Verena Jantsch-Plunger awarded Bertha Karlik professorship
19.01.12One of three sucessful candidates for prestigious chair at the University of Vienna
MFPL group leader Verena Jantsch-Plunger was one of three researchers chosen from 63 applicants to hold the prestigious Berta Karlik professorship, a recognition of the quality of her research throughout her career.
The chair is named in honor of the first female professor at the University of Vienna, physicist Berta Karlik, who became a full professor in 1956. The institution of the professorships bearing her name are part of an effort by the University of Vienna to increase the numbers of female professors amongst their faculty.
Verena Jantsch-Plunger completed her PhD studies at the University of Vienna and also completed her 'habilitation' in genetics and cellular biology there. She then began to build up her own research group, supported by one of the first Elise Richter stipends awarded by the FWF. She received further funding from the WWTF.
The main focus of Jantsch's research is the process of meiosis. This is the specialised form of cell division which produces sperm and ova cells for reproduction. She and her team explore molecular details of the mechanism by which the chromosome pairs of the two parent organisms recognise one another and pair up.
