Prof. Dr. Asifa Akhtar, Director at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics and CIBSS researcher, has been elected as a Foreign Member of the Royal Society, recognizing her leadership and contributions to epigenetics and gene regulation. The formal admission ceremony will be held in July 2025. Akhtar who also serves as Vice President of the Max Planck Society has received numerous honors for her research and is celebrated for advancing the understanding of genetic information regulation.
· People· Press Release
Prof. Dr. Asifa Akhtar elected foreign member of the Royal Society
The CIBSS researcher and Max Planck Director has been selected for her scientific leadership in Germany and her research achievements.
Prof. Dr. Asifa Akhtar, Photo: Jürgen Gocke
Asifa Akhtar, Director at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg and Vice President of the Max Planck Society, has been elected as a Foreign Member of the Royal Society.
Founded in 1660, the United Kingdom’s national academy of sciences is one of the most prestigious scientific institutions in the world and stands for the highest standards of scientific excellence. With this election, the Royal Society honors Asifa Akhtar’s groundbreaking contributions to epigenetics, chromatin research, and gene regulation. The formal admission ceremony will take place in July 2025.
More than 90 outstanding scientists from around the world were elected to the Royal Society this year. They are being recognized for their exceptional achievements and contributions to scientific knowledge and are among the leading figures in their respective fields.
Sir Adrian Smith, President of the Royal Society, welcomed the newest cohort of outstanding researchers:
“Their achievements represent the very best of scientific endeavour, from basic discovery to research with real-world impact across health, technology and policy. The strength of the Fellowship lies not only in individual excellence, but in the diversity of backgrounds, perspectives and experiences each new member brings. This cohort represents the truly global nature of modern science and the importance of collaboration in driving scientific breakthroughs.”
Asifa Akhtar is an internationally leading scientist in the field of epigenetics. Her research has significantly advanced our understanding of how cells regulate genetic information through chemical modifications of DNA and histones. Her work on chromatin and gene regulation has elucidated key principles of how our genetic material is controlled and has provided important insights into the understanding of genetically based diseases.
Biography of Asifa Akhtar
Asifa Akhtar was born in Karachi, studied biology at University College London, and received her PhD in 1997 from the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in London, where she researched mechanisms of gene regulation. She continued her work on chromatin regulation as a postdoctoral researcher at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg and at the Adolf Butenandt Institute in Munich. She returned to EMBL Heidelberg in 2001 as a group leader before moving her lab to the Max Planck Institute in Freiburg in 2009. Since 2013, Asifa Akhtar has been a Scientific Member and Director at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg. In 2020, she was also appointed Vice President of the Biology and Medicine Section of the Max Planck Society.
She has received numerous honors for her scientific and personal achievements: In 2008, she was awarded the prize of the European Life Science Organization (ELSO), was elected as an EMBO member in 2013, and joined the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in 2019. In 2021, she received the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize of the German Research Foundation (DFG) for her cell biological research into mechanisms of epigenetic gene regulation. That same year, she was awarded the Christa Šerić-Geiger Prize by the Carl Friedrich Geiger Foundation, which honors women who have made outstanding contributions to science, education, culture, social issues, or gender equality. In 2023, she received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, which recognizes individuals who use their knowledge to support disadvantaged people. In 2025, she received the FEBS | EMBO Women in Science Award.
About the Royal Society
The Royal Society is the world’s oldest national scientific institution. It promotes scientific excellence and harnesses scientific knowledge for the benefit of society. The Society's approximately 1,700 Fellows and Foreign Members, including many Nobel Prize laureates, are elected for life through a rigorous selection process.
Each year’s newly elected Fellows and Foreign Members join a distinguished tradition that includes luminaries such as Stephen Hawking, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Lise Meitner, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, and Dorothy Hodgkin.