A donor encouraging young scientists
Through her estate, Dorothea Becker hopes to provide young researchers with the same freedom she enjoyed in her scientific career: the ability to pursue research ideas and develop an independent research portfolio.
Text: Julia Meyer-Hermann
The Fassberg is more of a hill than a mountain, but it was good enough for sledding and first attempts at skiing in the late 1950s. For Dorothea Becker, this hill in Göttingen has symbolic significance: as a child, she used to trudge up it, laboriously pulling her sled behind her. Today, the former farmland is home to the Fassberg Campus of the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences (MPI NAT).
Becker is a biologist who specializes in cancer research, particularly melanoma and the molecular links between melanoma and Parkinson's disease. After nearly four decades in the United States, she has returned to the city where she first became inspired by science. Until the end of 2024, the 73-year-old will continue working at the institute in Göttingen as a visiting scientist, conducting research, offering advice, and engaging in discussions.
Although Fassberg has changed, it remains familiar to her in her memories and in the present. It will also be a place of the future for others. This is why Becker decided to bequeath her estate to the Max Planck Society, specifically for young scientists who want to build their own portfolios. "The best research doesn't happen at universities, but at Uncle Max's," she says. Becker often uses this expression when talking about the institute. It sounds slightly ironic yet familiar and almost affectionate. It aptly describes the biologist's relationship with the institution.
Early enthusiasm for science
Born in Göttingen, Becker discovered her passion for science while still in school. She grew up as an only child. Her father was an engineer interested in physics and chemistry, and he encouraged her curiosity. "We were always out and about in nature," she recalls.
Despite initial resistance from the school administration, she transferred to a science-focused high school with the support of her parents. For her high school thesis, she observed the development of tadpoles on a daily basis at the ponds at Göttingen's Hainberg. By then, she knew she wanted to study biology. As a student in Tübingen, she knocked on the door of the director of the virology department at the Max Planck Institute and asked if she could work there. She was allowed to look through a microscope, conduct experiments, and develop her own ideas. This marked the beginning of her scientific career, which would later take her to Berlin, Giessen, and the USA.
After earning her Ph.D. from the Free University of Berlin, Dorothea Becker moved first to Rockefeller University in New York City and later to Harvard Medical School in Boston, both as a postdoc. In the US, she found the environment she had missed in Germany. In 1970s Germany, it was often difficult for women to pursue research: "It was the era of old white men. Positions went to colleagues with less experience.” Becker is not one to hold back. She speaks her mind, wants to move things forward, and asks questions. In the US, this was appreciated. In Germany, however, she was simply too unconventional and not gentle enough. When asked about her directness, she simply replies, "Why should I be indirect?"
In the early 1990s, Becker accepted a professorship at the University of Pittsburgh. There, doors opened for her main area of research: basic research on melanoma. She established her own research group, collaborated closely with physicists and biophysicists, and, most importantly, employed modern imaging techniques. Exchanges with researchers at the MPI NAT in Göttingen intensified, and new scientific studies began to emerge. While investigating melanoma cells, she unexpectedly discovered the protein synuclein, which is well-known in Parkinson's research. This discovery significantly expanded her field of research.
Asking questions, pursuing own ideas, and breaking new ground
In 2014, Professor Becker ended her work in the US and returned to Göttingen, the science-rich place where her career had begun during her school days. Rather than retiring, she brought her expertise in cancer and synuclein research to the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences. There, she worked closely with Prof. Christian Griesinger, director of the department of NMR-based structural biology, and scientists from other research groups until the end of 2024. These collaborations thrive on combining different perspectives: cell biology approaches, structural analyses, physicochemical methods, and optical techniques all come together.
For Dorothea Becker, it was clear early on that the opportunity to ask questions and pursue her own ideas was more important than continuing what others had started. She wants to enable young scientists to do exactly that. "I want them to build their own scientific portfolio with their project. Not just expand on what their group leader has always done," she says.
Becker also wants to pass on her desire for freedom and independence to the next generation of researchers. She has therefore decided to donate her assets to the Max Planck Society after her death. The plan is to establish an endowment fund, the annual proceeds of which will support young scientists committed to cancer research.
She continues to be impressed by the Max Planck Society's institutional independence, international networking, and high research standards. Through her legacy, she hopes to inspire young researchers to forge their own path, break new ground, and pioneer new ideas.
