Rike MW
@rikemw.bsky.social
#scientist #physical #chemistry #tugraz | mom of 2 | sailor | #ultrafast IR to watch molecules in action | women in STEM
Why optogenetics deserves the hype www.wiringthebrain.com/2013/09/why-... (a piece I wrote in 2013 explaining how it works and why modulating specific cell types is so key to understanding how neural circuits and systems work)
Why optogenetics deserves the hype
Optogenetics has come in for some stick lately, with a number of people criticising the hype that this technique generates in some quar...
wiringthebrain.com
This is sooo cool!!! Huge congratulations - especially to Peter - Optogenetics wasn’t there yet when I was a student but retinal proteins were… and since discovery of channelrhodopsin there has been such an outburst of neuroscience applications - controlling biology with light is magical 🪄
Nobel Prize@nobelprize.org · 5d agoBREAKING NEWS The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel “for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics.”
Commodore Cup mit dem ASVzH gesegelt - goldener Oktober, etwas wenig Wind… jetzt Reise von der Ostsee zurück in die Berge, morgen back at TU Graz… das WS hat begonnen
Can I counterargue some of the „don’t use AI in academia“ arguments? now upon moving and re-building my team and lab I sense how much easier some admin-type tasks are, which were always roadblocks during my assistant professorship - and not because I have more experience …
Travel Tales… missed my flight because of a detoured regional train and unexpected visit to the Brandenburg country side… now off to the night train… 🚂 #thescenicroute
Very happy this still pandemic-related work is finally out - we contributed FTIR to this study of properties of biocompatible hydrogels used as drug carriers advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Hydro‐ and Lipophilicity of Molecular‐Size‐Controlled Hydrogel Drug Carriers
We investigate nano-sized hydrogel drug carriers with tailored hydro- and lipophilicity. We design their encapsulation and structure-forming capabilities and follow them in real time during fabricati...
advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Times of major changes… yesterday was the last day of my first group member - Yannik joined as student, then master thesis, then PhD, then postdoc and activities in CRC1636… thank you for the ride!
Finally summer conference travel confirmed - visiting Shanghai / East China Normal University - and then off to #UP2026 in Sapporo www.up2026.jp 🇨🇳 🇯🇵
TOP PAGE | UP 2026 international conference on ultrafast phenomena 2026.8.2.sun-8.7.fri
up2026.jp
Heute käme 1 Studi für 1,5h Vorlesung für die ich dann fast 2h im ÖPNV unterwegs wäre… verlegt… in kühleren Raum an hoffentlich kühleren Tag nächste Woche
Friday shoutout to my absolute great group! You are amazing and wonderful people - I am honored to mentor/have mentored you and it’s great to recognize the overall team spirit, good interpersonal relations and strong basis for science and beyond!
Erster unbefristeter Vertrag im Leben unterschrieben #academia - der Umzug kommt schnell näher
Congratulations- this looks like really interesting work!!
The Computational Spectroscopy Group at University of Groningen@compspecgroup.bsky.social · 5mo agoIn this work Kim van Adrichem used MD simulations at different pH as generated by @nikinikki87.bsky.social (then at VU) to predict the FTIR and 2DIR spectra revealing signatures of changes induced by pH change. doi.org/10.1063/5.03...
Boom, another week of full blown prof/pi life… Stockholm and discussing science (polaritons… crazy exciting quantum chemistry/physics) was great… catching up in writing, reviewing and then also teaching…
Conference travel screwup edition no. 2026 - flight from Hamburg to Stockholm got cancelled… rebooking >24h later… now off on the nighttrain 🚊
The 30th @gdch.de Photochemistry conference (LCP) is approaching and will take place in beautiful Braunschweig in September. It includes five plenary lectures by well-respected speakers, as well as two prestigious award lectures. Visit www.gdch.de/photo2026 for further details.
Off to the UK 🇬🇧 for two days - Review Panel at STFC Central Laser Facility - it’s an honor to be involved this way (and still a lot to read ;)) - always exciting new science to learn about!
Spending my weekend nights in the abyss of reviewing 🧐😔 #academiclife
Very happy that my abstract for Ultrafast Phenomena got selected as talk - #conference in #Japan will be great - but geopolitics make plans to travel to Asia this summer really difficult
Hab die DZHW Wissenschaftsbefragung für 2026 ausgefüllt - viele gute Fragen, aber Freitext oder Inhalt zu Tenure-Track und Perspektiven könnte mehr sein … und bei den % Anteilen wären >100% so schön (aber Gutachten nehmen >10%?? Lehre? Betreuung? Drittmittelaquise? Administration, Kommissionen usw…)
2026 bringt große Veränderungen - Wissenschaft benötigt Flexibilität und nötigt den Beteiligten- und ihren Familien (!!) Kompromisse und l Lebensentscheidungen ab, die außerhalb von Academia unmöglich zu erklären sind
Der Preis der wissenschaftlichen Karriere - an vielen Orten ein paar Wurzeln… wie wird das eigene Leben dann ein kräftiger starker Baum?
Intense workshop day of our #CRC1636 today - good to discuss lots of science
Karriere-Kreuzung … Anfahrt erfolgt, nächster Halt keine #Existenzangst mehr #ichbinHanna #academia … the Next step #survivor
Career cross road ahead - moving the lab is in sight… still decision pending which of two offers to take… what were absolute key factors for fellow scientists to decide? Research landscape? City? Quality of life? Lab space? Positions for the group? Infrastructure funding? Or much more subtle things?
Wissenschaftliches auf deutsch formulieren - nach ~20 Jahren Englisch als hauptsächliche Wissenschaftssprache furchtbar schwierig 😞… und nein - hier hilft keine KI …
