Oliver Fiehn
Director, NIH West Coast Metabolomics Center; Paul K & Ruth Stumpf Endowed Professor in Plant Biochemistry, UC Davis Genome Center, USA
A mentor or educator who inspired you?Lothar Willmitzer, former Director of Molecular Physiology at Max Planck Institute in Germany. He pushed me forward in my career by being interested in my work, asking questions, and not pretending that he was a know-it-all.
Qualities of a successful mentor or educator? Making as much time as possible for mentees.
Attracting talent… Money! Salaries are far too low in academia – which is encouraging researchers to flee to industry en masse.
The decade’s most important development? Software that allows for fast and efficient data processing.
Biggest challenge facing the field?“Anything goes” – report qualities are lacking if raw data is not made publicly available by analytical service companies and the like.
Most exciting development or trend? Efforts to improve quality. Advancements in the mQACC consortium are particularly exciting to see.
Missing from the toolbox?Better software to estimate FDR for compound identifications and molar concentrations.
Controversial opinion? Metabolomics and lipidomics don’t need further developments. The data provided by service companies is sufficient.
Book for scientists? Scientific Writing and Communication: Papers, Proposals, and Presentations by Angelika H. Hofmann.
