Meet our Speakers

Position

Director Analytical Development CMB

Company

Boehringer Ingelheim

Dr. Dennis Blank studied Chemistry at Justus Liebig University. In 2009 he started his doctoral degree on the analysis of human milk oligosaccharides as well as his membership in the GGL. After a year as a postdoc in the Netherlands he returned to Germany in 2013 to join Boehringer Ingelheim. Based on his strong background in analytical chemistry, he moved through several positions. Today he is Director of Analytical Development leading a team of analytical experts providing state-of-the-art analytics for Boehringer Ingelheims Biologics portfolio.

Position

Senior Consultant

Company

EY ifb

GGL Alumna Sabrina Gies, PhD, started her academic career in Life Sciences at Philipps University of Marburg, where she completed her master degree in Chemistry. In 2019 she obtained her PhD at the Justus Liebig University working on human male reproduction. She then transitioned quickly into industry where she has been working as a consultant and quickly progressed into senior positions. In November 2022, she joined the company EY ifb, a global financial service provider, as a Senior Consultant. She will illustrate how a quick change into industry is possible and give us an insight into the job profile of a consultant.

Position

Scientific Officer

Institution

Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL)

GGL Alumna Dr. Lea Herges studied nutritional sciences at the Justus Liebig University in Gießen and participated in the food law academy at the University of Marburg at the same time. She completed her doctoral degree in human biology at Justus-Liebig-University Gießen in 2014. Her thesis was embedded in an interdisciplinary project on insect biotechnology: at the Institute for Medical Microbiology she examined potentially new antimicrobial substances from insect peptides and plant products regarding their effects on multi resistant bacteria. Since 2014 she has been working in the federal administration in Berlin at two institutions which are subordinated of the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture. At the Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety she is currently responsible for the organisation of crisis management exercises and for the improvement of the crisis management system in the food safety sector.

Position

Postdoc, independent research group leader

Institution

Justus Liebig University Giessen

Dr. Simone Häberlein is a molecular biologist and zoologist who was caught by a research passion for parasites already in her master studies. After her PhD on the immune response in leishmaniasis, she went to The Netherlands as a PostDoc for three years addressing the question of whether immune modulation by schistosomes can prevent the development of allergies. Since 2016, she has dedicated herself to the cell biology and molecular biology of schistosomes and liver flukes at JLU. In 2022 she completed her habilitation and founded her independent research group. She has been very successful in obtaining third party funding from an early stage and among several awards and fellowships, she received the Karl-Asmund-Rudolphi Medal from the German Society of Parasitology for her achievements as a junior parasitologist.

More on her research passion and role in the LOEWE center DRUID: Passion for unknown paths: https://www.loewe-druid.de/gruppen/haeberlein/

Position

Associate Director Clinical Trial Supply, Project Leadership & Outsourcing

Company

Merck

GGL Alumnus Dr. Sebastian Kehr belongs to the first Alumni of the GGL. He obtained his doctoral degree in 2011 investigating the biochemistry of malaria parasites. In the same year, he started working as Clinical Research Associate. In 2014 he joined Merck as Associate Manager Clinical Trial Supply in Darmstadt. There he progressed through several positions in the field of Clinical Trial Supply and became Associate Director responsible for Project Leadership & Outsourcing in 2019.

Position

Founder and CEO

Company

Lamm HR

Kathrin Lamm studied Business Administration for International Trade and Hospitality until 2005 and soon worked in several sales and management positions. From 2013 onwards, she established the Life Science area for one of the larges recruitment agencies in Germany. Since then she has been working in recruitment for Life Science companies but 2023 it was time to become her own boss. Following her own vision, at Lamm HR she aims to create an environment in which people and their current needs take centre stage.

Position

Product Ownwer

Company

Agilent Technologies

GGL Alumnus Dr. Vladislav Kunetski origins from the Republic of Moldova. He obtained his Bachelor and Master in Chemical Technology at the Moscow Technological University. In 2017 he came to Giessen to investigate DNA repair for his doctoral degree. During all of his studies, he enriched his experience working part-time for instance as technological engineer, tutor and scientific illustrator. He completed his doctoral degree in 2022 and soon after joined Agilent Technologies, first as a product manager and currently as a product owner.

Position

Lab Head Research Parasiticides

Company

Elanco

GGL Alumnus Mudassar Niaz Mughal, Ph.D., obtained a master degree in Preventive Veterinary Medicine from the Huazhong Agricultural University in China. He secured a DAAD scholarship in order to start his PhD in Giessen in 2017 and completed his doctoral degree in the area of parasitology in 2022. After a brief phase a postdoc at the UKGM Marburg, he quickly joined Elanco as a Lab head for parasiticides research in July 2022.

Position

PCMO Coordinators at GGL Postdoc Programme

Institution

GGL

Dr. Sabine Otto holds a biology degree from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, majoring in genetics, immunology, and zoology. She earned her doctoral degree in Molecular Genetics specializing in genomic analysis of Vitis sylvestris. From 2016 to 2023, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher and project Leader in insect biotechnology at JLU. Her contributions include developing environmentally friendly pest control systems for the invasive fruitfly Drosophila suzukii. Since September 2023, Sabine Otto has been one of our postdoc coordinators, guiding early-career researchers in interdisciplinary skill development. Together with her colleague Dr. Marco Russo, she will present the academic career path as a professional option and report on how the GGL Postdoc Program supports postdocs in Life Sciences at JLU.

GGL Alumnus Dr. Marco Russo studied nutritional sciences at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena. He conducted his doctoral studies at Justus Liebig University in an interdisciplinary setting in the field of medicinal and aromatic plants, and completed his doctoral degree in 2019. After gaining some professional experience in industry in the field of plant extracts, he co-founded a start-up. He also works part-time as postdoc coordinator in the GGL supporting postdocs at JLU in their career development.

Position

Senior Talent Acquisition Partner

Company

CSL Behring

Maika Wolff studied Technical Communication and Translation at the Hochschule Magdeburg-Stendal until 2007. The same year she started her career at Hays, a british-based multinational recruitment agency. From 2014, she moved to the RPO business and supported customers within the life science and banking industry. In 2018 she became Senior Talent Acquisition Partner, hiring for Commercial Operations at CSL Behring. Here she is responsible for full-lifecycle-recruitment to meet staffing goals within Commercial Operations for the European cluster across 18 countries. In her talk she will introduce CSL Behring as an employer, explain how recruiting works, and point out suitable entry level positions.