Dr. Verena Rappaport, DBU scholarship holder from 1994 to 1997 and now head of the European communications and market research of DuPont de Nemours in the crop protection division. She is responsible for the introduction of new plant protection products from the DuPont pipeline, that is competitive analysis, product positioning and creation of communication materials.
Previously the agricultural scientist worked at BASF, also in crop protection, and in the CMA (Central Marketing Agency of the German agricultural and food industry) in Bonn, where she was in charge of science communication on green genetic engineering. The central theme in her career is the implementation of complex, scientific research findings into simple, manageable context.
In her thesis Verena Rappaport developed together with farmers several methods for the implementation of environmental indicators in the integrated winter wheat production. About her time as DBU scholarship, she says:
»The DBU already promoted environmental issues when this was not very common. In particular, problems of practical relevance for small and medium enterprises often remain neglected. The farmers, my partners in the DBU project, were demanding teachers. What they could not understand, they simply have not accepted and implemented. I am taking advantage of it today, if I want to make for example the development of crop protection research generally understandable.«
