My professional focus is on scientific management and institutional development. Currently in my professional role I am responsible for the institutional development project „KIT 2.0“ at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Since mid-November 2023, I am an Institutional Development Officer in the Institutional Strategies Department. From February 2015 to March 2022 I was responsible for the team providing research grant advice to researchers at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in the south of Germany. Since November 2011 I was head of the service unit „strategic collaboration“ at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology’s Research Office and, in addition, Head of the proposal and project management service „FORscience“. Since April 2009 I was an advisor for EU and international research funding.
Before, I focused on museums and new technologies, as a researcher and project coordinator in the third-party funded research project „Learning in the museum: The role of media“ at the Knowledge Media Research Center in Tuebingen, Germany.
This evolved from my previous work on audience research and evaluation for museums. I have completed my PhD in Media and Communication Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin in the area of museum communication, with research on the subject „Opening Up Museums for their Audiences: Success Factors for Effective Audience Research“, in conjunction with the Institute for Museum Studies of the State Museums Berlin – Prussian Heritage, supported by a fellowship of the German National Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes). The research results also were reflected in the German Museums‘ Association’s Guidelines for Audience Research (2019).
After completing a M.A. in Applied Cultural Studies (University of Lüneburg, Northern Germany) I lived in Melbourne, Australia for 16 months in 2001/2002. During that time, I worked on several projects concerning audience research in museums, both at Melbourne Museum and Deakin University. On behalf of the Evaluation and Visitor Research Special Interest Group of Museums Australia, I carried out an Australia-wide study on the use and impact of audience research in cultural heritage institutions.
In my personal life my interests and activities are mainly in the cultural field, i.e. museums and singing. For example, since November 2019 I am heading the friends‘ association Gesellschaft der Freunde und Förderer der Musik an der Christuskirche Karlsruhe. Purpose of this association is the support of high quality musical activities at Christuskirche church in Karlsruhe.