Change in leadership and restructered decision bodies at CECAD

03.02.2026 Label 2026 Label TopNews Label Prof. Dr. Björn Schumacher

We are very pleased to announce that Prof. Björn Schumacher has been appointed the new Scientific Director of the Excellence Cluster CECAD on Aging and Aging-associated to follow up Prof. Carien Niessen, effective January 1, 2026. Prof. Schumacher was recruited to Cologne during CECAD’s first funding phase and has served as Full Professor and Head of the Institute for Genome Stability in Aging and Disease since 2013. For more than a decade, he has been an active and highly engaged member of the CECAD Executive Board, where his vision, and commitment have played an important role in shaping the Cluster and in the successful renewal of CECAD.

We are also pleased to announce a restructuring to the CECAD decision making bodies as of Jan 2026 to accelerate decision making processes. The reshaped, more lean new CECAD Executive Board, headed by Björn Schumacher, will consist of Dr. Ruth Hanßen, Prof. Thorsten Hoppe, Dr. Ina Huppertz, Prof. Elena Rugarli, Prof. Aleksandra Trifunovic and as non-voting member Dr. Sibylle Grandel, and will be responsible for day-to-day decision making. This EB will be complemented by the newly established CECAD Steering Board to guide long term strategic decision. It comprises apart from the EB members, representatives from all status groups, partner institutions, and some other boards. The current CECAD steering Board members are Prof. Thomas Benzing, Prof. Andreas Beyer, Prof. Mirka Uhlirova and Prof. David Vilchez (professors), Prof. Anne Schäfer (MPI Age), Nadezda Podvalany/Nisha Hemanhar Kumar (postdocs), Centina Kuiper-Makris (PhD students), Niklas Müller/Moritz Langela (students), Kerstin Selbach/Friedeman Pohlig (non-scientific staff) as well as the Speakers of the Career & Diversity Board (Prof. Mirka Uhlirova/Prof. Matteo Bergami), and the Managing Directors of the CECAD research center (Prof. Marcus Krüger) and the Institute for Genetics (Prof. Elena Rugarli).
The members of all new CECAD boards were elected and/or confirmed at the General Assembly Meeting in December 2025.

On behalf of Prof. Björn Schumacher and the new leadership team, we would like to express our heartfelt thanks to Prof. Carien Niessen, former Scientific Director of CECAD, for her exceptional dedication and leadership, which were instrumental to CECAD’s development and successful renewal. In addition, we would like to sincerely thank the former vice speakers Prof. Thomas Benzing and Prof. Thorsten Hoppe for their many contributions and guidance of CECAD. Thank you very much also to the former members of the Executive Board — Prof. Filipe Cabreiro, Prof. Anne Schäfer, and Prof. Mirka Uhlirova — for their strong commitment and valuable contributions in advancing CECAD.

We very much look forward to building on CECAD’s success together with the entire CECAD community and to further developing bold new concepts that will drive breakthrough discoveries in the mechanisms of aging and age-related diseases.

Best wishes
Björn Schumacher

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