Dr. Christine Rasche has always found it fascinating to understand nature's chemical resources and to exploit them for the chemical industry. After completing her doctorate in plant and wood chemistry, her biorefinery background enabled her to start working as a research associate at Fraunhofer CBP. Today she heads the sustainable chemistry business unit at Fraunhofer IGB.
food chemistry involves a lot of analysis. I found this detective work very exciting at first, but I couldn't see myself in the typical job description, for example in the State Investigation Office. Fortunately, the TU Dresden has a strong wood and plant chemistry department. I found and still find the deeper understanding of what nature offers us chemically and the utilization of our biogenic resources for the chemical industry very appealing.
When I had the opportunity to transfer a process to pilot scale at the end of my doctorate, I realized that I was incredibly fascinated by larger plants. I was able to combine this with my biorefinery background at the Fraunhofer CBP in Leuna and start there directly as a research assistant and project manager. This brought with it a very broad range of tasks and a correspondingly steep learning curve. These included
• Acquisition of projects: i.e. writing applications for third-party funding but also offers for industrial customers,
• Project processing: own process development or understanding of the customer process, technical processing with the technicians and engineers in the pilot plants, data evaluation, writing reports
• Network building: I was able to attend conferences, trade fairs and networking events early on and represent the entire center there.
With the sustainable chemistry business unit, I lead one of three business units at Fraunhofer IGB. My main tasks here are as follows:
• act as an interface between customers and our scientific departments at all Fraunhofer IGB locations.
• Find out about the current needs of companies in the chemical industry and obtain relevant market information.
• maintain networks and represent the institute at relevant events and our networks.
• represent the business area in committees and am the link to ministries.
• I participate in the acquisition of public funding for research and development projects.
• help develop the strategic direction of the institute.
In addition to the chemical background, I need a wide range of knowledge that I have acquired in the various stages of my Career . The most important are
• Project management and coordination
• Target group-oriented presentation;
• Communication skills: listening attentively and identifying the actual needs of the other person;
• Researching market data and putting it into context with your own questions;
• Methods for solving problems (“breaking down into manageable smaller chunks”).
In fact, there is no such thing as a typical working day for me. I travel a lot to other parts of our institute, to customers or to networking events. I don't work in a fixed team, but my job is to have general knowledge of the respective expertise and projects of the specialist departments and then to network them in a targeted manner or to integrate them into projects together. I also speak to our scientists a lot on the phone. Sometimes it's about electrochemistry, sometimes it's about setting up a protein platform. The range is huge and it's a lot of fun. I enjoy a very open and friendly relationship with most of my colleagues, especially when we go on a business trip together.
My studies certainly gave me a very solid technical foundation and the ability to organize myself. However, many of the skills that I need now or that I needed to start my career were neglected. While some of them are certainly too specific, a deeper knowledge of project management, for example, could be helpful for all graduates. On the other hand, at least I found studying chemistry anything but boring.
I love the variety in my work: chemist, manager, lawyer, executive, event manager, communications expert, business developer: these aspects are part of my job; sometimes in a single day.
I have complete creative freedom: I can set thematic priorities myself, which I derive from discussions with industry and from attending conferences. I organize my day-to-day work myself, choose the relevant events and networks myself and consider which actions are necessary to position the institute well. I can always rely on great colleagues who advise and support me with the necessary in-depth specialist knowledge.
The combination of technical knowledge with skills in Management and leadership opens up many career opportunities such as senior positions in non-university research institutions and the research and development departments of the chemical industry.
Be brave: I initially found it difficult to move out of the comfort zone of my professional expertise. Ultimately, after two years of working for a consulting firm, I learned to delve into a new problem every few weeks or sometimes days, sometimes in completely new subject areas, and to clearly leave this zone. I make the most use of these experiences in my current position.
Note: For reasons of readability, gender-specific language forms are not used simultaneously. All personal names apply to all genders.
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last modified: 29.01.2025 13:29 H from Translator
