Alumni

Group leaders

Dr. Artem Pankin

Previous Institute: Institute for Plant Genetics
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position: Bioinformatics Researcher at Rijk Zwaan

Dr. Stephan Wawra

Previous Institute: Botanical Institute
Cologne Biocenter, University of Cologne

Dr. Hajira Jabeen

Previous Institute: Data Science and Management
Cologne Biocenter, University of Cologne

Current Position:

Senior researcher and Team leader in Big Data Analytics, GESIS

Dr. Piau Siong Tan

Previous Institute: Advanced Imaging Development Platform
Cologne Biocenter, University of Cologne

Dr. Alisandra Denton

Previous Institute: Institute of Plant Biochemistry
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position:

Senior Machine Learning Scientist at Valence Labs, Canada

CEPLAS Postdoc Program

Dr. Juliana Almario

Previous Institute: Botanical Institute, Cologne Biocenter, University of Cologne

Current Position: Researcher (permanent position), CNRS, Microbial Ecology, University of Lyon, France

Dr. Christos Bazakos

Previous Institute: Department of Comparative, Development and Genetics
Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research 

Current Position: Guest Scientist MPIPZ & Researcher, Institute of Plant Breeding and Genetic Resources- HAO ELGO Demeter, Thessaloniki, Greece

Dr. Andrea Bräutigam

Previous Institute: Institute of Plant Biochemistry
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position: Professorship for Computational Biology, University of Bielefeld

Dr. Friederike Brüssow

Previous Institute: Department of Plant-Microbe Interactions,  Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research 

Dr. Irina Calic

Previous Institute: Institute for Plant Sciences, Cologne Biocenter
University of Cologne

Dr. Balakumaran Chandrasekar

Previous Institute: Botanical Institute, Cologne Biocenter
University of Cologne

Current Position: Assistant Professor, BITS-Pilani, India

Dr. Rachel Denley Bowers

Previous Institute: Institute for Quantitative and Theoretical Biology
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Dr. Paloma Duran

Previous Institute: Department of Plant Microbe Interactions
Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research

Current Position: PostDoctoral Researcher, Lab of Ecological genomics of adaptation in plant communities, CNRS Toulouse, France

Dr. Wilma van Esse

Previous Institute: Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research

Current Position: Assistant Professor at Wageningen University, The Netherlands (five-year VIDI grant)

Dr. Henning Frerigmann

Previous Institute: Department of Plant Microbe Interactions, Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research

Current Position: Scientific Lead at Chr. Hansen, NRW

Dr. Chihiro Furumizu

Previous Institute: Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research

Current Position: Assistant Director/Research Administrator at Earth-Life Science Institute, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan

Dr. Vera Göhre

Previous Institute: Institute of Microbiology
Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf 

Current Position: Group leader at the Institute for Microbiology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Dr. Luise Hecker geb. Brand

Previous Institute: Department of Plant Developmental Biology 
Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research 

Current Position: Product Owner, Miltenyi Biotec

Dr. Andrew Heidel

Previous Institute: Institute of Population Genetics
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Dr. Nadine Höcker

Previous Institute: Institute of Plant Biochemistry
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Dr. Richard Jacoby

Previous Institute: Botanical Institute, Cologne Biocenter
University of Cologne

Current Position: Research fellow (ARISE), EMBL Heidelberg

Ganga Jeena

Previous Institute: Botanical Institute, Cologne Biocenter , University of Cologne

Current Position: Scientist at TU Dortmund

Dr. Niklas Udo Jung

Previous Institute: Institute for Plant Cell Biology and Biotechnology
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Dr. Nozomi Kawamoto

Previous Institute: Institute for Developmental Genetics
Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf 

Current Position: Postdoc at National Institute for Basic Biology (NIBB), Aichi, Japan

Dr. Ronny Kellner

Previous Institute: Evolution of obligate parasitism and biodiversity
Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research 

Current Position: Senior Scientist Product Development, QIAGEN

Dr. Mather Khan

Previous Institute: Institute of Botany
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position: Scientist, Bond Life Sciences Center, University of Missouri, Columbia, USA

Dr. Sakshi Khosa

Previous Institute: Institute of Biochemistry
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf  

Current Position: Postdoc at University College London, UK

Dr. Christiane Kiefer

Previous Institute: Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research

Current Position: Research Assistant, Centre for Organismal Studies Heidelberg, Department of Biodiversity and Plant Systematics, Heidelberg University

Dr. Magdalene Kutyniok

Previous Institute: Botanical Institute, Cologne Biocenter, University of Cologne

Current Position: Bruker Daltonik GmbH, Bremen

Dr. Dmitry Lapin

Previous Institute: Department of Plant Microbe Interactions
Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research

Current Position: Assistant professor at Utrecht University (The Netherlands)

Dr. Yuanyuan Li

Previous Institute: Institute of Plant Molecular and Developmental Biology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf 

Current Position: Lecturer at Shandong Normal University, China

Dr. Anita Loeschcke

Previous Institute: Institute of Molecular Enzyme Technology , Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf 

Current Position: Leader BioSC FocusLab Combicom, Institute of Molecular Enzyme Technology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf c/o Forschungszentrum Jülich

Dr. Peter Lundquist

Previous Institute: Institute of Plant Biochemistry, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position: Assistant Professor at the Michigan State University, USA

Dr. Otho Mantegazza

Previous Institute: Institute of Plant Biochemistry 
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf 

Current Position:

Data Scientist, Milan, Italy

Dr. Anna Matuszyńska

Previous Institute: Institute for Quantitative and Theoretical Biology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position: Junior Professor in Computational Life Science, RWTH Aachen University

Dr. Miguel Miñambres Martin

Previous Institute: Institute of Plant Biochemistry
Institute of Synthetic Biology
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position: Application Scientist, Singleron Biotechnologies GmbH

Dr. Ryohei Thomas Nakano

Previous Institute: Department of Plant-Microbe Interactions
 Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research 

Current Position:

Professor at Hokkaido University, Japan

Dr. Helge Pallakies

Previous Institute: Institute of Developmental Genetics, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position: Head of Project Management at Amedon GmbH, Lübeck

Dr. Yao Pan

Previous Institute: Institute of Informatics
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position: Application Specialist, Sysmex-Inostics, Hamburg

Dr. Thomas Perrot

Previous Institute: Institute for Plant Cell Biology and Biotechnology
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position:

Postdoctoral researcher at the University of Tours in France

Dr. Manuela Peukert

Previous Institute: Botanical Institute, Cologne Biocenter, University of Cologne

Current Position: Researcher, Federal Research Institute of Nutrition and Food, Max Rubner-Institut, Kulmbach

Dr. Thea Pick

Previous Institute: Institute of Plant Biochemistry
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Dr. Sebastian Ploch

Previous Institute: Institute of Population Genetics
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position: Labmanager, Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Center, Frankfurt am Main

Dr. Adélaïde Raguin

Previous Institute: Institute for Computational Cell Biology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position:

Contributing Investigator, Research Area 4

Dr. Louai Rishmawi

Previous Institute: Botanical Institute, Cologne Biocenter, University of Cologne

Current Position: Postdoctoral Researcher at Montpellier SupAgro, France

Dr. Roxanne van Rooijen

Previous Institute: Developmental and Molecular Plant Biology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position: Researcher at Kekkilä-BVB, Netherlands

Dr. Hanna Rövenich

Previous Institute: Botanical Institute, Cologne Biocenter 
University of Cologne

Current Position: Postdoc UoC

Dr. Melanie Sapp

Previous Institute: Institute of Population Genetics, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position: Scientific Coordinator, Institute for Human Genetics, University Hospital Düsseldorf

Dr. Mara Schuler-Bermann

Previous Institute: Developmental and Molecular Plant Biology
Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf 

Current Position: Start-up Advisor-Technology Scout, Saarland University

Dr. Stefanie Schulze

Previous Institute: Institute of Plant Molecular and Developmental Biology
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Dr. Antonella Succurro

Previous Institute: Botanical Institute, Cologne Biocenter, University of Cologne

Current Position: West German Genome Center (WGGC) Officer and Researcher at the LIMES Institute, University of Bonn, Germany

Dr. Filipa Tomé

Previous Institute: Institute for Plant Genetics, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf c/o Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research 

Current Position: Senior Innovation Consultant, PNO Innovation Portugal

Dr. Alice Vayssières

Previous Institute: Molecular Systematics, Botanical Institute, Cologne Biocenter, University of Cologne
c/o
Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research 

Current Position: Postdoctoral Researcher at INRAE Versailles-Saclay

Dr. Berkley Walker

Previous Institute: von Humboldt Fellow at Institute of Plant Biochemistry , Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf 

Current Position: Assistant Professor at Michigan State University

Dr. Leonie Weber

Previous Institute: Institute for Plant Sciences, Cologne Biocenter, University of Cologne

Current Position: Science communicator in the InnoTruck project of the BMBF (Federal Ministry for Education and Research)

Dr. Jinshun Zhong

Previous Institute: Institute for Plant Genetics, HHU
Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research 

Current Position: Professor and PI at the South China Agricultural University and Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture

CEPLAS Graduate School

Ziba Ajami-Rashidi

Previous Institute: Institute for Plant Molecular Ecophysiology
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Dr. Kumari Billakurthi

Previous Institute: Developmental and Molecular Biology of Plants, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position: Researcher at the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, UK

Nikolas Ditz

Previous Institute: Institute of Biochemistry II, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position: Researcher, HHU Düsseldorf

Satish Kumar Eeda

Previous Institute: Institute of Developmental Biology, Cologne Biocenter, University of Cologne

Current Position: University of Cambridge

Katharina Eitzen, geb. Lentz

Previous Institute: Institute for Genetics, Cologne Biocenter, Terrestrial Microbiology, University of Cologne

Current Position: Researcher at Bex-Biotec GmbH

Dr. Philipp Fesel

Previous Institute: Botanical Institute, Cologne Biocenter, University of Cologne

Current Position: Product manager Fermentation/Business development

Dr. Rubén Garrido-Oter

Previous Institute: Department of Plant Microbe Interactions
Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research

Current Position: CEPLAS Contributing Investigator, Research Area 2,3,4

Niklas Gawenda

Previous Institute: Institute for Plant Cell Biology and Biotechnology
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Dr. Silke Gerlich

Previous Institute: Botanical Institute, Cologne Biocenter, University of Cologne

Current Position: Postdoctoral researcher at Helmholtz Metadata Collaboration (HMC) | DataPLANT - NFDI4Plants | Forschungszentrum Jülich

Dr. Katharina Gräfe

Previous Institute: Institute of Biochemistry, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position: Senior Project Manager at BIO.NRW

Jennifer Hage-Hülsmann

Previous Institute: Institute of Molecular Enzyme Technology
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position: Researcher, HHU Düsseldorf

Svenja Hermanns

Previous Institute: Institute for Plant Sciences, Cologne Biocenter
University of Cologne

Dr. Meike Hüdig

Previous Institute: Plant Molecular Physiology and Biotechnology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position: Project Manager, Miltenyi Biotec

Elaine Jaeger

Previous Institute: Institute for Genetics, Cologne Biocenter, Terrestrial Microbiology
University of Cologne

Current Position: Researcher, University of Cologne

Dr. Panpan Jiang

Previous Institute: Botanical Institute, Cologne Biocenter, University of Cologne

Current Position: Product Support Lead at Bayer CropScience

Dr. Gwendolyn Kirschner

Previous Institute: Institute for Developmental Genetics, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position: Postdoctoral Researcher, Institute of Crop Science and Resource Conservation, Crop Functional Genomics, University Bonn

Sarah Kranz-Finger

Previous Institute: Institute of Biochemistry II 
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position: TunaTech GmbH

Dr. Alfredo Mari

Previous Institute: Evolution of obligate parasitism and biodiversity, Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research

Dr. Anna Matuszyńska

Previous Institute: Institute for Quantitative and Theoretical Biology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position: Junior Professor in Computational Life Science, RWTH Aachen University

Priyanka Mishra

Previous Institute: Cologne Biocenter
Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research

Current Position: Postdoctoral Researcher, Umeå Plant Science Centre, Sweden

Shrihari Negi

Previous Institute: CEPLAS Graduate School
Class of 2021

Anny Garces Palacio

Previous Institute: CEPLAS Graduate School
Class of 2021

Dr. Udhaya Ponraj

Previous Institute: Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research

Current Position: post doctorate at Department of Plant Science, University of Cambridge

Dr. Armin Sadat-Khonsari

Previous Institute: Institute for Mathematical Modeling of Biological Systems, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position: Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Molecular Pathology and Translational Genomics, University Hospital Cologne

Dr. Debika Sarkar

Previous Institute: Institute for Genetics, Cologne Biocenter Microbial, Ecological Genetics
University of Cologne

Current Position: Lead data manager and researcher in clinical trials at Fraunhofer institute, Frankfurt am Main

Jan Schulze Hüynck

Previous Institute: Institute for Genetics, Cologne Biocenter, Terrestrial Microbiology
University of Cologne

Current Position: Project Leader QC, Lonza, Switzerland

Anna Sergeeva

Previous Institute: Institute for Botany
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position: Researcher, HHU Düsseldorf

Dr. Kalpana Shanmugarajah

Previous Institute: Institute of Biochemistry
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position: Global Manager Medical Affairs at Klosterfrau Healthcare Group

Dr. Suraj Sharma

Previous Institute: Institute for Quantitative and Theoretical Biology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position: Postdoctoral researcher at UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway

Dr. Elia Stahl

Previous Institute: Institute of Plant Molecular Ecophysiology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position: Research Assistant, Department of Plant Molecular Biology, University of Lausanne, Switzerland

Esther Sundermann

Previous Institute: Computational Cell Biology
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Current Position: Researcher at the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment

Michael Thielen

Previous Institute: Botanical Institute,  Cologne Biocenter 
University of Cologne

Dr. Vicky Tilmes

Previous Institute: Department of Plant Developmental Biology, Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research

Current Position: Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Plant Developmental Biology, Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research

Agatha Walla

Previous Institute: Department of Plant Developmental Biology
Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research

Current Position: Postdoctoral Researcher, AG von Korff, HHU Düsseldorf

Dr. Heidi Widmer

Previous Institute: Botanical Institute, Cologne Biocenter, University of Cologne

Current Position: Product Manager, Andermatt Biocontrol AG, Grossdietwil, Switzerland

Dr. Eva Willée

Previous Institute: Botanical Institute,  Cologne Biocenter , University of Cologne

Thomas Wrobel

Previous Institute: Institute of Plant Biochemistry 
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Luciana Zacour del Giúdice

Previous Institute: CEPLAS Graduate School
Class of 2021

Mara Zander

Previous Institute: CEPLAS Graduate School
Class of 2020