Former Postdoc Committee Members
We are immensely grateful for the contributions from previous members of the Göttingen Campus Postdoc Committee who were generous enough to give up their time and energy to make the Göttingen Campus a better place for all researchers, wherever they work, whatever their background or discipline.
Many of our former Committee members are still in touch with the Network and continue to improve the experience of postdocs across the Göttingen Campus by attending events and sharing their ideas, expertise and vision.
Postdoc Committee alumni continue to enrich science and humanities by pursuing their goals, whether in Germany or around the world, in various roles such as publishing, management, teaching, industry, medicine, research, academia and much more.
Natalia Ruiz
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Natalia Ruiz is a postdoctoral fellow of the Alexander-von-Humboldt Foundation at the Institute of Agricultural Law of the University of Göttingen. She is a Colombian legal scholar and consultant on issues related to international development, gender equality, indigenous rights and environmental justice. She completed her PhD in Law from Colombia’s National University and educational and professional experience in South Korea, China and the United States. Her current research work, “An agrarian adjudication theory for small farmers and indigenous populations in Colombia”, focuses on aspects of rural reform in Colombia following the 2016 Peace Accord. Natalia loves bicycling with her family, progressive rock music, collecting shoes, gourmet food and travel.
Muhammad Salim Hakeemi
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Muhammad received his PhD in 2018 from the Institute of Developmental Biology, University of Cologne. In October 2018, he joined the University of Göttingen, Department of Evolutionary Developmental Genetics as a postdoctoral researcher. His research focus is on development of transgenic tools for spatiotemporal control of RNA interference (RNAi) for gene function analysis. Muhammad found the Göttingen Campus Postdoc Network a great platform for postdoctoral researchers, not only to take part in their regular activities for information exchange but also to attend special events for career development.
Marthe Klöcking
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Marthe Klöcking is an observational geodynamicist and data scientist. She coordinates the Digital Geochemical Data Infrastructure (DIGIS) project that is modernising the geochemical database ‘GEOROC’: with the goal to maximise access to and re-use of research data collected over the past decades, and so to improve the research infrastructure in Germany and worldwide.
When she has time for research herself, Marthe exploits the chemical fingerprints of volcanic rocks to study the origin of magmas and the internal structure of continents in places such as Yellowstone. She holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge (UK) and has worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Macquarie University and the Australian National University (Australia). Marthe has experience attracting her own research funding and working with industry and government partners.
She loves the outdoors, especially while hiking, cycling or rowing. She enjoys challenging her perceptions and inherent biases through travel, culture and exchange with people from all backgrounds and stages of life.
Lisa Maria Franke
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Dr. phil. Lisa Maria Franke is specialised in the fields of Arabic and Islamic Studies as well as in Social and Cultural Anthropology. Currently, she works as assistant professor in the field "Anthropology of Islam" at the Institue of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Göttingen. She carries out research on individual religiosities and non-conformist perspectives in Alexandria as part of the ERC project "Private Pieties: Mundane Islam and New Forms of Muslim Religiosity: Impact on Contemporary Social and Political Dynamics" (2016-2022). She received her PhD in Arabic Studies from the University of Leipzig in 2011. Here, she focussed on martyrdom, gender constructions and social discourses in Palestine. Subsequently, at the University of Cologne, she dealt with the religious, social and political content of colloquial poetry in Egypt and published on the symbolism in modern interpretations of the end times. Her research interests include everyday history, eschatology, belief and identity, discourse analysis, and gender studies; processes of individualisation, religious transformations and social dynamics; the use of language in various forms of texts. She graduated from the University of Bayreuth and the School of Oriental and African Studies (London). She taught at the Universities of Leipzig, Cologne and Goettingen as assistant professor.
Kibrom Sibhatu
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Kibrom Sibhatu, from Eritrea, is an Agricultural and Food Economist interested in the dynamic linkages of human welfare with ecosystem services in response to global challenges, including deforestation, poverty, food insecurity, hunger and malnutrition, and climate change. His research experience encompasses projects in the Global South, where he researched the link between farm-level agricultural biodiversity and the quality of diets in smallholder households.
His current research focuses on smallholder land-use change and human welfare in Southeast Asia, particularly in Sumatra, Indonesia. This work is under the EFForTS project - a Collaborative Research Center (CRC 990) funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The CRC 990 investigates the ecological and socioeconomic effects of the significant transformation of forests towards a cash crop-dominated rubber and oil palm plantation landscape, focusing on smallholder systems.
Outside work, he is a dedicated runner, plays football, and spends much time reading. He is also active in organizing events for and supporting refugees in Göttingen.
At the University of Göttingen (and other universities in Germany), foreign nationals are increasingly occupying vital (albeit short-term) early-career academic and research positions. However, international staff (and their partners) are often faced with distinct challenges, including language barriers, immigration status, and short-term work contracts. As a Göttingen Campus Postdoc Committee member, he is keen to help address such challenges in collaboration with other team members.
Constanza Tapia Contreras
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Constanza, originally from Chile, was awarded by the National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research (CONICYT) and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). She obtained her Ph.D. from the Department of Developmental Biology of the Georg-August-University in 2021. Afterward, she joined the Department of General, Visceral and Pediatric Surgery as a postdoctoral fellow of the Dorothea Schlözer program at the University Medical Center, Göttingen. Her research focuses on Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, using in-vitro models (patient-derived organoids) to facilitate pharmacological screening studies and identify novel therapeutic targets. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, cooking, doing sports, and dancing salsa.
Kamila Svobodova (Kopie 1)
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Kamila Svobodova is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellow at the University of Göttingen. Through her project CESMINE, she explores the complexities of socio-economic rehabilitation after small-scale mining in Germany, Denmark, and the Czech Republic. She also holds an honorary role at the Centre for Social Responsibility at the University of Queensland. Her expertise is in understanding how important ‘environmental psychology’ is when designing mine closure and post-mining landscapes. Kamila is a Landscape Engineer and she holds a Ph.D. in Architecture and Urbanism. Besides her academic career, Kamila worked as an urban planner and participated in various regional development planning projects. She is an outdoor and travel enthusiast. During her time off, you usually find her hiking or climbing. She enjoys traveling, meeting new people, and exploring different cultures.