Verena Lepper received her academic training in Egyptology and Oriental Studies in Germany, and at Oxford and Harvard University. Her postdoctoral work she conducted at Bonn, Oxford and Harvard. Since 2008 she is the tenured Collection Keeper for Egyptian and Oriental Papyri at the Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection, National Museums Berlin. In addition she teaches as honorary professor at the Humboldt University Berlin. She also received invitations as visiting professor and guest scientist at the Universities of Princeton and Harvard.

She is next to her academic discipline very involved in science policy. The World Science Forum awarded her as 2013 Young Scientist and she received a Starting Grant of the European Research Council. In 2013 she founded the “Arab-German Young Academy of Sciences and Humanitites” at the Berlin-Brandenburg Akademy of Sciences and Humanities, which is funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research. This is a renowned platform for Arab-German scientific cooperation and exchange.

The German Federal President and the German Federal Government awarded Verena Lepper in 2011/2012 as one of the “100 women of tomorrow”, recognizing her as academic scholar, university teacher and museum curator.