Andreas Walter

Aalen University, Centre of Optical Technologies, Aalen, Germany

Prof. Dr. Andreas Walter studied physics and biophysics at the University of Heidelberg on a Baden-Wuerttemberg Scholarship. He spent his research career developing and applying various imaging techniques for life sciences. After his tenure as a guest scientist at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, he did his PhD at the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics on method development in cryo-electron microscopy. He finished his studies with distinction. He continued his research in imaging and worked as a postdoc and DFG fellow at the University of California San Francisco and at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to correlate soft x-ray tomography and cryo-light microscopy. He is also a fellow of the German Scholars Organization. Prof. Dr. Walter was appointed Director of Austrian BioImaging in October 2016, and he is now Professor of Biophotonics and Bioimaging at Aalen University, Germany, at the Centre for Optical Technologies. He is also the main proposer and Chair of the EU-funded COST Action COMULIS (www.comulis.eu).

Julia Fernandez-Rodriguez

University of Gothenburg, Shalgrenska Academy, Centre for Cellular Imaging

Julia Fernandez-Rodriguez is the Head of the Centre for the Cellular Imaging University of Gothenburg, Node of the Swedish National Microscopy Infrastructure (NMI), Vice-chair of the Panels of Node Board for the Euro-BioImaging ERIC consortium and President of the Core Technologies for Life Sciences Association (CTLS). She graduated (1989) in Biology from the University Santiago de Compostela (Spain) and received her PhD (1996) in Biochemistry from the University of Vigo (Spain). She has a background in Cell and Molecular Biology. She is responsible for an open-access Correlative Multimodal Imaging Facility that provides technical and scientific excellence by integrating multiple imaging technologies, which currently totals 15 microscopy-based imaging systems, together with image processing and analysis tools in a single core. The main interest is to provide expertise in correlated multimodal imaging workflows, from experimental design to image acquisition and analysis, tailored to various research domains within the Life Sciences. She has more than 20 years of experience in the organisation, implementation and management of core facilities and training activities at the National and International levels. Furthermore, she has supervised core internship and ERASMUS students in bioimaging, promoting future career possibilities and introducing core facility work as a possible career direction. She is the scientific coordinator of the NMI member of the Main Board of the Nordic Microscopy Society (SCANDEM) and the Bridging Nordic Microscopy Infrastructure (NordForks). On the European landscape, she is also well connected to several other European facilities through the European Light Microscopy Initiative, ELMI (member of the Steering committee). Further, she represents Sweden on the Management Committee. She is the Coordinator of the Short-Term Scientific Missions of 2 European COST Actions: NEUBIAS (CA15124) -network of Bioimage Analysts; and COMULIS (CA17121) -network in Correlated Multimodal Imaging in Life Sciences. Among her responsibilities, she has been vital in recruiting the next generation of microscopists to fulfil the long-term goals of the CCI and the University of Gothenburg.