President
Agnieszka Fandrey
I am a 4th year Master in Chemistry student and I have been a member of AUWISE since my first year at Uni and joined the committee in my second year first as PR representative and then as president .
Why did I choose chemistry ? I wanted to work in pharmaceuticals and hopefully Chemistry will help me achieve that. ( or maybe because of personal hero and fellow Pole Madam Skłodowska-Curie ). I especially enjoy organic, natural products and synthetic chemistry.
In my free time I love hiking in beautiful Scottish nature and organising kayaking trips
My role as a President taught me a lot about organising events, communicating with companies, other societies and academics. Last year allowed me to meet a lot of inspiring professionals and students form variety of STEM areas. I hope this year to grow our network and continue creating a supportive community of ambitious and confident women in STEM.
I loved working with my fellow committee members and the society and glad to continue in my role as president this year
vICE pRESIDENT
Daniel Thompson
I am a fourth year Chemistry student. Studying Chemistry wasn't completely an evident career path until my final year at school. Up until then I only studied social sciences and maths and, at the time, believed I would study something like History at University. However, I did not feel any passion for the subject and didn't feel like social sciences for me, so after a lot of searching and a lot of conversations, I decided to crash Chemistry, Physics, and Biology during my final year. I did this because I always had a huge interest in science and technology, and so It was then that I decided I wanted to study Chemistry further and that I found my career path.
I attended events during my second year and joined AUWiSE as Secretary during my third year because I really liked what the society stood for and the purpose of the society. The role of secretary had a variety of duties including organising events, booking rooms, completing forms and applications for AUSA, doing the minutes for meetings, and dealing with correspondence like emails and messages. The role helped me develop my communication as well as time-management skills as you really had to communicate with your fellow committee members and I had to manage my time effectively with studies also. It was a really fun experience and I met a lot of really fantastic people.
tREASURER
Jerneja Koren
I'm a second-year Immunology and Pharmacology student at the University of Aberdeen. Since I have always been fascinated by science and medicine, deciding what I wanted to study at university was quite simple. And I still believe I made the right choice.
I became a member of AUWISE during my first year at the University of Aberdeen and got inspired to join the committee. As a treasurer I am in charge of the budget plan and finances and I also get to work with other committee members on a number of interesting and exciting projects.
I loved being a part of the AUWISE committee so far and I am very excitied for the new academic year and all the events that we have planned for you.
Secretary
Mia Koponen
I am a 3rd-year student in Neuroscience with Psychology and I am planning to become a researcher in pharmacology. I am interested in pain management and long-term side-effects of using medications.
I attended AUWISE events on my second year and decided that I wanted to become more engaged with the society, hence I joined the committee this year. I think AUWISE is one of the best societies in our university because the events focus on improving STEM skills and networking.
Medical Sciecnes Rep
Nina Lenaršič
I'm Nina, a second year biomedical sciences (molecular biology) student. This is my first year as a member of AU WiSTEM, my role is to be a Medical Representative. I joined the society because biomedicine is my passion and i want to expand my network in the field that im interested in. I may not have spent a lot of time in the society yet, but I feel very homie with other committee members and am looking forward to all the future events that are yet to come.
I chose to study molecular biology because it includes the perfect combination of biology and chemistry all applied to human species. I feel inspired by nature and how it has invented the biological processes, so complex and intertwined but still manage to keep us perfectly healthy and alive every single day, despite the fact that we sometimes (on Friday nights) do not treat our body like it deserves. In the future, I want to explore the depths of molecular biology and build my career as a biomedical scientist.
eNGINEERING rEP
Sofie Spasova
I am a 3rd Year Chemical Engineering student and I really enjoy applying all the theory we learn into solving real world problems. I am passionate about engineering as it is so rewarding to learn how to create and design technologies that could make the world a better place. I also love learning about science and science-related topics, especially chemistry and maths. In my spare time I enjoy running and working with the committee at AUWISE as Engineering Representative. I wanted to join AUWISE so I could work with an inspiring team and meet lots of new people. Although, we cannot meet in person at the moment I am still really looking forward to growing our network of students through the exciting events we have coming up this year.
Natural and computing sciences rep
Klara Krämer
I am a 1st year student and I belong to the very rare species of female Computing Science students. As such, I am very glad that I joined this great initiative and thus do my best to promote women in STEM, as this is a very important topic not just to me but to the wider community. In my free time, I enjoy reading, hiking, doing sports or spending time with friends. The reason I chose to study computing science is rather simple: I have always loved the logical and the creative parts of problem solving and programming and there is nothing I enjoy more than a little – or maybe a little bit bigger – challenge. This is why I joined forces with my brother and created a fully functional open-source smart-home voice assistant named TIANE (think of something like amazon’s Alexa but with more functions). With the main focus of our project being data security and transparency, the two of us won several national and international science awards, including the Super Science Highschool fair price in Kobe, Japan. It was at these competitions that I initially noticed the chronic underrepresentation of women in what seems to be all STEM subjects, and now I am truly passionate about making a change there, however small it may be. I look forward to working with the committee of AUWiSE this year and hopefully in the future, too!
Postgraduate rep
Vera Schroen
I'm a postgraduate student, doing my masters in Medical Physics at Aberdeen. I received my bachelors degrees in Engineering Physics, where I got to study various disciplines of physics. While I liked many of them (CAD-designing, 3D-printing, Quantum-mechanics) medical physics stuck with me, and now I'm doing a masters in the subject. I found out about AUWiSE during the (online) freshers and I wanted to join immediately. Thus, I became their postgraduate representative, improving my networking skills and taking on more responsibility than I previously have. I am really looking forward to this interesting year, and all the events we have and are going to plan.
BIOSCIENCES REP
Giulia Pipolo
I am a brand new first-year Animal Behaviour Student. I have always known I wanted to work with animals, so when I saw they offered this course, I was sold immediately. I am very interested in animal emotions and am striving to work with wild animals in the future. I would love to conduct my own research on animal emotions later on, want to play a prominent role in the Animal Rights Activist world and would love to delve into the documentary-making scene (I might be the next David Attenborough).
I joined the AUWISE committee as the biological sciences rep immediately, because I saw a great potential for personal development in it. We are obviously having a bit of a different year, which means that we maybe have less opportunities in the social department, but that provides up with great opportunities, like this one. Whilst we are still in this weird situation, I want to focus on gaining new helpful skills, which is exactly why I joined this committee.
This society is very important to me and I am very excited to get involved and organise amazing events for all of you!
Public relations rep
Stáňa Wolfová
I am a master's student of Reproductive and Developmental Biology at the University of Aberdeen, and I am a PR representative. I love what the AUWiSE Society does, and I wanted to be part of it.
I studied biology at the Faculty of Science at the University of South Bohemia in the Czech Republic, and during my bachelor studies, I studied also one semester of marine biology in Italy. I have conducted undergraduate research on Galápagos doves and their louse ectoparasites on Parasitology Institute. It was really interesting, but I realized I would like to focus on human biology.
And why am I a PR representative? I have been working as a journalist for several years, so I feel close to PR.
I am looking forward to making posters and create events!
1st year rep
Myriam Schioppa
Hi, my name is Myriam and I'm the First Year Representative for Auwise!
I'm studying Neuroscience with Psychology, first year, and my main role in the society is to advertise the events among the fresher's community and spread the word about our mission to promote and represent all women in STEM! I was really looking forward to become a member of the committee since the beginning of the Fresher's week and I'm so grateful that I have been granted this opportunity.
I discovered my passion in neuroscience a little later than expected. Finishing High School, I thought I would be focusing only on Psychology, as I had previously studied it, and I've always been keen to analyse other people. However, I've witnessed close people to me suffering from mental illnesses for all my life that I realized neuroscience offers a wider understanding of the human brain and its mental processes. That's what shaped a first feeble curiosity of human behaviour into the strong, personal fascination I have of the brain, and all its quirks.
I want to use my degree to become either a Clinical Neuropsychologist to work with patients of a different range of mental/neuronal disorders, or focus on research for possible/experimental treatments of such disorders as a Neuroscientist. Thinking about these possibilities of career for my future gives me such enthusiasm and appreciation that I believe every girl in their young years should feel this way, for whatever path they may choose. I want to enforce this feeling in any way I can and Auwise is doing great progress in regards, which makes me really proud to be a part of such a beautiful community.