zum Inhalt springen

We represent you!

The Doctoral Representatives Council consists of two doctoral representatives from each department of the MNF and was built to enable and improve the exchange between all departments and their students.

You can contact us for ideas and suggestions regarding the Doctoral Representatives Council or everything related to your doctoral studies. We will collect your input and bring it to the attention of the different graduate school steering committees and/or offices. Vice versa we will bring information or requests to your attention. 

Concerning our interests, we elect delegates for different commitees like the Hochschulkonferenz, the student consilium, the Board of the Graduate Schools, the Promotionsausschuss and the Consilium AMNZ. 

Doctoral Representatives Council

Linda Maßon - Main Representative

Linda Maßon completed her Bachelor in Banking and Finance at the University of Applied Science Cologne before she moved on to the University of Cologne, where she obtained her Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Geography. During her Geography studies she focused on physical Geography mainly in the fields of paleoenvironment reconstruction. Linda’s PhD project is part of the CRC1211 in the Cologne Luminescence Laboratory and supervised by Prof. Tony Reimann. She is currently investigating luminescence-based inventories for measuring vertical and lateral upper ECZ particle fluxes and for dating the exposure of typical Atacama Desert soils and surfaces.

Stefan Schöttle - Deputy Representative

Stefan Schöttle finished his Bachelor in Geophysics at the Karlsruher Institute for Technology. Afterwards he moved to Cologne to complete his Master's Degree in Physics of the Earth and Atmosphere - Geophysics at the University of Cologne. He thereby mostly concentrated on Planet-Moon interaction by the example of Jupiter and Ganymede. For his PhD he changed fields towards applied Geophysics under supervision of Prof. Bülent Tezkan. His work focuses on the controlled source electromagnetic method in frequencies of above 1 kHz to investigate 3D subsurface structures in depth of around 5 to 150 m.

Laura Plein

Laura Plein completed her Bachelor and Master of Science in Chemistry at the University of Cologne. During her master's degree, she already focused on physical chemistry. She concentrated on the synthesis and characterisation of pi-conjugated polymers, which she also applied and analysed in organic photovoltaic cells. In addition to further research on this topic, she is studying cathode materials for organic batteries in her PhD project, which is supervised by Prof. Klaus Meerholz (University of Cologne, Institute of Physical Chemistry). Her work focuses on the synthesis of novel materials and fabrication of battery devices as well as their measurements.

Tobias Behn

Tobias Behn obtained his bachelor degree in organic chemistry at the University of Cologne working on the synthesis of diproline mimetics in the group of Prof. Schmalz. During his master studies in Cologne, he focused on biological and bioorganic chemistry. He obtained his master degree in the group of Prof. Kath-Schorr in organic chemistry, studying the synthesis of unnatural base pairs. Currently, he is pursuing a Ph.D. in the group of Prof. Kath-Schorr, working on the Volkswagen Stiftung funded project “Changing the game: Next-generation DNAzymes for antiviral therapies“

Theresa Fink

Theresa obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Ecology at the University of Göttingen and then moved to the University of Heidelberg to study Systems Biology. In her Master's thesis, she investigated the intracellular pH of Bacillus subtilis during spore formation. She came to the University of Cologne for a PhD in Biophysics supervised by Prof. Bollenbach. Her project is focused on the fitness effects and epistatic interactions of mutations during antibiotic resistance evolution in Escherichia coli.

Mark Goh

Mark Goh obtained his Bachelor degrees in Physics and Philosophy at the National University of Singapore with his theses on asymptotically flat space-time, and the physics and phenomenology of time. Afterwards, he moved to Cologne to begin his master's degree in Physics where he is also an associate member of ML4Q. Currently he is finishing his master thesis on practical implementations of quantum algorithms before continuing his PhD on efficient quantum computations under Prof. David Gross.

Luis Bonah

Luis Bonah obtained his Bachelor degree in laboratory astrophysics at the University of Cologne in the group of Prof. Schlemmer. For his master thesis in the same group, he examined complex organic molecules via double resonance spectroscopy. His PhD continues on this topic of deciphering the fingerprints of complex molecules.

Lea Trojahn

Lea grew up near Cologne and started her bachelors degree after her Abitur at the University of Cologne. She switched from Aquatic Ecology working with protists to Molecular Medicine in her masters. After getting more and more into the field of Biology and Genetics, her Master thesis has focused on regulation of spindle positioning of dividing cells and cell fate in the epidermis. She is pursuing a PhD in the Department of Cell Biology of the Skin in the AG Niessen in CECAD, focusing on insulin signaling in skin barrier function.

Roxanne Gutowski

Roxanne Gutowski studied German and biology for secondary education (grammar schools and comprehensive schools) at the University of Cologne. She graduated with a Master of Education in 2019 and subsequently completed her teacher traineeship. Since 2021, she has been a PhD student at the Institute for Biology Education (Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Cologne). In the research group of Prof. Dr. Großschedl, she examines students’ knowledge and attitudes in biology-specific contexts (such as evolution).

Tilman Becker

Tilman Becker obtained his Bachelor's degree in Business Mathematics at University of Cologne, where he continued for his Master's studies in Mathematics with a focus on topology and geometry. Thereafter, he started his PhD in Pure Mathematics in the group of Prof. Geiges, where he studies a specific class of so-called geodesible vector fields that appear in contact and Riemannian geometry. His PhD project is part of the CRC/TRR 191 "Symplectic Structures in Geometry, Algebra and Dynamics".

Alumni Representatives

Dennis Zeh, Chemistry, former Main Representative (2019-2022)

Joss Pepe Strache, Chemistry, former Deputy Representative (2019-2022)

Stephan Schlegel, Geosciences, former Representative (2020-2022)

Yana Staneva, Mathematics, former Representative (2018-2021)

Leonardo Rydin, Physics, former Representative (2018-2021)

Helena Aptyka, Didactics, former Representative (2022-2023)

Konstantin Weiss, Biology, former Representative (2020-2023)

Sarah Buchholz, Biology, former Representative (2020-2023)

Laslo Hunhold, Mathematics, former Representative (2020-2023)

Tom Konrad Anton, Didactics, former Representative (2021-2024)