Anna Schwimmbeck BEng

Room 530
anna.schwimmbeck@uibk.ac.at

I grew up with an enthusiastic and very outdoorsy chemical engineer as a father who worked in a water management office, and as a child I followed him everywhere in the laboratory and on many water sampling trips to different lakes in Bavaria. He showed me how a microscope works and how you can look at phytoplankton and other cool stuff under it. I actually learnt everything scientifically from him – what the trees outside are called, which insects live in our garden and which birds cross our path on hikes in the mountains. That’s why I decided to get my start in the field as a biology lab technician after I left school and got to work on all things microscopic and molecular. Meanwhile I wanted to actively make a difference in environmental protection and therefore I studied environmental engineering in Triesdorf, the smallest university city of Germany. There I discovered my love for limnology and everything around it. I wrote my bachelor’s thesis in Berchtesgaden National Park on PFAS in topsoil and spring water and after that I wanted to live more in the mountains again. So, I ended up at the University of Innsbruck, where I have now joined the Molecular Ecology group as a technical assistant and am able to support them with their current research topics.

Research topics
Benthic invertebrates
River ecology
River restoration