Profile

Photo:

Petra Fischer

My CV

  • Education:

    Bundesgymnasium Schärding (Secondary State School Schärding), Austria

  • Qualifications:

    06/2005 A-levels at 18: Maths, German, English, Latin, Music and Art
    (GCSEs do not exist in Austria);

    09/2005–09/2008 BSc in Engineering, at the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria (Campus Hagenberg);

    10/2011–12/2013 MSc Cognitive Science at the University of Osnabrück, Germany;

    10/2014–11/2017 DPhil in Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Oxford, UK

  • Work History:

    03/2012–09/2012 Graduate Research Assistant (20h/month) at the Neuroinformatics group, Institute of Cognitive Science, Osnabrück
    I was in charge of designing and implementing a Virtual Reality experiment;

    10/2013-10/2014 Research associate at the Neurobiopsychology group, Institute of Cognitive Science, Osnabrück; I collected and analysed EEG and eye-movement data;

    09/2008–09/2011 3D Programmer and Designer at the postproduction company k-effects, Vienna, Austria;

    07/2006 -08/2006 Shop assistant, souvenir shop Schoenbrunn, Vienna, Austria

  • Current Job:

    Postdoctoral Neuroscientist at the University of Oxford

  • About Me:

    I am a Neuroscientist and I love being creative at work as well as in my spare time. I also really appreciate working with people that inspire me.

  • Read more

    I am a Neuroscientist, who came to the field relatively late after studying a BSc in engineering with a focus on media design. At first I wanted to work at a 3D animation studio and worked in the media industry but after the financial crash in 2008 I decided I wanted to do something  that would benefit society in the long run. Because my grandmother had Parkinson’s, which was difficult to treat, I wanted to find out how to improve treatments for movement disorders.

    I am originally from Austria but have been living in Oxford for over five years now. In my spare time I enjoy playing drums, singing and surfing.

  • Read more

    My nephew had fun at my graduation:

  • My Typical Day:

    I spend a lot of my time with experiments: Sometimes I visit patients to record their brain activity, but on most days I look at the activity patterns on my computer to answer how they change during movements.

  • Read more

    If I am not with patients to do a new experiment, I spend most of my time programming or writing articles about my results. My days are extremely variable: Sometimes I have meetings or listen to presentations of other scientists. On most days I can set my own schedule – I often start with answering e-mails and move on to reading, writing or programming later on.

  • What I'd do with the prize money:

    I’d like to encourage school kids to participate in an article writing project.

  • My Interview

    • How would you describe yourself in 3 words?

      Creative, optimistic, adventurous

      What did you want to be after you left school?

      3D animator at Pixar

      Were you ever in trouble at school?

      Rarely, but it happened

      Who is your favourite singer or band?

      The Lumineers

      What's your favourite food?

      Indian curry

      If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!

      A house with a music room including a drum kit, a dog and a campervan

      Tell us a joke.

      How did the eagle pass the driving test? - He winged it.

Questions answered by Petra

View all Petra's answered questions