Guest speakers
The GGL is proud to present the following speakers for the 10th Career Day. We extend our sincere appreciations for their support.
Vicky Vladimira Pirzas, Presentation
VP, Recombinant Product Development
Vicky Pirzas is Vice President Recombinant Product Development at CSL with over 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biological industry.
She has held many different positions at CSL Limited, Glaxo, Soltec Research, RP Scherer, Sandoz and CSL Behring across the analytical and process development space in both small molecule and biologics development and held various leadership positions in Australia, Austria and Germany.
She is highly experienced in activities associated with early development through to launch biopharmaceutical development, production scale-up, process characterization, Design of Experiment, process validation and Quality by Design.
Vicky’s vocation is to develop organizations by motivating cross-functional and cross-cultural teams to embrace change and identify themselves with the vision, values and purpose of the organization.
Dr. Anett Illing, Presentation
National Research Administrator
Dr. Martin Blaser, Presentation
Project Coordinator GGLP
GGL - Justus Liebig University
Dr. Martin Blaser studied Oecotrophology at the Justus Liebig University Gießen and was finished in 2003. Directly afterwards, he did his PhD in microbial biochemistry at the Phillips University in Marburg. In 2007, he joined the Max-Planck-Institute for terrestrial Microbiology where worked as Postdoc and as Project Group Leader for Microbial Biogeochemistry until 2017. He is now working as Postdoc Program coordinator at the Gießen Graduate School for the Life Sciences at the Justus Liebig University.
Dr. Thomas Weiser, Presentation
Medical Affairs Manager
Dr. Weiser studied biology at the JLU Giessen, where he wrote his diploma thesis about the effects of a natural insecticide on insect development. His Ph.D. thesis on (plant) ion channels deepened his interest in pharmacology. He left university to work as a research scientist at the Battelle Institute (Frankfurt), where he ran electrophysiological studies as service for the pharmaceutical industry. In 1993 he joined Boehringer Ingelheim (Ingelheim) as laboratory manager and worked for a couple of years to identify and characterize neuroprotective compounds (for treating ischemic stroke of the brain), as well as novel analgesics for treating neuropathic pain. Since 2007, he works as a medical affairs manager (Boehringer Ingelheim and Sanofi-Aventis GmbH, Frankfurt) in the field of over-the-counter analgesics.
Having a deep and constant connection with science, he was habilitated in 2006 (“Dr. rer. nat. habil.”, Medical Faculty, JLU) and has published a couple of dozens of full papers in peer-reviewed journals (preclinical in vitro, in vivo and clinical studies).
Silke Rapp, Presentation
Human Resource Development - Mentoring
Justus Liebig University
Silke Rapp is employee at the department for human resource management at the Justus Liebig University. Since more than 15 years she develops and coordinates many mentoring programs in research and public associations and also works regularly as a trainer for self-presentation, communication and creativity. Silke Rapp studied theatre studies and theatre pedagogy at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich.
Dr. Ursula Hofmann, Presentation
Former Division Vice President Technical Operations and Innovations
In 1992 Dr. Ursula Hofmann joined Abbott Diagnostics as Research Scientist and held several positions at Abbott Manufacturing including Site Director in Wiesbaden, Germany, Division Vice President International Operations with responsibility for Manufacturing in Ireland, Germany, UK, Japan and South Africa and Division Vice President Global Technology and Innovation and Head of Engineering for Abbott Diagnostics.
Dr. Hofmann retired in 2017. Prior to Abbott she was head of research and technology for Progen Biotechnik in Heidelberg and In Vitro Diagnostika in Mainz. Ursula obtained her diploma in Biology from the University of Giessen and her Ph.D. at the Max Planck Institute for Thrombosis and Blood Coagulation in Bad Nauheim.
Dr. Bettina Bonn, Presentation
Project Manager
PD Dr. habil. Detlef Thiele, Presentation
Executive veterinary director
PD Dr. habil. Detlef Thiele studied veterinary medicine at the JLU Gießen and directly after earned his doctor and habilitation degree. In 1996, he joined IDEXX and worked there as Head manager for Scientific Services. In 1997, he worked as scientific director at Transia GmbH and after 4 years joined the Baxter AG as head of the serology department. After that, he worked for MDS PS AG and TMF Food Industries. In 2007, he did his second state examination while working for the Central Institute of the Medical Services of the Bundeswehr in Munich. Since 2010, he is working for the regulatory agency in Frankfurt as executive veterinary director.
Prof. Dr. Joachim Metz, Presentation
Prof. for Mechanical Engineering
Subsequent to his studies in Chemistry at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen, Dr. Metz received his doctorate in Physical Chemistry in 1997. He worked for the Schunk Group in the field of Research and Development as Head of the Chemical Laboratory and Project Manager for special materials. In 2015, he received an appointment offer of the University of Applied Sciences Giessen/Friedberg (THM) and accepted a position as Professor for non-metallic materials and composites. Prof. Metz became Academic Dean of the Department Mechanical Engineering, Mechatronics and Materials Technology in 2017.
Dr. Anna Kynast, Presentation
Junior Consultant
After her studies in nutritional sciences in Gießen, she decided to simultaneously earn her doctor´s degree (Dr. rer. nat) and to start studying animal sciences as a secondary study subject. Due to those diversified skills, she was able to successfully join the animal health industry and to build competencies in this field of work. With that kind of expertise from the industry, she is since 2018 working as a junior consultant at Hardenburg Consulting, a specialized company for personnel consultation in the animal health business.
Dr. Sven Konzack, Presentation
Director, Product Management
After his studies in Biology at the Philipp University in Marburg, Dr. Konzack received his doctorate at the Max-Planck-Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology (Marburg) in 2004. He worked as postdoc at the Max-Planck-Institute for structural molecular biology (Hamburg) for 3 years before he started to work for the Olympus Europa Holding GmbH as Junior Product Manager. After 6 months, he was promoted to Product manager and worked for the company almost 7 years in total. In 2014, Dr. Konzack started to work as Product Manager for Leica Microsystems and was promoted several times. He is now in the position as Director for Product Management and Site Leader for Leica Microsystems Vienna.
Dr. Christian Küchenthal, Presentation
Director, Head of Smart Consumables
Prof. Dr. Eveline Baumgart-Vogt, Presentation
Dr. Lorna Lück, Presentation
GGL Managing Director
Alexandra Angrisano, Presentation
GGL Coordinator for PALS