{"id":2204,"date":"2014-10-17T10:34:37","date_gmt":"2014-10-17T08:34:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.embl.de\/?p=2204"},"modified":"2024-11-14T16:22:40","modified_gmt":"2024-11-14T15:22:40","slug":"1410_frieda-gloeckner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/alumni\/1410_frieda-gloeckner\/","title":{"rendered":"Witness to history"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Whilst working as a secretary at the Medical Biology Laboratory in Rijswijk, in the Netherlands, her manager J.A. Cohen died unexpectedly. Cohen was vice-chair of EMBO\u2019s Council, and part of a team of ambitious scientists who were sowing the first seeds of a joint European venture in molecular biology. Eager to find another job in the field, she contacted EMBO\u2019s executive secretary Ray Appleyard \u2013 soon she was on the train to Brussels, where she was hired on the spot just as project EMBL was beginning to take off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Front-row seat<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>It was the beginning of an adventure that provided Gl\u00f6ckner with a front-row seat to EMBL\u2019s history. She was involved in drawing up the Lab\u2019s first indicative scheme, organised initial steering committee meetings, and later served under four directors general as the institute grew from a mishmash of container rooms to the sophisticated multi-site operation it is today. \u201cIn the beginning, it was difficult to imagine what the Lab might become,\u201d she says. \u201cThere was no bus service, infrastructure, or electricity \u2013 all of that had to be put in place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"vf-blockquote\"><p><span style=\"line-height: 1.428571429;\">One project saw her trekking up a Swiss mountain with a typewriter on her back.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.428571429;\">She was also present at perhaps the most significant meeting in EMBL\u2019s history \u2013 the official signing ceremony at CERN, Geneva in May 1973. \u201cIt was attended by a who\u2019s who of biology,\u201d she says. \u201cBeforehand, many questions were being asked: How much money would be needed? How much were governments prepared to pay? Who would sign? But the team of scientists driving the project, led by Sir John Kendrew, had strong belief and were very effective at communicating its potential benefits. It ended up a marvellous occasion.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Above and beyond<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Ahead of the signing, Gl\u00f6ckner recalls hastily stitching together a makeshift flag to replace a missing one \u2013 a steadfast approach that characterised her early years in the Lab where she was administrator, recruiter, event organiser, and diplomat all at once. One project saw her trekking up a Swiss mountain with a typewriter on her back for a meeting with Jeffries Wyman, then Secretary General of EMBO. In another, she travelled to China where she spent four months studying mandarin in order to liaise with Chinese visitors. \u201cI had to rush back for the winter council meeting, where they needed me to take minutes!\u201d she smiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As the scope of the Lab\u2019s programmes grew, Gl\u00f6ckner\u2019s role evolved into heading up EMBL Council\u2019s meeting secretariat where, before retirement in 2007, she organised and meticulously recorded further events that have shaped EMBL\u2019s history. \u201cPeople can learn a lot from how the EMBL model has been achieved and it is crucial we preserve as much of this history as we can,\u201d she adds. \u201cI was always surrounded by people with great ideas, skill and passion, and looking back it makes me very proud to say that I was there at the start of something really big.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>EMBL Alumna Frieda Gl\u00f6ckner looks back more than four decades to where it all began.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":2209,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3],"tags":[62,80,81,43,25],"embl_taxonomy":[],"class_list":["post-2204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-lab-matters","tag-administration","tag-alumni","tag-anniversary","tag-heidelberg","tag-partnerships"],"acf":{"article_intro":"<p>Forty-five years ago, alumna Frieda Gl\u00f6ckner made a phone call that changed her life.<\/p>\n","related_links":[{"link_description":"EMBL archive ","link_url":"http:\/\/embl.org\/archive"},{"link_description":"EMBL Alumni Relations ","link_url":"http:\/\/www.embl.de\/aboutus\/alumni\/index.html"},{"link_description":"","link_url":""}],"article_sources":false,"vf_locked":false,"featured":false,"color":"#007B53"},"embl_taxonomy_terms":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- 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