VLB INSIDE
VLB NEWS
Dr. Frank Rath entered retirement As previously announced in December 2016, Dr. Frank Rath ceded leadership of the VLB Research Institute for Raw Materials (FIR) of his own volition effective 1 January 2018 and entered into retirement. The new Head of the institute is Henrike Vorwerk, a state-certified food chemist.
VLB Managing Director Dr. Josef Fontaine (left) and the new Head of the VLB Research Institute for Raw Materials, Henrike Vorwerk, wish Dr. Frank Rath (center) all the best for his retirement
(oh) Passing on the torch at VLB Berlin: After about 20 years of service to VLB, Dr. Frank Rath stepped down from his position as Head of the Research Institute for Raw Materials at the end of 2017. However, even after he enters retirement, the internationally recognized malting barley expert will continue to make himself available to VLB in an advisory capacity. Ever since VLB Berlin was founded, raw materials for brewing have been a focus of its work. For example, ‘the recognition and acquisition of premium raw materials’ was defined as one of VLB’s key tasks by the institute’s first Scientific Director, Dr. Max Delbrück. This work was undertaken for nearly a century by the VLB Raw Materials division. This became the VLB Research Institute for Raw Materials in 1981, which developed into an internationally recognized institution in the field of
malting barley research under the leadership of Dr. Reinhold Schildbach. Rath assumed leadership of the institute in 1999. He was born in 1957 and studied agricultural science with a focus on crop science at the University of Bonn from 1980 to 1986. Rath earned his doctorate in agricultural science from the Technical University of Berlin in 1993. His doctoral dissertation was entitled ‘Histological and Physiological Examinations of Water Uptake during the Malting of Various Barley Genotypes of Various Origins and Crop Years with the Aim of Optimizing Malting Work and Malt Quality.’ Rath gained professional experience at the Friedrich Weissheimer Malzfabrik malt house in Andernach, Germany, where he led the crop science and physiology division from 1990 to 1998. He then began working at VLB Berlin on 1 January 1999, taking over as Head
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Brauerei Forum International – May 2018
of the Research Institute for Raw Materials from Schildbach. During the nearly 20 years that he held this position, Rath built up the institute into a leading, cutting-edge analytical laboratory for cereal analysis. Furthermore, he continually built upon VLB’s strong reputation and various competencies in the areas of malting barley research and cereal analysis. He always remained open to innovations, consistently implementing laboratory automation, cutting-edge software solutions, and process integration at the research institute. Rath was particularly involved in the following areas: He served as an active member of the Mitteleuropäische Brautechnische Analysenkommission e.V. (MEBAK) starting in 2009; this included acting as a workgroup leader for the revision of the ‘Raw Materials’ volume in the ‘Brewing Technology Analysis Methods’ series. As a member of the Scientific Advisory Board and Variety Committee of Braugersten-Gemeinschaft e.V, he participated in the development and continuous improvement of the ‘Berlin program.’ This program involves comprehensive quality analyses that form the basis for evaluating new malting barley varieties for their suitability for processing in Germany. Research member of the working group ‘Raw Materials, Malting and Hops’ of the Technical Scientific Committee (TSC) of VLB Established and carried out malt monitoring for Deutscher BrauerBund e.V. Regular, comprehensive smallscale malting and analytic evaluations of new malting barley varieties for many renowned nurseries as well as for the German Federal Plant Variety Office and other official test programs, such