What special skills are needed for your work?

In general, you need to have a good knowledge about optics, microscopy techniques and image analysis. And you need to be highly flexible: It is not always possible to plan your daily routine properly as problems or unexpected situations usually occur suddenly. And often you have to find creative solutions to problems. My tasks are very diverse and include consulting and supervision of scientific projects in the field of microscopy as well as more engineering related activities like minor repairs and adjustments of microscopes or administrative tasks like documentation and reporting.

What was a moment of success during your work?

Last year we successfully applied for funding for three different large instruments. During the last months, all instruments were installed and are ready to run now. This gives us the opportunity to establish and apply new techniques at the ICCE/ZMB thereby allowing to address new scientific questions. I think that’s one of the major things we achieved in the last years.

What didn’t work - what drove you nuts?

Very recently we had a hard time of finding a solution for the question how we can fit a 1,80 m table through a 1m door…

What do you enjoy doing science?

I especially like that there is a lot of variety in our daily routine and that it’s not like doing the same things all day long. You never stop learning new things and techniques. And you are allowed to ask and work on questions which might sound unrealistic at first.

What do you value here at the ZMB?

I really like the idea of having this different disciplines and groups from biology and medicine, and also chemistry in one institute sharing their knowledge and working together to solve scientific questions. And especially of course that the ZMB is supporting a lot of our microscopy initiatives. That’s a really big help for a core facility.