Vanessa Linke

AWARDS

• 2020 – Harold Hay Fellowship

BIOGRAPHY

My name is Vanessa Linke and I am originally from Germany. I completed my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Chemistry at Justus-Liebig-University Giessen and first came to Madison for a semester abroad in 2014. I joined the Analytical Chemistry path at UW-Madison and work with mass spectrometers in the Joshua J. Coon group. During my program, I was so fortunate to spend some time in the R&D department at Thermo Fisher, where I learned even more about the instruments and industry in general. In the Coon lab, I study fats or what we call them – lipids. Beyond what a simple blood lipid panel at the doctor’s makes us believe, there are thousands of these hydrophobic molecules that all play unique and crucial roles in our body. To better study their biological origins and functions, I collaborated closely with the groups of Alan Attie, Federico Rey, and Dave Pagliarini on campus. I defended my PhD thesis entitled ‘Linking Mass Spectrometry and Genetics for Studying the Various Biological Roles of Lipids’ in Spring 2020. This semester, I was so honored to receive the Harold Hay Fellowship, which I am very grateful for. As soon as the travel restrictions will allow me this summer, I will continue and broaden my research as a postdoctoral scientist in Warsaw, Poland. Fun fact: I wrote a chapter in my dissertation about my grandpa, who was a farmer – Science is fun!

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