The next RED School will be March 16-22, 2025
Discover the school program and apply
Here’s the team of teachers in charge of this year’s courses, with whom you’ll have the opportunity to interact
microbiology, life in extreme environments, radiation biology, photobiology, habitability, planetary protection
Petra Rettberg received her diploma in chemistry in 1983 and her doctorate in biochemistry/molecular biology in 1988 from the Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany. From 1988 to 1992 she headed the radiobiology working group at the Max-Planck-Institute of Radiation Chemistry in Mülheim a.d. Ruhr, Germany. Since 1993 she is working at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in the Institute of Aerospace Medicine, since 1996 as head of the Research Group ‘Astrobiology’ and since 2005 as deputy head of the Department of Radiation Biology. Her research interests are astrobiology, habitability, microbiology, life in extreme environments, radiation biology, photobiology and planetary protection. She is principal investigator and co-investigator of several space experiments on satellites, space shuttles and space stations. She authored more than 260 articles in peer-reviewed journals in addition to book chapters and conference proceedings. From the International Academy of Astronautics she received the IAF Distinguished Service Award and the IAF Life Sciences Book Award.