The topic of her dissertation was "Glutathione reductase and its apoenzyme: contributions to malaria chemotherapy and to diagnosing FAD deficiencies" (German: Glutathionreduktase und ihr Apoenzym: Beiträge zur Chemotherapie der Malaria und zur Diagnostik von FAD-Mangelzuständen).

In 1999 Julius Maximilians University in Würzburg appointed her to an associate professorship in the Research Center for Infectious Diseases (German: Zentrum für Infektionsforschung).

In 2000, Justus Liebig University in Giessen appointed her to a full professorship in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Interdisciplinary Research Center (German: Interdisziplinäres Forschungszentrum für biowissenschaftliche Grundlagen der Umweltsicherung (IFZ)).

[2][9] Since 2014, Becker has been the coordinator of DFG Priority Program 1710, "Dynamics of Thiol-based Redox Switches in Cellular Physiology.

[12][13] On 3 July 2019 Becker was elected as president of the German Research Foundation, thereby becoming the first female to hold this post.