For this feature, we ask our female PIs three questions – about the SFB, their career, their balancing of work and private life, gender issues in general etc.
Did you ever consider leaving academia and what made you stay on?
I briefly considered leaving academia after my PhD. I did not have an easy time and wasn’t sure if it was the right path for me. Luckily, I decided to give academia a second chance and pursued a postdoc, and I haven’t looked back since. It has been the most rewarding job that I could have hoped to have.
Which aspect of being a principal investigator do you like best?
I enjoy leading a team of motivated researchers working towards the common goal of making groundbreaking discoveries in epigenetics and chromatin research. My team and I get to be creative in devising new and exciting ways to address important biological questions.
What do you appreciate most about our SFB 1381?
SFB 1381 brings together such diverse topics and expertise. We have research spanning everything from archaeal motility to mitochondrial protein import machinery. I really enjoy the scientific discussions and information exchange taking place between all the members of the SFB.
Asifa Akhtar began her research journey in London, UK, earning her BSc from the University College London and conducting her PhD at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund. She then moved to Germany for her postdoctoral work, staying at the EMBL in Heidelberg and the Adolf Butenandt Institute in Munich. Since 2009, Asifa has led the Laboratory of Chromatin Regulation at the MPI of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg, where she was appointed director in 2013. In July 2020, she became the first international and female vice president of the Biology and Medicine Section of the Max Planck Society. In our SFB, Asifa serves as vice speaker and leads project B03.
