This is a summary of the curriculum vitae (CV) of Dr. Bernd Pulverer, Head of EMBO Press and Chief Editor of EMBO Reports, Heidelberg, Germany.
Many of you may know EMBO Press, which is a publisher in the field of life sciences that publishes the journals The EMBO Journal (impact factor 13.8), EMBO Reports (8.8), Molecular Systems Biology (12.7), and EMBO Molecular Medicine (14.0), and co-publishes Life Science Alliance (5.8). EMBO was founded in 1964 and its letters stand for “European Molecular Biology Organization.” From EMBO, in 1974, also the “European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL)” was initiated. EMBO Press and EMBL share a campus in Heidelberg, Germany, and are independent of each other but do collaborate. The EMBO Press and EMBL are among the top of what Europe has to offer in life science.
By being the Head of Scientific Publications at EMBO (EMBO Press), and also Chief Editor of EMBO Reports, Dr. Pulverer has a very important function in scientific publishing. His previous editorial functions are equally impressive, including being editor (first associate, then senior) at Nature in 1999-2002, Chief Editor of Nature Cell Biology in 2002-2009, and Chief Editor of The EMBO Journal in 2009-2021.
Although born in Cologne, Germany, he studied Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge, and then did his Ph.D. in cancer research at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, London. In this period, he demonstrated that a kinase then called SAPK targeted the transcription factors c-Jun and c-Myc, based on which it was later named JNK (c-Jun N-terminal kinase); this was among the first examples of targeting of transcription factors by reversible protein phosphorylation, and resulted in an impressive first-author paper in Nature (Pulverer et al. 1991; 1898 citations according to Google Scholar!). Then, between 1992 and 1999, he did postdoctoral research in Canada, the USA, and Austria, and he describes himself as a “Molecular biologist who specialized in signal transduction, transcriptional regulation, proteolysis, and cancer.” In this second stage of his career as an experimental researcher, he continued his studies on the regulation of the transcription factors c-Jun and M-myc (e.g., Pulverer et al. 1993; 1994; 2000). In 1999, because former colleagues of his worked there and suggested he apply for a job, he became editor at Nature and hasn’t left the editorial world since.
Passions of Dr. Pulverer include the openness and reproducibility of scientific data, and he is involved in several initiatives to improve these (see his advisory board functions below).
I met Dr. Pulverer in December, 2022, at the Molecular Biology Society of Japan (MBSJ) congress in Chiba. He was one of the main speakers there and gave an excellent talk about scientific publishing. I am sure that also the audience at Fujita health University will be captivated by his presentation.
CURRICULUM VITAE
PERSONAL Born in 1968 in Cologne, Germany (nationality: Austrian)
EDUCATION
1986-1989 MA, Natural Sciences, University of Cambridge, UK
1989-1992 Ph.D., Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, London, UK
POSITIONS
1992-1993 Postdoctoral fellow, Ontario Cancer Institute, Toronto, Canada
1994-1996 Research fellow, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, USA
(Feodor Lynen research fellow, Alexander von Humboldt foundation)
1997-1999 Research fellow, Institute of Biochemistry, University of Innsbruck, Austria
1999-2001 Associate Editor, Nature, London
2001-2009 Senior Editor, Signaling Gateway/Molecule Pages database
2002 Senior Editor, Nature, London
2002-2009 Chief Editor, Nature Cell Biology, London, UK
2009-2021 Chief Editor, The EMBO Journal, Heidelberg, Germany
2009-present Head, Scientific Publications, EMBO, Heidelberg, Germany
2021-present Chief Editor, EMBO Reports, Heidelberg, Germany
ADVISORY BOARDS
• bioRxiv (a preprint server for Biology)
• Review Commons (a preprint peer-review platform associated with EMBO Press, eLife, ASCB, The Company of Biologists, Rockefeller University Press and PLOS)
• DORA (the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment recognizes the need to improve the ways in which researchers and the outputs of scholarly research are evaluated)
• RORI (the Research on Research Institute wants to improve how research is funded, practiced, communicated, and evaluated)
• STM (scientific, technical, and medical) Image Integrity (an initiative to safeguard research integrity)
• ASM (American Society of Microbiology)
• Vienna BioCenter-VIP2 (a postdoctoral fellowship program)
• QUEST (Berlin) (develops and implements new approaches to ensure that biomedical research is conducted in a trustworthy manner, provides useful results, and meets ethical standards)
• CMMC (Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne)
• PRO-MaP (Promoting Reusable and Open Methods and Protocols)
PUBLICATIONS
Research Papers
Editorials/Commentaries/Reviews
>100 Editorials in Nature Cell Biology, Nature, The EMBO Journal, EMBO Reports, and EMBO Molecular Medicine
35 Commentaries or Scientific Reviews in Nature Cell Biology, Nature, Nature Medicine, Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol, Nat Rev Genetics, Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol, Pigment Cell Res, Adv Second Messenger Phosphoprotein Res, Biochem Soc Trans, Biochim Biophys Acta, Learned Publishing, EMBLetcetera, and EMBOencounters.
Selection:
• Pulverer B. Dora the Brave. The EMBO Journal 34, 1601-1602 (2015)
• Pulverer B. Reproducibility blues.The EMBO Journal 34, 2721-2724 (2015)
• Pulverer B. Data Accessibility and Reproducibility: Moving to transparent publishing in the Biosciences Information Services & Use, vol. 35, no. 3, pp. 185-188, 2015 (2015)
• Pulverer B. Publication catalysis—lowering activation energy. The EMBO Journal 37, e70001 (2018)
• Pulverer B. Preparing for Preprints. The EMBO Journal 35, 2617-2619 (2016)
• Pulverer B, Graf C. Sampling the ethics stew in Berlin: APE2016 (2016)
• Pulverer B. Lowering Friction in Scientific Information Sharing. EMBO Press, Newsletter (2016)
• Pulverer B. Open Access—or Open Science? The EMBO Journal 37, e101215 (2018)
• Pulverer B. Registered animal studies and null data. EMBO Reports 21, e49868 (2020)
• Pulverer B, Batista FD. The fifth decade. The EMBO Journal 40, e108009 (2021)
