Ulrich Betz

Ulrich Betz is the initiator and conference lead of the Curious2018 Conference. He is Vice President Innovation at Merck KGaA. In this capacity, he heads the department Innovation & Entrepreneurship Incubator which is responsible for global innovation management at Merck Biopharma across the value chain. Uli is an accomplished R&D manager with 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, including positions in the President’s Office Merck Biopharma and positions reporting directly to the Heads of Research and Development at Bayer AG and Merck KGaA. He received his PhD in functional genomics and immunology from the University of Cologne and his diploma in biochemistry and physiological chemistry from the University of Tübingen. Uli Betz has won several innovation awards for his innovation activities such as e.g. the German Industry Innovation Award 2015, the Edison Award and the Stevie Gold Award in 2017 (R&D manager of the year), the German Idea Award 2014 and the Bio IT world best practice award 2012. Uli Betz is author and co-author of more than 80 publications (e.g. Cell, Nature Medicine, Nature Biotechnology) and patents.At the beginning of the year 2021 Ulrich Betz has been appointed by the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, as a member of the German Council of Science and Humanities (Wissenschaftsrat).