Scientia potentia est
In 2011 I graduated with an awarded thesis from the College for Viticulture in Klosterneuburg and decided to pursue my interest in life sciences with the bachelor´s program Food- and Biotechnology at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna. During the study, I developed a strong interest in molecular biology, which is why I graduated with a Bachelor Thesis in this field in 2016. Building on my interest in life sciences, I pursued the Biotechnology master´s program. For my Master Thesis, I chose a practical project at Austrian Institute of Technology with the focus on epigenetics and method development and evaluation, combining my interest in the epigenome and applied sciences. In April 2020, I finished my master´s program and graduated with distinction.
The curriculum at the College for Viticulture encompasses several mandatory internships. To gain a practical insight into the different specializations, I selected companies matching the curriculum as well as my interests. One of these internships led to an offer as an recurring intern at Lallemand, a company specialized on oenological counselling and manufacturing as well as selling of goods for wine production, where I remained during my Bachelor´s program. To gain work experience in my field of study, I worked as a student assistant at the Department of Applied Genetics and Cell Biology and as a laboratory technician at Max F. Perutz Laboratories in Manuela Baccarini´s group. During my Master Thesis at the Austrian Institute of Technology, I was offered a full-time position as a technician, to which I have transitioned shortly after completing the practical part of my Master Thesis in 2018. After more than three years in science, I transitioned from research to industry. My passion for analysing and solving problems -beyond the scope of my field of study- made my transition to the role as a Process Engineer at vogelbusch-biopharma easier than I could have hoped for such an interesting and challenging all-rounder position. In this role, I not only contributed technically but also gained substantial project management experience, due to the planning, coordination, and execution of complex engineering projects. I have worked on projects covering concept, basic, and detailed engineering, as well as the creation of functional specifications, plant automation, and the execution of factory acceptance testing (FAT). Across my assignments, I spent more than 15 months working abroad, directly involved in project realization in close collaboration with customers and facility management. During this time, I played a key role in driving projects focused on process and automation optimization, coordinating cross-functional teams, managing project activities, and successfully leading software FATs, among other responsibilities. After this period -largely characterized by numerous stays with clients abroad and a steep learning and experience curve- I decided to focus my career more strongly on my strengths in the area of optimization and development by joining VTU Engineering. In my role as a Process Digital Engineer, I have been primarily engaged in activities such as workflow optimizations, requirements engineering and management, as well as the development and delivery of customized trainings to key users of COMOS for the past year. In this position, I was responsible for defining requirements, as well as developing, testing, and managing the subsequent integration of software changes into internal workflows. Alongside these responsibilities, I gained valuable project management experience by coordinating improvement initiatives, aligning stakeholders, and structuring the implementation of digital solutions within ongoing engineering projects. In this position, I was responsible for defining requirements and overseeing the development, testing, and integration of software changes into internal workflows. These activities were highly cross-functional in nature and required close collaboration with the software manufacturer Siemens, various internal stakeholders and subject-matter experts, and, last but not least, the end users. After more than a year in a dynamic environment in which I gathered a lot of experiences with agile, waterfall and hybrid management techniques, I aimed to further cement my competencies in project management and took up the opportunity to start my career as project manager at Siemens Healthineers. My gathered expertise in research and engineering enables me to proactively guide project teams to deliver complex solutions in the highly sensitive healthcare environment, in which cost and time efficiency directly translates into a better experience for patients and higher quality care that can be provided by healthcare staff. Navigating through the strict healthcare laws, managing a multitude of different stakeholders and enabling healthcare staff to work with efficient advanced therapeutic imaging techniques in their highly dynamic workplace are just some of my tasks as project manager that require the utilization of many (particularly soft) skills on my end.
I started with strength training in my teenage years as an effective way to focus on my health while balancing work and studies. Utilizing this knowledge, I launched a project with a colleague from my university, called Bokuletics. There we offered bodyweight-focused training for our colleagues two times a week. After establishing the platform for a year, I passed on my role as a trainer and organizer and have focused on counselling students in legal matters regarding the study law. For this, I took the a position as a clerk for one year, and was elected as the head of the Office for Educational Policies, becoming the leader of a team of six people. My role as elected representative of the student body encompassed the responsibility for advisement regarding legal affairs of the student body and representing it in various committees. In year 2017, I resigned from my honorary position after one year in service to focus on my work experience. In 2019 and 2020 I was awarded with a scholarship and attended the wonderful European Forum Alpbach. Following up on my great experience, in 2021 I took up the role as the assistant to the seminar "Human Footprint - How to Improve it for the Good of All" lead by Josef Mitterer.
I like visiting and spending time with my friends, most of whom live across central Europe. Unfortunately, lately the pandemic has taken its toll on meeting up, as well as on going to concerts, also one of my favoured leisure activity. Alas, music plays on the stereo system, friends can be video-called and books are still here for me – so, focusing on the positives, (hopefully) this state of emergency will soon be over and we will see each other at the next gig. In the meantime, I have taken upon learning to code, a great way to learn something new and to broaden my horizon! To stay in shape, strength training is obligatory for me – after all, after 10+ years of training I know of the benefits it brings for the body as well as the mind and wouldn’t want to miss it!
