CYBERSECURITY STUDIES
in Saarbruecken, Germany

Actually, I want to be a Professor and research is part of it. The main reason why I chose this career path is teaching: preparing and giving lectures, supervising students, and kindle their interest and enthusiasm for my topics. What I found interesting as well is the freedom in terms of topics. Part of being a researcher is solving problems that are yet unknown, which means you do not necessarily know what will be the next step. You need to reflect, invent, come up with creative ideas, implement and test your ideas. Sometimes the idea will work, sometimes it won’t. This freedom to invent my own path (instead of doing what somebody wants you to do), was another important reason for me to become a researcher.

A lot of things!
My research is in the area of IT Security and I love the opportunity to contribute to making our interconnected world more secure my means of our research. I like working on specific problems and suggesting solutions. I also love a researcher’s freedom. I can chose my research areas, projects or even people I want to work with independently. I can organize my work day according to my preferences and I like being able to share my skills and research results with others, not just by giving lectures or supervising students, but also giving talks at international conferences. These conferences are a great means to build strong international networks and connections. What I also like about conferences, is the opportunity to expand my knowledge in various areas.

In my research, I am developing new methods to detect malware and vulnerable programs automatically and accurately. Additionally, I am investigating how much we can rely on existing antivirus software.

Even if there are more male than female IT-Security researchers, this did not influence my decision to work in this area and it has nothing to do with my work. There are also trainings or workshops (Blackhoodie, e.g.) which try and encourage more women to work in this area. Saarland University offers programs such as MentoMINT or the excellence program for female junior scientists. I also enjoy answering questions or sharing my experience!