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Margarethe Hofmann-Amtenbrink began her work in 1968 as an assistant for metallography (Lette Verein, Berlin) and worked in the German industry for 6 years. She then studied foundry technology in Duisburg and materials science at the Technical University of Berlin, and received her doctorate in materials science at the Max Planck Institute Stuttgart, Powder Metallurgical Laboratory under Prof. Günter Petzow and at the Technical University of Berlin in 1985.  Married with a Swiss Foundry & Materials Scientist, she started her company Mat Search Consulting Hofmann in 1987 in Switzerland. Since that time MatSearch has been involved in various consulting activities for European industries and the Swiss government, she served for about two decades as Managing Director and later President of  the Swiss Association for Materials Science and Technology and the Foundation for Rare Metals, ESM (about 30 years). She was the initiator and scientific coordinator of two major European projects under FP5 (Magnanomed 2000-2003) and FP7 (NanoDiaRA 2010-2014) in the field of nanoparticles for health applications and was a partner in the HORIZON 2020 project FORAM from 2016 to 2018. In the 90th she was Administrative Director of the Swiss Governmental Priority Program for Materials (PPM), and as Chairperson of the Research Program on Biotechnology in Osteosynthesis of the AO Foundation, Davos Switzerland. In addition to national and international conferences for SVMT, she initiated and organised together with colleagues from ETH Zurich and EPF Lausanne several Editions of the International Biomaterials Conference in Switzerland and carried out ESM Sessions at the World Resources Forum (WRF) between 2013 and 2017 in Davos.

From 2010 to 2017 M Hofmann-Amtenbrink was a member of the Executive Committee of the Federation of European Materials Societies, FEMS, since 2012, Vice President, President and immediate Past President of FEMS for two years each. Since 2013, she has organised scientific meetings at FEMS EUROMAT conferences and was Chair of the Organising Committee of the FEMS Junior Euromat 2016 at EPFL, Lausanne Switzerland. M. Hofmann represented FEMS in the two European projects MatVal and MATCH (Materials Common House). In this time, she initiated several expert workshops in cooperation with other European societies and European technology platforms, to highlight a) materials science and technology as a driver for global innovation and development and b) the importance of the closed-loop approach in the materials value chain (circular economy).

Hofmann is an individual member of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences, SATW, Switzerland, and was a member of various scientific advisory boards, e.g. EA - European Academy of Technology and Innovation Assessment, Helmholtz Centre Geesthacht, Competence Centre for Applied Biotechnology and Molecular Medicine, Switzerland. She was awarded the Rodolphe and Renée Haenny Prize in Switzerland in 2005. In 2019 she was appointed honorary member of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Materialkunde (DGM) and receives this honour in December 2020 from the Société Française de Métallurgie et de Matériaux. She is now retired and lives in Portugal and Switzerland.

Margarethe Hofmann-Amtenbrink began her work in 1968 as an assistant for metallography (Lette Verein, Berlin) and worked for 6 years in the German industry. Afterwards she studied foundry technology in Duisburg and materials science at the Technical University of Berlin. In 1985 she received her doctorate in materials science at the Max-Planck-Institute Stuttgart, powder metallurgical laboratory with Prof. Günter Petzow and at the Technical University of Berlin. Married to a Swiss foundry and materials scientist, she founded her company Mat Search Consulting Hofmann in Switzerland in 1987. Since then MatSearch has been involved in various consulting activities for European industry and the Swiss government. For about two decades, she was managing director and later president of the Swiss Association for Materials Science and Technology and the Foundation for Rare Metals, ESM (about 30 years). She was the initiator and scientific coordinator of two major European projects under FP5 (Magnanomed 2000-2003) and FP7 (NanoDiaRA 2010-2014) in the field of nanoparticles for health applications and was a partner in the HORIZON 2020 project FORAM from 2016–2018. In the 1990s, she was Administrative Director of the Swiss Government's Priority Programme for Materials (PPM) and as Chair of the Research Programme on Biotechnology in Osteosynthesis of the AO Foundation, Davos Switzerland. In addition to national and international conferences for SVMT, she initiated and organised several editions of the International Biomaterials Conference in Switzerland together with colleagues from ETH Zurich and EPF Lausanne and conducted ESM sessions at the World Resources Forum (WRF) in Davos between 2013–2017.