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About Me

CV

If you’re just interested in my CV, you can download it here:

But I’m not sure how much that’s actually going to tell you about me. So here’s some more information.

In a nutshell:

  • Open Science freelancer offering services as a speaker, trainer, consultant, researcher, event organiser or moderator
  • Proud main developer of Road2Openness
  • Neuroscientist, Epidemiologist and Molecular Biologist
  • (Original) research interest: Alzheimer’s disease and neuroimaging
  • (New) interest: meta-research on Robust Research, developing infrastructure for Robust Research
  • Robust Research enthusiast, trying to practice what I preach (Open Access publishing is mandatory, publishing of code and data, too, if there are no privacy concerns)
  • Advocate for improving reliability of research evidence and changing research culture
  • Passionate teacher and mentor in the Robust Research arena (and beyond)

Great organisations I work with:

My own case study (and ideas for future blog posts)

I realise that I’m a case study of one but I have some interesting stories and observations to share about how I ended up where I am now and will write blog posts about these at some point:

  • Differences in academia between Germany and the UK: This is something I can comment on from both the perspective of a student and postdoc. There is huge scope for learning from each other and sharing good practice.
  • Impostor syndrome: I grew up in Bottrop in the Ruhr Area in Germany and went to a pretty average school. I don’t think anyone expected me to end up in Heidelberg and Oxford, least of all myself, and yes, that does lead to impostor syndrome but it is something I learned to work around.
  • Diversity: I have become a passionate advocate for equity, diversity and inclusivity, partly through my own (relatively privileged) experiences. We have been tinkering around the edges for a while now (e.g. when discussing quotas) but in my view we need to find answers to the more difficult questions: what are the structural and cultural issues that affect access and retention of underrepresented groups and how do our teaching and research environments need to change to ensure equal opportunities?
  • Hierarchies: This is related to diversity but deserves a special mention. Often innovation in research areas comes from young researchers who look at an old problem with fresh eyes. Hierarchical systems can be very counterproductive and we need environments where we ensure that all voices can be heard and respected, no matter the status of the speaker.
  • Interdisciplinarity and team work: I have developed into a jack of all trades over the years with broad expertise in many different areas of biomedical research, statistics, programming, and probably others. While this broad expertise now helps me with my mission to improve research quality in biomedical sciences, I don’t think it’s the most efficient way to run research projects. As a musician I know how an ensemble of people with complementary skills can create something that is greater than the sum of its parts. Why not transfer this idea to academia?