About Marianne Schminder
By establishing the visiting professorship, Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg commemorates Prof. Dr. Marianne Schminder, the first woman to receive a doctorate and the first female professor in engineering sciences at the Magdeburg University of Applied Sciences.
Born in 1923 in Liegnitz, Silesia, Marianne Schminder took up work as a new teacher in Saxony after the end of World War II, building on her studies in chemistry, physics and mathematics. In 1955, she successfully applied for an assistant position at the Hochschule für Schwermaschinenbau, where she gradually rose through the ranks.
In 1958, while still without a doctorate, she became head of the Electron Microscopy and Confinement Foiling group, and in the same year became senior assistant professor. In 1961, as the 'first doctoral student' at the Institute of Materials Science and Materials Testing, she obtained her PhD on "Development of an Apparatus for the Electrolytic Isolation of Carbides." In 1967 she submitted her post-doctoral thesis in materials science, having already held a lectureship for several years. Only two years later she was appointed professor for "Nonmetallic Materials and their Testing". As a lateral entrant in a male-dominated field, she acquired several patents.
In addition to her scientific achievements and technical accomplishments, when she joined the university she quickly mobilized the dormant work of the Women's Committee and organized contact with industry and other colleges and universities to exchange experiences. She successfully lobbied "in arduous work with the authorities and the university management" for the establishment of a university kindergarten in order to create free space for the qualification and further education of women and girls. Marianne Schminder succeeded in having the university report semi-annually on the fulfillment of the plan for the advancement of women and actively lobbied for an increase in the number of female graduate assistants at the university.
As a professor in mechanical engineering and a promoter of young women in science and industry, she is a role model for today's gender equality work, which is closely linked to scientific expertise. Accordingly, the Marianne Schminder Visiting Professorship with a partial denomination of gender research is intended to enable gender-sensitive perspectives on processes in teaching, research and transfer at OVGU, especially in the STEM subjects.