Update Oct 15th: The technical issues could be resolved. The election is up and running again. The voting process can resume. Sorry for the delay!
We are excited to announce the elections for the new Elise Richter Network board, scheduled for Oct 14-27, 2024. All network members are invited to participate in shaping the future of our network. Your voice matters! In due time you will get an email with the instructions for the online election.
Get to know each candidate by reviewing their short CVs and the positions they are running for.
Karen Kastenhofer
I am a committed inter- and transdisciplinarian: a Science and Technology Studies (STS) scholar, a technology assessment (TA) practitioner and human ecologist, with a PhD in biology, a habilitation thesis in STS and a senior scientist position at the leading TA institute in Austria.
My current area of work encompasses the reconstruction of (techno)epistemic cultures, the analysis of science-informed controversies and the discussion of potential governance approaches in the realm of the life sciences and biotechnologies.
I am a founding member of the Elise Richter Network, with my Elise Richter project on “Techno-Epistemic Cultures in the Life Sciences” starting in 2014 and ending in 2019. Since June 2024, I am also deputy director of the Austrian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Technology Assessment.
Interest/willingness for ERN board roles: chairwoman
For more information, see https://eliserichter.net/index.php/team/karen-kastenhofer/, https://www.oeaw.ac.at/en/ita/kastenhofer https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Karen-Kastenhofer.
Sandra Mayer
I am a literary and cultural historian, whose research is situated in the areas of life writing, authorship studies, cultural transfer, reception studies, and digital editing. My Elise Richter project “The Author as Activist: Literature, Politics, Celebrity” (2022-2026) explores the interplay of literary authorship, political activism, and celebrity culture in and through autobiographical narrative from the nineteenth century to the present day. After holding academic positions and research fellowships at the Universities of Vienna, Oxford, Zurich, and Galway, I joined the Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities and Cultural Heritage of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in 2021. There I have been leading two FWF-funded three-year edition projects – “Auden Musulin Papers” (2021-2024) and “Auden in Austria Digital” (2024-2027) – that make openly available the correspondence and literary papers of British-American poet W. H. Auden held by Austrian archival institutions. As a former FWF Schrödinger and Firnberg fellow and standalone-project leader, I am an experienced PI who is committed to advocating the cause of precariously employed excellent female researchers.
Interest/willingness for ERN board roles: vice-chairwoman
For more information, see: https://www.oeaw.ac.at/acdh/team/current-team/sandra-mayer
https://eliserichter.net/index.php/team/sandra-mayer/
Barbara Fischer
I am an evolutionary biologist, data scientist, and science communicator, with previous experience as the cashier on the ERN board. Currently, I am a new group leader for Evolutionary Biology and Evolutionary Medicine at the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research in Klosterneuburg, Austria, as well as an Elise-Richter project leader at the Department of Evolutionary Biology at the University of Vienna.
My recent research has focused on the evolution of human birth. In addition to my research, I am passionate about science communication and have authored a high school biology textbook titled Am Puls Biologie (published by Österreichischer Bundesverlag Schulbuch). I have worked as a quantitative biology researcher at various European institutions in Norway, Switzerland, Finland, and Austria. Moreover, I am an experienced lecturer, having taught applied mathematics, evolutionary biology, and evolutionary theory for many years at the University of Vienna.
Interest/willingness for ERN board roles: cashier
For more information, see https://www.barbarafischer.info/
https://eliserichter.net/index.php/team/barbara-fischer/
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Barbara-Fischer-10
Bea Maas
Bea Maas is an ecologist working internationally in the fields of conservation science and agro-ecology. Her research is focused on birds, bats and arthropods in tropical and temperate ecosystems, as well as on their importance for human well-being and how they can be integrated into more sustainable land use approaches. Currently, she is leading two international research projects at the Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research: her Elise Richter project “ECO-OLIVES” is focused on Mediterranean olive groves while her project “ECO-CACAO” is dedicated to Peruvian cacao agroforestry systems. Her trans-disciplinary approach integrates techniques from social sciences, science communication, agronomy and engineering. As Associate Editor of two international conservation journals and as a member of DEI Committees of international scientific societies, she is committed to advancing the implementation of conservation science by strengthening diversity, equity, and inclusion. Through her teaching at the University of Vienna, Bea Maas shares her experience with students, while she continuously expands her networks and skills through cooperation with stakeholders and decision-makers from conservation science and practice.
Interest/willingness for ERN board roles: second vice-chairwoman
For more information, see https://eliserichter.net/index.php/team/bea-maas/
Vera Pfanzagl
Vera Pfanzagl is an Elise-Richter Fellow at the Department of Chemistry at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) in Vienna. She has completed her PhD within the framework of the international PhD program “Biomolecular Technology of Proteins”, where she worked on structure-function relationship of bacterial heme peroxidases. During this time, she became interested in understanding the structural changes and dynamics involved in and guiding enzymatic reactions. During her postdoctoral studies she started working on human heme peroxidases, a group of 5 homologous enzymes that utilize a common fold and cofactor to catalyze the formation of reactive oxidants for widely diverging purposes ranging from innate immune response to hormone biosynthesis. Her current focus is on understanding the minute structural differences between these five enzymes in order to answer fundament biochemical and biophysical questions regarding their divergent substrate specificities and allow the design of more potent and specific inhibitors.
Interest/willingness for ERN board roles: secretary
For more information, see https://forschung.boku.ac.at/de/researcher/259751920EF8C49F
Meropi Tzanetakis
Assistant Professor, Department of Criminology, University of Manchester.
I am a digital criminology scholar with more than ten years of experience in societal security research at universities in Austria, Germany, Norway, and the UK. I have been conducting pioneering research on the socio-technical aspects of digital drug markets and interdisciplinary studies on AI trust, security, and governance. Leading the development of a new interdiscipli-nary MSc at the UoM, enhancing digital trust and security education. PI on several high-impact projects, securing over £650,000 in external funding and influencing real-world applications and policies through successful collaborations with industry, policymakers, and community organisations.
Interest/willingness for ERN board roles: vice-secretary
For more information, see https://homepage.univie.ac.at/meropi.tzanetakis/ https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/meropi.tzanetakis.html
Lisa Horn
I am a comparative behavioral researcher investigating social cognition in humans and non-human animals. My research is comparative and interdisciplinary, bridging different fields such as behavioral biology, cognitive science, and psychology. Currently, as a principal investigator at the University of Vienna, I investigate child behavior ‘in the field’, by visiting daycare facilities and using modern sensor technology and machine learning tools to record children’s behavior under naturalistic conditions. I have received multiple grants and awards from national and international funding organizations (e.g., European Science Foundation, Austrian Science Fund, Austrian Academy of Sciences) and am a member of the Editorial Board of the research section Comparative Psychology in the journal Frontiers in Psychology.
I have been part of the ERN since 2021, when I was awarded my Elise Richter grant. Already since 2015 I have been active in the Women in Biology Initiative (WoBio; wobio.univie.ac.at), which enables networking between female researchers in the field of biology and aims to raise awareness of systemic inequalities in the career opportunities of biologists. From 2022 to 2024 I served on the WoBio board. Beyond that, I am an avid teacher and science communicator. I have been teaching at the Faculty of Life Sciences and the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Vienna for many years and communicate science to the general public and public interest groups, such as pedagogical colleges, the Austrian Society for Research and Development in Education, and various childcare organizations.
Interest/willingness for ERN board roles: vice-cashier
For more information, see https://becogbio.univie.ac.at/people/scientific-staff/lisa-horn
Muriel Blaive
Muriel Blaive is a socio-political historian of postwar, communist, and post-communist Central Europe, in particular of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic. She graduated from the Institut d’études politiques in Paris and wrote her PhD in history (summa cum laude) at EHESS in Paris. Her most recent publications include the special issue she edited at East European Politics and Society, Writing on Communist History in Central Europe, including her article “The Reform Communist Interpretation of the Stalinist Period in Czech Historiography and its Legacy” (EEPS, online, November 2021), and her edited volume Perceptions of Society in Communist Europe. Regime Archives and Popular Opinion, London, Bloomsbury Academic, 2018.
Interest/willingness for ERN board roles: speaker for social media
For more information, see https://uni-graz.academia.edu/MurielBlaive