Rongxia Liu: Back to Academia
| 26. Februar 2014
The "Back-to-Research Grant" gives Rongxia Liu the chance to continue her research at the Department of Pharmacognosy.
"Before I joined the University of Vienna, I have worked for a biotech organisation which was mostly application-oriented for five years", says Lui Rongxia, member of the Department of Pharmacognosy. She found her way back to research with the Back-to-Research Grant.
I studied pharmacy…
… because I was interested in the subject since my childhood. So I finally started studying pharmacy 20 years ago.
The biggest challenge of my professional life was…
… changing my career from industry back to academia. That was a big challenge for me. Before I joined the University of Vienna, I have worked for a biotech organisation which was mostly application-oriented for five years and quite different from researching. When I came back to the research lab at the University of Vienna, I thought that I need to change both my mind and method of work, which was very challenging. But fortunately I made it.
The difficulties in entering the scientific work again after maternity leave are…
… looking after my daughter and concentrating on my research at once. As a new mum, I had to learn how to take care of my baby. And taking care of my daughter took a lot of time in the beginning. It was a conflict to find a balance between work and family, how to play both roles well. Now I am happy that I have made it.
Back-to-Research Grant: The grant provides support for researchers writing applications for research projects that serve their career development and/or writing/completing publications. The target groups are female Post-doctoral researchers without a long-term contract (or who came to Vienna from abroad and are looking to restart/continue research), from the fields of Earth Sciences, Geography and Astronomy, Life Sciences, Mathematics, Computer Science, Physics and Chemistry, who reduced or interrupted their academic research in the past five years in order to care for their child/children.
I applied for the Back-to-Research Grant…
… because the topic of my current research is "Discovery of bioactive natural compounds from Traditional Chinese Medicines (TCMs) used against Cardiovascular Disease (CVD)", which is financed by the Marie Curie Fellowship (EU-FP7). The budget will cover my research until June 2014. The financial support from the Back-to-Research Grant gives me the chance to continue my investigations throughout 2014, and also to publish in high-impact international peer-reviewed journals.
My future plans are…
… to finish my current research, publish one or several papers related to my project in high-impact journals, and present my findings at relevant international conferences. In the future, I think I will continue working in this highly exiting research field. I like my research and I am prepared to pursue it as a lifetime career.
Should women be specifically promoted in science?
I think so. Raising a child, especially in the first years is exhausting and costs a lot of effort and time. Considering that women achieve the same work in science as men, it often means that they need more effort. Hence I think women especially deserve promotion.
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| Rongxia Liu obtained her PhD in 2005, under supervision of Prof. De-an Guo at Peking University, China. Furthermore she has worked in the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica (SIMM) at the Chinese Academy of Sciences from 2005 until 2007. From 2012 onwards she works as postdoctoral fellow at the Molecular Targets Group (with Prof. Verena Dirsch) at the Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Vienna. |
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