Assistant Prof. Maren Podewitz

Born and raised in Northern Germany, Maren Podewitz decided to move to the center of Germany and started studying Chemistry in Jena. Already during her years as an undergrad, she became interested in Theoretical Chemistry. She spent one year at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden as an Erasmus student, where she studied physical and theoretical chemistry. Back in Germany, Maren moved to Switzerland to conduct her Master’s thesis working on the description of metal-metal interaction under the supervision of Prof. Markus Reiher at ETH Zürich. She continued her PhD studies in the same group, where she delved deeper into the foundations of quantum chemistry. After graduating from ETH, Maren joined the group of Prof. Ken Houk at the University of California, Los Angeles to solve problems in physical organic chemistry with computational tools and became first interested in designing new molecules.

However, discouraged by the prospects of Academia, she decided to leave the University and accepted a “secure” job as a quantitative risk analyst at an insurance company in Switzerland. While acquiring knowledge in statistics, project and process management, Maren soon realized that risk management is not what she is most passionate about. So, after two years, she quitted her job and joined the University of Innsbruck as a postdoctoral scholar. In the group of Prof. Klaus R. Liedl, she broadened her expertise towards biomolecular simulations. Eventually her work was supported by FWF Lise Meitner Fellowship. In 2020, she secured a FWF stand-alone project to fund her independent line of research working on the prediction of reactivity and selectivity in catalysis for rational design before she joined the TUW as an Assistant Professor in August 2021.