Martin Stratmann selected as new Max Planck Society president

Nature : The Max Planck Society , which runs 80 research institutes in Germany and 13 international partner institutes, has selected Martin Stratmann as its new president. The society, founded in 1948, receives funding from the German federal government and from each of the nation’s 16 states; it currently has an operating budget of around €2 billion ($2.6 billion). Stratmann, a vice president of the society since 2008, replaces Peter Gruss, who has been president since 2002. Stratmann is currently the director of the department of interface chemistry and surface engineering at the Max Planck Institute for Iron Research, which is a partnership between the society and the German Steel Institute and is located in Düsseldorf.