In my job with Médecins Sans Frontières MSF (Doctors without Borders) I am responsible for preparing international and national staff going on their first mission. In this preparation course I give a lecture on the perception of health and illness, taking into account that people of a specific cultural region deal with ill-health and well-being in their own particular way. Varying concepts of the body and the causes of illnesses influence health-seeking behaviour.
As a medical anthropologist I specialize in the perception of health and illness as well as health-seeking behaviour in certain cultural contexts. In my assignment with MSF I am bridging the cultural gap between our medical volunteers and our beneficiaries.

After graduating in Biotechnology in Italy, I started the doctoral programme in Innsbruck, Austria. As a PhD student, I’m now working on coated implants, investigating peri-implant soft tissue healing in order to improve integration and avoid the development of infections. A further subject of my studies is synthetic bone substitutes. The interna- tional environment and the tight network of researchers working in these fields are very fascinating, thanks to the close collaboration with companies, other universities and research centers.

There is a lot of space at my workplace – space for lateral thinking and running around and digging. And a lot of air. It’s hard to pin down what I am by definition. I studied architecture and painting, I exhibited my works as a freelance artist and worked as a curator, I converted and redefined flats and now I own a planning office for gardens and a shop for garden furniture. I have two wonderful little kids and now a dog, too, and a great husband and business partner. Both inside and outside, I attempt to create space and movement for function and beauty in our perception.

I am full professor of Computer Science at the University of Innsbruck and head of the Laura Bassi Centre of Expertise QE LaB. Together with my team we develop methods and tools for the quality management of a new generation of networked IT systems. Trustworthy data, privacy and safety are essential quality properties of such systems (think e.g. of health data exchange between partners in healthcare). On the other hand, developing methods to assure these properties in ever-changing IT systems is a challenge and deserves fundamental research. I like the many facets of my job: teaching students, managing a young innovative team and cooperating closely with partners in the industry.

I work for an association of social integration enterprises. These enterprises are active in local contexts to re-integrate long-term unemployed people into the labour market. They are responsible for transforming the destructive cycles of the present market economy into positive cycles based on social profit. My job is to talk about work. And to lobby a re-evaluation of the definition of work, and focusing the attention on traditionally unpaid activities such as care work, political work and leisure, and finally including them into the debate. We all occupy ourselves with a variety of things in order to live good lives – whether we are employed or not. Securing a good life for everyone requires an adequate minimum income, to begin with.

This is me growing a primary cell culture of conjunctival epithelial cells. These cells grow very slowly and a lot of patience is required for this. In parallel we are using conjunctival cell lines for our experiments – what a difference!

As an ophthalmologist I have always been intrigued by the pivotal role of sight in the socio-emotional and econom- ic context. Visual impairment and sight loss not only have an impact on the life of affected individuals and their families but also on the national or global scale, affecting the economies of developed and developing countries. Our research aims to expand our knowledge on ocular vaccines. We hope that our efforts lead to preventive mea- sures that are able to enhance productivity and improve the quality of life.

Main research topics: social economy and social policy with regard to work integration and participation. As a social scientist I have several workplaces: my office and the lecture rooms at the university, the research field, stages at (inter)national conferences as well as places where I perform with my colleagues to take research experiences to another level.

Field of research: tumour pathology. I graduated at the University of Rome, Italy, in 1976 and I worked there as a nutrition scientist until 1992 when I moved to Vienna. My personal history makes me especially appreciative of the multicultural environment I belong to. I do cancer research in a stimulating team of women.

I am a biochemist, heading the research group Tumour Pathology. My two main interests are research and furthering young researchers to become successful and independent investigators.
My group explores the biochemical and molec- ular mechanisms of the anti-tumourigenic effects of vitamin D and dietary calcium in colon cancer prevention. Our main research areas are to identify premalignant and early malignant markers of colorectal tumours; site- and gender- specificities of human colorectal cancer; genetic and epigenetic investigation of the vitamin D system as a physiological defence against colon, prostate and mammary tumour progression; induction of the vitamin D system by nutritional factors, such as phytoestrogens and calcium; examination of calcium-dependent anti-tumour molecular mechanisms.