Jutta Allmendinger


Jutta Allmendinger is a German sociologist. She is the President of the WZB Berlin Social Science Center and a Professor of Educational Sociology and Labor Market Research at Humboldt University. She is also a Senior Fellow at the Center for European Studies at Harvard University.

Education

Allmendinger studied sociology and social psychology at the University of Mannheim and sociology, economics and statistics at the University of Madison, Wisconsin. In 1989, she earned her Ph.D. in social studies at Harvard University.

Career

Allmendinger worked at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin from 1988 and 1991, followed by an employment at Harvard Business School. From 1992 to 2007, she was a full Professor of Sociology at the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich. She also served as director of the Institute of Employment Research at the Federal Employment Agency in Nuremberg from 2003 until 2007. Between 1999 and 2002 she was chairperson of the German Sociological Association.
In April 2007 she became President of the WZB Berlin Social Science Center and was appointed Professor of Educational Sociology and Labour Market Research at Humboldt University. Since 2012 she is also Honorary Professor of Sociology at Free University of Berlin.

Research

Her research interests focus on social inequality, education, and labor markets.

Role in German politics

Allmendinger is a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany. When Federal President Joachim Gauck announced in June 2016 that he would not be available for reelection, Allmendinger was soon mentioned by German media as likely successor.
Recently, she was appointed as chair of the Zukunftsrat of the Hesse State and to the German government's so-called "coal commission", which is tasked to develop a master plan on how to phase-out coal as an energy source and create a new economic perspective for the country's coal-mining regions.

Memberships

Jutta Allmendinger serves in numerous advisory boards in Germany and abroad. Between 2006 and 2012 she was a member of the Scientific Commission of the German Council of Sciences and Humanities, between 2007 and 2011 of the Commission of Experts for Research and Innovation established by the German government. In addition to that, she was a member of the advisory board of the Commissioner of the German Federal Government for Migration, Refugees and Integration, Maria Böhmer. Allmendinger was also a member of the High Level Economic Expert Group "Innovation for Growth" of the European Commission. Since 2016 she has been a member of the supervisory board of the Berlin City Cleaning, and since 2017 she has been the Co-Editor of the weekly newspaper "Die Zeit".
Allmendinger is a member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, and the National Academy of Science and Engineering.

Awards

Jutta Allmendinger has received a number of awards: DAAD-Scholarship for postgraduate studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA, Krupp Fellowship, Harvard Dissertation Merit Fellowship, Award of the “Münchener Universitätsgesellschaft” for extraordinary achievements in teaching, Fellowship at the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, CA, USA, Award of the “Deutscher Frauenring”, Communicator Award, Berlin Women Award, “TUM Distinguished Affiliate Professorship” of the Technical University of Munich, Berlin Order of Merit, Soroptimist International German Promotional Award, Waldemar-von Knoeringen Award, Schader Award of the Schader Foundation, Honorary Doctorate of the University of Tampere, Senior Fellow at the Center for European Studies of Harvard University, Marsilius-Medal of the Heidelberg University, Helge-Pross-Award of the University of Siegen. Allmendinger was awarded with the Thomas Mann Fellowship 2018 of Villa Aurora and Thomas Mann House e.V.

Selceted Publications