Professor Christiane Timmel

I grew up with a mathematician father and a chemist mother. Both loved their respective disciplines and respected each other highly. Neither insisted on me following in their footsteps. However, they inspired in me a love for the natural sciences as well as mathematics. Whenever I approached them for help, they gave their time generously, never looking at the clock. They were both exceptional teachers whose love for their subjects was infectious, their patience in explaining admirable. They left me to my own devices even when I was slow to make progress yet determined to get there. Offering me constant encouragement while fostering independence, they allowed me to develop both the self-confidence and tools necessary to study a physical science. Most importantly though, their passion for their respective subjects was a clear indicator that science is both fun and important.

I have never published a paper as a sole author. I would not wish it any other way. For me science, like life, is best if you struggle to get there as a team. If all goes well, you have arguments on the way as you test each other’s thoughts and hypotheses, ask for solid proof or indeed throw some crazy ideas in the ring to liven things up a bit. You argue and have to make up, but in the end, the resulting data has been scrutinised, criticised and tested, and interpretations are fine-tuned. And quite apart from that, it has been fun along the way. Even on days when the science might not go so well, you know together you will get it to work, if not today, then soon.

My research spans topics as diverse as molecular electronics and avian magnetoreception. I am an expert in neither the design of molecular wires nor the study of night-migratory birds. My expertise lies in the study of spin in magnetic fields using both ESR and optical spectroscopy. I rely fully on my colleagues to synthesise the supramolecular structures as well as to express proteins of migratory and non-migratory song-birds. I even rely on the expertise of collaborators within in chemistry – theoreticians and other spectroscopists with a deeper insight into high finesse cavities for high sensitivity detection. Yet, they also place their trust in me. Not only does that lead to work which simply could not be done by a single group, let alone a single researcher, but it has all the advantages of team work: different angles from which to attack a problem, discussion, argument, questioning, criticism, re-working, re-thinking, double checking, and finally hard-earned, solid consensus. And – like any teamwork – it has been fun along the way.