Monday, November 5, 2012

SFSYO Scientist of the Month: Philipp Schiffer


At work in the lab. Courtesy of Philipp Schiffer.
Erin: What type of scientist are you?






Erin: Why did you decided to become a scientist?


Out of the lab! Courtesy of Philipp Schiffer.
Erin: What is your favorite thing about your job?




Erin: What are your favorite things to do for fun?





  1. From the first graders: How old are you? Why did you decide to study nematodes? What have you learned from studying them so far? Why have you gone to schools in so many different places? Thank you for the post!

  2. Hey kids, thanks for your questions. Here are my answers:
    1. I am 32, actually became 32 last week.
    2. Why did I decide to study nematodes. Just by chance! I was studying goose barnacles and then started to look for a place to do my PhD. I found/met my current boss and he was working with nematodes and they proofed to be the ideal organisms to work with on the the questions I was/am interested in.
    3. What have I learned so far, oh, that is a hard one: I think I have learnt that although nematodes all look just like tiny, tiny (and maybe boring) worms at first, they are totally different in many, many ways - which makes them very exciting animals to study. And also: nematodes just own our planet - they are simply everywhere, so forget about bugs and flies, it is the worms that are important. ;-)
    4. Why have I gone to school in so many places? Well, I think it is very important to get to know the world and I really like to meet new people from all over the world, thus I tried to get around a bit during my studies.

  3. My sister just explained to me, that it should read 'turned 32' instead of 'became 32'....