Expanding Career Options Lunch Speakers Print E-mail

 

1) Science policy:

Rochana Wickramasinghe,
Royal Society Policy
Centre, UK

Rochana Wickramasinghe joined the Royal Society as a Policy Adviser in February 2009. He is involved in issues related to innovation, business, and the science base, universities and capacity building. Whilst at the Society, he has contributed to The Scientific Century and Hidden Wealth reports. He previously worked at Library House, a consultancy specialising in innovation and venture capital in Cambridge, UK. He was originally trained in the life sciences, and received a PhD in Biotechnology and Cancer Research from the University of Cambridge, on a Gates Cambridge Scholarship. His doctoral and postdoctoral research was focused on using artificially engineered proteins to study the biology of a protein involved in cancer metastasis.

2) Science management:

Astrid Lunkes,
IGBMC, FR		 Astrid Lunkes is a molecular biologist by training and received her PhD from the University of Düsseldorf, DE in 1995. After postdoctoral studies at the Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire (IGBMC) in Strasbourg, FR, she joined EMBO in 2001 as Editor at The EMBO Journal. During her time at EMBO, Astrid played a major role in launching the journal Molecular Systems Biology (MSB). In 2005 she took on a position at the European Science Foundation (ESF) in Strasbourg, where she was responsible for the management of scientific programmes and strategic activities on a European level. Recently, Astrid joined the IGBMC as Director of scientific affairs.

3) Science communication / PR:

Rosina Malagrida,
Barcelona Science Park, ES

Rosina Malagrida is a chemist and also holds a Master’s Degree in Science Communication from Imperial College London. She also completed the programme for Strategic Communication at the business school ESADE. She is currently the Director of Science Communication at the Barcelona Science Park, where she is in charge of the Outreach Programme, offering exhibitions, experimental workshops, fairs, debates and European educational portals, with multimedia tools. She is also a consultant for the Institute for Aids Research, IrsiCaixa. In the past she was the Director for Communication of the Park and she also worked at the Science Museums of Barcelona and London.

4) Science education:

Thomas Wendt,
Experimenta Science Centre, DE

Thomas Wendt received his PhD on Structural Research from the EMBL in Heidelberg, DE, in 1998. He then focussed on protein biochemical and molecular biology methods. After a two-year postdoctoral position in the US, he returned to the EMBL to join an electron microscopy research group. While supervising numerous high school and university students, he realised that motivating and promoting pupils into the scientific pipeline should become his profession. From 2003 to 2009, he managed the ExploHeidelberg Teaching Lab and then moved on as Educational director at the new science education centre "Experimenta" in Heilbronn, DE.

5) Working for non-governmental organizations:

Anne-Laure Page,
Epicentre, FR		 Anne-Laure Page completed a PhD in Molecular Microbiology at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, FR, and then worked at the International Vaccine Institute in Seoul, KR, where she participated in a multi-centric vaccine trial in five Asian countries. Following this field experience, she undertook a post-doctoral fellowship in Virology at UCSF, San Francisco, US. She then joined Epicentre, an epidemiology and research organisation linked to Doctors without Borders (MSF). Her current position involves organising field studies on infectious diseases and their impact in developing countries, with a special focus on the development and evaluation of simple diagnostic tools for field use.

6) Industry 1: Research & development in industry

Philippe Cronet,
Eurogentec S.A., BE		 Philippe Cronet obtained his PhD at EMBL-Heidelberg, DE, in 1995, working on protein chemistry and bioinformatics. He then went on for post-doctoral training in the field of membrane receptors expression (INSERM, Montpellier and EMBL-Heidelberg). In 1998, he joined AstraZeneca (Gothenburg, SE) as a scientist and later as team leader in charge of supplying target proteins for drug discovery. He joined Eurogentec (Liège, BE) as the director of the Biologics contract-manufacturing unit in 2005 and became chief scientific officer in 2008, heading the research and development activities of the company.

7) Industry 2: Doing research in industry:


Claudia Fila,
Roche Diagnostics GmbH, DE

 Claudia Fila obtained her Master Degree in Human Biology at the Philipps University of Marburg, DE. As an Erasmus Exchange Student she took the opportunity to prepare her Master Thesis in Cell Biology at the Karolinska Institut in Stockholm, SE. Afterwards she went for a 5 years PhD study to the Department of Cell Biology of the University Medical Centre in Utrecht, NL. Since April 2008 she has been working as a PostDoc for Roche Diagnostics Company in Penzberg, DE, in the area of product and corresponding application development for cell analysis systems and Core Biochemicals.

8) Patent lawyer:

Gregor Steglich,
Banse & Pucknus Patent and Law Firm, DE		 Gregor Steglich studied Chemistry at the University of Freiburg, DE and the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, US and obtained a PhD at the LMU Munich in Molecular Biology. Subsequently, he joined a patent law firm in Cologne, DE. He became a European Patent Attorney 2003 and German Patent Attorney in 2004. In 2008 Gregor joined the Munich based law firm Patent Attorneys Reinhard Skuhra Weise, and just recently he has joined the Intellectual Property Rights Firm Banse & Pucknus, also in Munich. He assists clients in obtaining and enforcing patents for biochemical and chemical inventions and in trademark law.

9) Consulting:

Carmen Martin Ruiz-Jarabo,
McKinsey & Co, ES		 Carmen Martin Ruiz-Jarabo joined the consulting firm McKinsey & Co. in 2007. Since then, she has done consulting work in many different industries (health, energy, telecommunications and banking) as well as different functional areas (strategy, HR, regulation and operations). She was originally trained in Chemistry, and received her PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the CBM “Severo Ochoa”, in Madrid, ES. Afterwards, she held a 3 year postdoctoral position at UCSF, San Francisco, US. Her doctoral and postdoctoral research was focused on RNA viruses.