Eliane Escher

Infrastructure

Eliane Escher

Office Y55-L-78 / Y11-E-15

Tel +41 44 635 31 33

I did my professional training as an agrobiology lab technician at Maag AG (part of Syngenta AG) in Dielsdorf. Following my apprenticeship I worked at Agroscope (FAW) Wädenswil on a fungicide resistance project in close cooperation with Ciba-Geigy AG. I moved on to the Forest Genetics lab of the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) in Birmensdorf. There, I specialized in isozyme studies of genetic diversity of key tree species, including a collaborative project with the Sottostazione Sud delle Alpi (Bellinzona) on the edible chestnut. In 1995 I moved to Freising, Germany to join the new Forest Genetics lab of Prof. Dr. G. Müller-Starck at the Technical University of Munich. We focused on molecular genetic studies of a variety of coniferous and deciduous tree species.

In 2007, I returned to Switzerland and joined the Department of Molecular Life Science as Sanger Sequencing facility responsible. I took over my current position as institute infrastructure coordinator in 2019. I'm also involved in the conduction of practical courses, mainly as equipment manager. My desk is always easy to identify: it's the one with the most plants on and around it.

In my free time I enjoy gardening, painting on porcelain and sewing Hawaiian shirts.
Furthermore, I'm a member of the Citizen Science Center Zurich. I see great value in having lay people with their diverse knowledge, time and passion help and support scientists in their studies.

Citizen Science Zurich