Prof. Martina Marchetti-Deschmann about her Life and Career

PROF. MARTINA MARCHETTI-DESCHMANN ABOUT HER LIFE AND CAREER: Becoming a female Professor at TU Wien

WE ARE HAPPY THAT the Faculty has gotten yet another female professor! It is a great pleasure for us to introduce Prof. Martina Marchetti-Deschmann:

Martina Marchetti-Deschmann studied Chemistry at the University of Vienna. From early on she was interested in Analytical Chemistry. After finalizing her diploma degree in this area, she moved to industrial analysis during her doctoral studies. It was during this times that her fascination for protein analysis started.

She assessed the potential of latex gloves to eliciting allergies in humans and characterized the major allergens. Before submitting her thesis, she joined Franz Hillenkamp’s lab in Münster for two months.

In 2003, Martina joined TU Wien as Assistant at the Institute of Chemical Technologies and Analytics, where she started to develop her own research interests: omics methodologies in the context of industrial engineering. Since 2009, she is utilizing mass spectrometry to pioneer new techniques for visualizing and understanding molecular structures of biological tissues. Teaching obligations did not allow for long-term stays, but she joined multiple international research groups as visiting researcher (Academy of Sciences/CZ, FOM institute AMOLF/NL, Leiden University Medical Center/NL).

Martina was the first person who held a tenured position at TU Wien. In 2009, she was appointed Assistant Professor, after her habilitation in 2013 she became Associate Professor. Since then, she has been heading her own research group, MS Bio and Polymer Analysis (former: Omics Technologies), and the Metabolomics and Bioprocess Analysis Laboratory (collaboration with Shimadzu), which became an Innovation Center for Shimadzu in 2013. In 2016/2017, she joined the group of Richard Caprioli at Vanderbilt University as visiting professor (sabbatical). Martina Marchetti-Deschmann was appointed Full Professor in 2020.

She is an internationally recognized expert and a driving force for MS imaging with a special focus on multimodal imaging. She is elected vice-president of the MS Imaging Society (MSIS), board member of the International Mass Spectrometry Foundation (IMSF) and has been on the board of many professional societies to advance mass spectrometric research, education and professionalization.

Her research was awarded the Beynon Prize from the Journal “Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry” in 2007 and the Fritz Feigl Prize by the Austrian Society of Analytical Chemistry in 2013. 

Martina Marchetti-Deschmann likes to read, enjoys cinemas and is interested in software/hardware developments. In 1998, Martina started to play golf and is passionate about it since then – she gave up skiing, although being an instructor, she gave up ballroom dancing, although dancing at grand openings. Many things of these sports relate to her professional life:

“True sportsmanship is…
Knowing that you need your opponent because without him or her, there is no game.
Acknowledging that your opponent holds the same deep-rooted aspirations and expectations as you.
Knowing that, win or lose, you will walk off the course with pride.
Always taking the high road.
And always, always, always being a good sport.”  Lorii Myers