“Tell us your story- how did your path lead you to Nanion Technologies?”

I first came in touch with patch clamping in 2005 as I started my PhD at the Institute for Plant Physiology at the University of Würzburg where I recorded stomatal plant cells. Since patch clamping plant cells was so tedious and often frustrating on a conventional rig (I’ll skip you the details, but preparing and patch clamping plant cells can be very, very frustrating), I at these times often wished for some kind of machinery which would do all the work for me. As a coincidence Nanion’s now-Director for Scientific Affairs finished her PhD in the same group during that time and joined Nanion back in the days. Up until that point, I had never heard of Nanion, but was instantly impressed by the Port-a-Patch and the technology of automated patch clamping. But since I only was a young PhD student just starting out, I signed up for the newsletter and continued patch clamping plant cells. After finishing my PhD and being a Postdoc in the group (and continuous years of patch clamping plant cells…), I saw a job opening on their website. So instead of pursuing an academic career, I felt that this might be what I’ve been looking for. So I applied, had a very pleasant job interview and joined Nanion in 2012. And am very happy to still be here.

Knowing what you know now, what 3 pieces of advice would you give your 21-year-old self?

1. How people treat you says a lot more about them than it does about you.
2. Stay true to yourself. You can only give your best when you are yourself.
3. Be kind. Stay humble. Be grateful for what you have.

One Last Question- what’s the coolest thing about your job?

Working at Nanion has a lot of cool things to offer – working with amazing tech, the diversity of your daily routines, the personal development I’ve made since I joined and tons of stuff I learned, meeting amazing people, be it as customer or colleague, but if I wanted to point out only one thing it is clearly the team and the team spirit.
Nanion has grown quite a bit since I joined and with that growth came changes and challenges. But from day one since I joined I always felt the efforts, helpfulness, trust and respect from the whole team.
I feel very grateful to be a part of this journey and to have a working environment where problems can be openly discussed, suggestions get heard and nothing is taken for granted.