, she served as full-time Vice President of Technische Universität Berlin, Germany since 2014, and was responsible for the departments of Internationalization and Teacher Education. Dr. Ittel received her doctorate (PhD) at the University of California at Santa Cruz, USA. She became a predoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin and held positions as a postdoctoral fellow at the Friedrich Schiller Universität Jena, the Technische Universität Chemnitz, and the Freie Universität Berlin before she was appointed Professor of Educational Psychology at TU Berlin in 2008. Her research areas include career orientation and the development of young people’s interests, especially in STEM subjects. She was an editor of international journals and continues to work as an expert reviewer. Moreover, she is an active expert in the topics of interdisciplinary research, equal opportunities and diversity.
International Day of Women and Girls in Science
Date: 10th February 2023
Chongwen Zhou
Dr. Zhou obtained her Ph.D. from the School of Chemical Engineering, Sichuan University, China in 2009. She was a Postdoctoral Research Associate from 2009 to 2015 at the Combustion Chemistry Centre, School of Chemistry, National University of Ireland, Galway. From 2017 to 2021, Dr. Zhou served as a Professor at the School of Energy and Power Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, China. Having returned to Galway at the beginning of 2022, she is now a lecturer at the School of Chemistry.
Her research areas include Combustion Chemistry Modeling, Chemical Kinetic Model Development as well as Ab Initio Calculations of the Reaction Mechanisms.
The combustion chemistry of ammonia and ammonia/hydrogen: A comprehensive modeling study
Date: 11th November 2022
Photographer: Sven Marquardt (Teamfoto Marquardt) / Competentia Münsterland
Cornelia Denz
Prof. Dr. Cornelia Denz was born in Frankfurt, Germany. She received her Ph.D. in physics from the Technische Universität Darmstadt and worked on optical neural network and optical data storage. In 1993, Prof. Denz became head of the Photorefractive Group at TU Darmstadt. She moved to the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität of Münster in 2001, where she led the chair of experimental physics and gender in physics as the director of the Institute of Applied Physics. Her main research topics are nonlinear photonics and fostering girls in STEM. She founded the Centre for Nonlinear Science (CeNoS) at WWU Münster and the hands-on lab MExlab for school kids and students.
Prof. Cornelia Denz became the first woman president of the Physikalisch-Technische Bundestanstalt (PTB) as of May 1, 2022.
Gender research and physics (and chemistry): How does this fit together?
Date: 7th April 2022
Liisa K. Rihko-Struckmann
Dr. Rihko-Struckmann was born in Maaria (Turku), Finland and recieved her PhD degree in department of chemical engineering Helsinki University of Technology (today Aalto University), Finland in 1997. Since 2001, she is head of sustainable production systems team and laboratory manager in the process systems engineering group at Max Planck Institute of Dynamics for Complex Technical Systems, Germany. Her current research interests include catalysis, reaction engineering and modelling of chemical and energy conversion systems, CO2 utilisation and recycle, chemical storage of renewable energy, biomass conversion to fuels and electricity, chemical and fuel production with photosynthetic organisms (algal biomass), sustainability assessment (LCA), chemical recycle of polymers, process systems engineering.
My Career in Science
Date: 7th April 2022
Siri Harboe-Minwegen
Dr. Harboe-Minwegen received her Ph.D. degree from RWTH Aachen University, Germany, in 2018. During her Ph.D.’s research, she focused on the investigation of the rheological and microstructural properties of semi-solid aluminium-copper during isothermal shear. Following, she worked as a post-doctoral research assistant at the Institute of Energy and Climate Research, IEK-1 Material Synthesis and Processing, Forschungszentrum Jülich, on development of materials for solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) and investigations of material processing and performance. Since 2021, she works as a project manager in OWI Science for Fuels gGmbH, An-Institute der RWTH Aachen.
Working as a woman with Engineering Science in Germany
Date: 7th April 2022
Xing Chao
Dr. Chao received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degree from the Department of Precision Instruments and Mechanology at Tsinghua University, and her Ph.D. degree from Stanford University in 2013. She has also received the Engineer Degree of France (Diplôme d’Ingénieur) through a two-year double-degree exchange program at École Centrale de Paris. While her Master’s research was focused on solid-state lasers, her Ph.D. thesis work was concentrated on laser absorption spectroscopy and its application in combustion gas diagnostics. After achieving her doctoral degree (2013-2015), she worked as the chief scientist at Oxigraf, Inc. in Mountain View, California, which is a pioneer and specialized company for spectroscopic instrumentation particularly for medical, industrial and aerospace applications. Dr. Chao has been working as an assistant/associate professor at the Center for Combustion Energy and the Department of Energy and Power Engineering at Tsinghua University since Dec. 2015. Her current research interests include various optical and spectroscopic techniques, instrumentation for combustion diagnostics, and laser-based sensor systems.
When Scientists choose Motherhood
Date: 7th April 2022
Charu Sharma
Ms. Sharma has more than 10 years multi-cultural experience in the energy & petrochemical industry with a qualification in Civil Engineering. She has worked as an assistant general manager in Sembcrop Energy India Limited since 2018 to undertake key roles in different projects such as Site feasibility study, operations maintenance, process optimization & implementation, digitization, team training & development. Before that time, Charu understood industry challenges and gained progressive experience by working in different companies including Amplus Solar (2017-2018) as a team-lead of Solar Project Delivery, ACME Cleantech Solutions Pvt. Limited (2016-2017) as an assistant manager, Siemens as an executive engineer (2014-2016), Simon India Limited (2012-2014) and KEC International Limited (2011-2012).
Date: 7th April 2022