Professor Andrea Schäfer shares her story with the DAAD
Engineering Success and Sweet Beginnings: Prof. Schäfer’s DAAD Journey
"As a first in the family to go to University, doing a PhD was beyond imagination and being a Chair professor in Edinburgh (the first ever engineering professor there) 5 years after PhD out of this world. DAAD made it possible. I had fallen in love with research (and my future husband) during a research internship in New Zealand in 1994, during my masters in France. The following year we tried to figure out how to make a super-long-distance relationship work and decided Australia had more ‘dual-career’ options than NZ. I considered some 26 scholarship options, and DAAD made this move possible. The training I received in Australia was astonishing, eventually funded with an OPRS fee waiver and a generous CRC Water Quality and Treatment scholarship. I still remember the director raving about the Black Forest (cakes) and I told him if he invited me to his lab, I would bake him one. I was flown to Adelaide very swiftly, made a cake and much like DAAD, cakes have become an integral part of my career. Thank you DAAD!"
Read more about Prof. Schäfer’s journey and how DAAD shaped both her professional path and personal life via the link below.