Prof. Dr. Jörg Overmann to become new Director General

Moving from the Leibniz Institute DSMZ in Braunschweig to the SNSB on August 1 – Bavarian State Minister for Science and the Arts Markus Blume: “Prof. Dr. Jörg Overmann is an outstanding appointment: he is an excellent scientist with outstanding experience in managing large non-university research institutions.”

“Spectacular move from Braunschweig to Munich: Prof. Dr. Jörg Overmann will become the new Director General of the SNSB on August 1, 2025. Welcome to Bavaria!” announced Bavarian State Minister for Science and the Arts Markus Blume today in Munich. “Prof. Overmann is an outstanding appointment – an excellent scientist with outstanding experience in managing large non-university research institutions,” said Blume. The new appointment is accompanied by a structural change: the position of Director General of the the Bavarian State Collections of Natural History (Staatliche Naturwissenschaftliche Sammlungen Bayerns, SNSB) will now be a full-time role. The appointment has been made in close partnership with Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU), where Prof. Overmann will also take up the Chair of Biodiversity Research. Blume emphasized: “With a full-time Director General, new positions, and additional funding, we are laying the foundation for a complete reorganization of the the Bavarian State Collections of Natural History. In this way, we are transforming a mature system into a powerful, modern research institution in step with the times – with the LMU, a university of excellence, behind us. With his appointment, the dual leadership structure with scientific and administrative management, which has proven itself in non-university research institutions, will also come into effect.” Prof. Overmann will be able to build on the groundwork laid by his predecessor, Prof. Joris Peters, who, as the last part-time Director General, set the course for this development during his term of office, which began in 2022, according to Blume.

An outstanding scientist and experienced science manager at the helm of one of the world’s oldest and largest research collections

Prof. Overmann will join SNSB on August 1. He is currently still director of the renowned Leibniz Institute DSMZ – German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures in Braunschweig. There he heads one of the world’s most important biological resource collections. He is a proven expert in the field of biodiversity research and brings with him many years of management experience from the Leibniz Association. Science Minister Blume emphasizes: “Prof. Overmann is exactly the right person at the right time: We want success, we want new momentum – and he brings both! The SNSB and the Bavarian Natural History Museum are set to become the German Museum of Technology for the life sciences. And with Prof. Overmann, we have the best man for the job. He comes from the Leibniz world. This is a real gain, because our goal is clear: we want to be in the premier league, the league of Leibniz research museums!“ Blume adds that a promise is being kept: ”With the new appointment and the new structure, we are moving closer to the new natural history museum in Bavaria – as a showcase for the fascinating possibilities of the natural and life sciences.”

The SNSB are one of the oldest and most important scientific research collections in the world. It brings together over 33 million objects from disciplines such as zoology, botany, geology, paleontology, mineralogy, anthropology, and paleoanatomy. The SNSB’s activities in collection, research, and knowledge transfer focus on geo- and biosphere change, with a particular emphasis on alpine systems in time and space. In today’s research landscape, only natural history collections are able to provide sufficiently comparable data on biodiversity, both at different points in time and throughout the Earth’s history. The SNSB has an excellent infrastructure for documenting and researching changes in the biosphere and communicating its findings to a broad public. The SNSB’s ten museums, including the popular Museum Mensch und Natur and the Botanical Garden München-Nymphenburg, as well as the five regional museums, attract around 800,000 visitors annually.

Source: Bavarian State Ministry for Science and the Arts
Link to press release

Contact

Hannah Rauscher-Spiess
Head of Communications
Menzinger Str. 71, 80638 Munich
Email: rauscher-spiess@snsb.de
Tel.: 089 17861 119

(Photo: DSMZ)