Open Science Ambassadors

This is the initial group of Open Access Ambassadors as established in 2014! Read their stories and learn more about their motivations:

	Ambassador Jacqueline Moltzau Anderson Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Biology ”Through open access, our community can only benefit.”
	Ambassador Till Andlauer Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry ”I have recently made very positive experiences with publishing results from my PhD thesis in an open access journal and therefore advocate open access publishing to my colleagues.”
	Ambassador Dorota Badowska Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine ”Becoming the OA ambassador would also allow me to share the information on the topic with the colleagues in my institute as well as with other scientists from different institutes in different countries.”
	Ambassador Stanislav Balouchev Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research “To pull towards high quality research to be published in Open Access journals in order to provoke curiosity to scientific subjects from a broader audience.”
	Ambassador Thomas Berkemeier Max Planck Institute for Chemistry “Knowledge should be a good that is free and open to anyone interested.“
	Ambassador Marius Buning Max Planck Institute for the History of Science “I want to become an open access ambassador in order to foster the discussion on the utility of copyrights and copylefts as well as to promote equal access to knowledge recourses.”
	Ambassador David Cabrera Max-Planck-Institute for Chemistry ”A workshop focused on the scientific publishing system it is a perfect idea to boost our skills on how to share our knowledge.”
	Ambassador Dong-Seon Chang Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics “I think it is very important to raise awareness about open access amongst graduate students already in their early stages of career why open access is such an important issue for science and research.”
	Ambassador Shradha Das Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics ”Being an open access ambassador will help me to contribute to the dream of open and equal opportunity to science.”
	Ambassador Benedikt Ernst Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids “I want to be an open access ambassador because I think that the access to scientific knowledge shouldn’t be the matter of money.”
	Ambassador Max Planck Institute “As a future academic, I think it is tantamount to improve access to knowledge via Open Access.”
	Ambassador Max Planck Institute ”Science should be accessible to anyone, thus encouraging open access publishing is fundamental.”
	Ambassador Amie Fairs Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics “The lack of open access to research, especially when publicly funded, only hurts scientists, students and the public. Correcting this will benefit the scientific community and wider society.”
	Ambassador Xixi Feng Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry “Scientific knowlegde should be available for everyone who is interested in, independent of research area, financial situation or personal background.”
	Ambassador Robert Flassig Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems ”Open Access has the potential to push innovation and join research groups all over the world.”
	Ambassador Tim Gatzenmeier Max Planck Institute for Coal Research “Due to these experiences with the scientific and publication process, I am very interested in the discussions expected on this conference and I hope to contribute to them as well.”
	Ambassador Martin Gerlach Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems ”However, more importantly, I want to actively participate in the dissemination of the idea of open access providing relevant information to other (young) researchers such that they can make a conscious decision on how they want to publish their scientific results.”
	Ambassador Christopher Harbort Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology ”I think open access publishing will be an important step forward in communicating science in the near future.“
	Ambassador Jan Heiland Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems “I want to be an Open Access ambassador since Open Access is what I stand up for in science and academia.”
	Ambassador Evelien Heyselaar Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics ”To me, open access will also enhance cross-disciplinary communication, an aspect that all scientists admit is necessary for the proper evolution of scientific knowledge.”
	Ambassador Agnes Hüttmann Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology ”The fact that the Max Planck Society supports the concept of Open Access is fortunately in line with the demand for improvement of dissemination and exchange of scientific knowledge.”
	Ambassador Ashiq Hussain Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology ”I believe the Open Access Ambassadors Conference and Open Access Ambassadors are the right step to gap the bridge between public and researchers and I would be gratified to be a part of this phenomenon.“
	Ambassador Vinodh Ilangovan Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry
	Ambassador Michaela Kaufmann Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics
	Ambassador Thomas Keitzl Max Planck Institute for Max Planck Institute for Meteorology “I’d be happy to spread the word about it on a well informed basis.”
	Ambassador John Kim Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry “Due to the highly politicized and divisive nature of the issues we work with, often financed by public funding sources, it has become increasingly important for scientists to ensure a fair and accessible portrayal of our works to the public.”
	Ambassador Lorenz Knackstedt Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology ”I think it lies within the responsibility of the next generation of researchers to make science more accessible, more open, so that everyone has the opportunity to benefit from its findings.”
	Ambassador Göran Köber Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law ”Open Access means to me a considerable and valuable improvement of scientific practice both towards a scientific and towards a non-scientific community.”
	Ambassador Rolf Köhler-Schölkopf Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems “In my opinion, scientific knowledge, especially if generated with public money, should be available to the public without extra charges.“
	Ambassador Max Planck Institute ”Scientific knowledge should be available for everyone everywhere, no matter if her/his institution has the money to pay for expensive subscriptions of fashionable journals or not.“
	Ambassador Yanli Li Friedrich Miescher Laboratory of the Max Planck Society “Have more people get access of my publication, it’s good.”
	Ambassador Gwilym Lockwood Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics “I am interested in the development of systems like Altmetrics. Scientists will be more likely to switch to Open Access publishing if they (and their employers/funding bodies!) can see a measure of a paper’s influence beyond citations and journal impact factor.”
	Ambassador Jan-Matthis Lueckmann Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics ”Open access to scientific publications and — beyond that — data, creates interesting possibilities for improving and accelerating science.“
	Ambassador Silja McIlwrick Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry ”It is very important for me to learn about the new ways of publishing my research, including all advantages and disadvantages.”
	Ambassador Elizabeth Merrill Max Planck Institute for the History of Science ”To-date, my Open Access article has been viewed over 750 times, and has served as the catalyst for my forging new relationships in the academic community.“
	Ambassador Susanne Moosecker Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry “I like the idea of economical independence of science.”
	Ambassador Lukas Müller Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research ”To my opinion, only open access is the answer to the current problems and the best option for the future.”
	Ambassador Dennis Mwaura Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies “The wider our work is disseminated, the better our research community will become when access to the long-fought fruits of our academic labour is no longer in question.“
	Ambassador Rafik Neme Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology “In the current scheme of science, there is an unequal distribution of funding and access to knowledge. This is sad and embarrassing, because science is a collective human endeavor, from which as many layers of society as possible should benefit.”
	Ambassador Mareike Pampus Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology “I want to become an Open Access Ambassador because I think it is important that young scholars start conversations about open access.”
	Ambassador Marlon Pérez Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics ”I would like to see an OPEN ACCESS world, where everybody can share.”
	Ambassador Daniel Pickersgill Max Planck Institute for Chemistry ”I also believe others may benefit from having access to my information or even database system to analyse their own data.”
	Ambassador Roman Prinz Max Planck Institute for Human Development ”The goals of Open Access very much appeal to me and I think that it is time to repay the people who finance our research (tax payers) by making our results and perspectives available to them for free.”
	Ambassador Johannes Rauh Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences
	Ambassador Simone Rieger Max Planck Institute for the History of Science “I’m engaged in creating new formats for open access publishing in the Humanities.”
	Ambassador Gustavo Rohenkohl Ernst Strüngmann Institute For Neuroscience in Cooperation with Max Planck Society ”This experience led me to always prioritize OA publication, ensuring that my personal work is freely available online.”
	Ambassador Clémentine Le Roux Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research ”I am convinced that good science must be shared and scientific knowledge disseminated to scholarship but also to society as a whole.”
	Ambassador Shervin Safavi Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics ”This conference helps me to gain this knowledge and establish the necessary network for my current and future efforts in this direction.”
	Ambassador Anina Schwarzenbach Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law ”I very much support the idea of „open access” and think that this will be the future of science.”
	Ambassador Edgardo Sepulveda Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology ”I want to be one of those colleagues and work together with the MPS for a change (N.B. in Open Access) that will certainly have a big impact on society.”
	Ambassador Maiara Severo Max Planck Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology ”I strongly believe Open Access will change society for years to come and I want to be part of this movement, promote it and propagate its message.”
	Ambassador Bogdan Sieriebriennikov Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology ”For me, this was a very simple illustration of my deep personal belief that knowledge must be shared and collaboration is most effective when researchers have open access to honestly produced data.”
	Ambassador Michael Stitz Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology ”I really enjoy the idea of open access journals and supported it by rendering all my publications open access as well.”
	Ambassador Eva-Regkina Symeonidou Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics ”Sharing knowledge can benefit society in so many aspects, and having free access to this knowledge should be a right and not a privilege.”
	Ambassador Seyed Behzad Tabibian Max Planck Institute For Intelligent Systems ”To further extend Open Access objectives is not limited to the make literature and scientific publications free to read and requires various scientific communities to also volunteer and make their works available to public beyond only scientific papers they write, for example publishing datasets and codes are also becoming a good publishing practice by many communities.”
	Ambassador Dhananjay Tate Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology ”Being part of an ambitious project such as this, initiated by one of the most powerful scientific societies in the world, gives the Ambassador a tool, with which she/he can play a role, in building and providing an Autobahn of knowledge to one who wishes to tread on the path of enlightenment.”
	Ambassador Behiye Tugce Yildizoglu Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology ”Since as a concerned PhD student I do not have much power to make a change on these issues (N.B. in Open Access), being an OA Ambassador can provide an excellent platform for me to start working on this.”
	Ambassador Oliver Unger Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law
	Ambassador Freja Vamborg Max Planck Institute for Meteorology “I fully support the idea of open access to a wider audience, of both publications and scientific data, however with some constraints.”
	Ambassador Jacob Verghese Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry “Knowledge is power! Why should this knowledge be limited to a few, when the community as a whole pays for the advancement of knowledge through science research and education?”
	Ambassador Ilaria Visco Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry ”Since I read about the ambassadors campaign I am extremely enthusiastic and willing to participate.“
	Ambassador Diana Vonnák Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology “My first reason for being interested in becoming an Open Access Ambassador is the belief that as scientists, whose main output is in textual form it is of utmost importance to be aware of the legal framework of publishing.”
	Ambassador Marina Winkler Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences ”I would like to acquire a deeper knowledge of open access publishing with all it’s facettes, which I can bring back to our MPI and share with the other PhD’s and Postdocs here.”
	Ambassador Monika Zaba Max Planck Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry “I think that open access offers a promising approach to communicate research efforts not only to scientific community but also to public.”
	Ambassador Angelica Zacarias Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics “Contribute to the increasing availability of open access resources, not just limited to publications but extended to data-sets and supplementary information, including codes, etc.”

Former Ambassadors: Cedrick Ansorge, Chiara Bearzotti, Juan Bermejovega, Mary Gazea, Leonhard Horstmeyer, Sara Santarelli

Note: All statements above express personal views of the Ambassadors. All statements are licensed under

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License