THORN-LAB - Key Persons
Dr. Andrea Thorn studied Molecular Life Sciences at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg and obtained a PhD in 2011 from the University of Göttingen on the topic "Practical approaches to macromolecular X-ray structure determination" in George Sheldrick's group. Focusing on methods development in crystallography, she worked as a research associate in Randy Read's lab at the University of Cambridge (UK) before starting her own independent work as Marie-Curie fellow at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, where she expanded her work into cryogenic electron microscopy. As senior researcher at the Diamond Light Source & University of Oxford, she developed the diffraction data analysis software AUSPEX. Upon her return to Germany, she started to include AI-based methods into her tools, becoming a junior group leader at the University of Würzburg in 2019. She now works as a group leader in the excellence cluster CUI_: Advanced Imaging of Matter at the Institute of Nanostructures and Solid State Physics and is the leader of the "Coronavirus Structural Task Force" [insidecorona.net/].
She was also awarded the Max-von-Laue-Price, the BCA BSG price and gave the National FEBS lecture in Sweden. Andrea Thorn is active in SBGrid, a member of the CUI machine learning task force [], Daphne4NFDI, the IUCr Computing Comission and was until last year the inaugural deputy chair for "Big Data Analytics" in the DIG-UM board, which represents 20 000 German researchers using large infrastructure in matters of digitization and AI.
Johannes Kaub studied chemistry at RWTH Aachen, with a focus on solid-state physical chemistry, before serving as a scientific employee at the Max Planck Instiute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter. He supports the Thorn Lab as a scientific coordinator with his organizing ability and his talent for solving problems. Other than science, his greatest passion is the written word, and due to this he is also a member of the editorial board on the most well-known German table top RPG.
Lisa Schmidt is a freelance illustrator who studied Multimedia and Communication (BA) in Ansbach, Germany. Her work is focused on visualising topics around science and technology. She joined the Coronavirus Structural Task Force as media designer, where she does web design, 3D rendering for scientific illustrations and outreach work.
Job Titles:
- Admin
- Administration Assistant
Pairoh Seeliger is the admin wizard of Thorn Lab.
She takes care of media requests, handles any logistical issues that come up and makes sure our science doesn't sound too complicated in our German outreach efforts. She self-describes as "a jack of all trades with a University education in German studies and business administration, as well as making a mean peppermint tea".