Angela Zink honoured with the EULAR Meritorious Service Award 2023

Prof. Dr. Angela Zink received the EULAR Meritorious Service Award 2023 for her outstanding contributions to European rheumatology research on 31 May. The highest award of the European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR: formerly European League against Rheumatism) was presented to the former head of the  Programme Area Epidemiology and Health Services Research at the DRFZ and Prof. Dr. Bernhard Combe from Montpellier, France, during the opening ceremony of the EULAR Congress in Milan, Italy.

Angela Zink headed the DRFZ Epidemiology Department (later: Programme Area Epidemiology and Health Services Research) from 1991 to 2020. She was also Deputy Scientific Director of the institute from 1996 to 2020.

Under Angela Zink’s leadership, the DRFZ developed into a center for epidemiological research into the risks, consequences and care of rheumatic diseases, particularly via the establishment of long-term observation cohorts, which were made possible by a large network of rheumatologists in clinics and practices.

At the European level, she has promoted the cooperation of the biologics registers and is currently involved in setting up the patient-supported EULAR cohort on the consequences of rheumatic diseases in Europe. She has been chair for the Standing Committee on Epidemiology for EULAR, a member of the Scientific Committee of the FOREUM Research Foundation and hosted the EULAR Epidemiology Summer School at the DRFZ from 2012 to 2019.

Angela Zink has been an emeritus professor since 2020, but is still actively involved in epidemiology research into rheumatic diseases, both at the DRFZ and internationally.