Splitting hairs for a PhD: Dr. Sarah Aurora Hess

he research goal of Dr Sarah Aurora Heß was to detect DNA profiles from single hairs that have fallen out for the purpose of human identification. In most cases, they only carry a small amount of DNA left, which has broken down into very short pieces. In order to deduce the person causing the trace from the hair, the analysis of this type of trace requires a series of highly sensitive detection methods, which were investigated at the H-BRS for application to microtraces. The doctoral thesis at the H-BRS was supervised by Prof. Dr. Richard Jäger. 

Sarah Aurora Heß was a PhD scholar of the Department of Applied Natural Sciences since 2017. She particularly recommends that our current PhD students take part in subject-specific and interdisciplinary workshops, which she herself benefited from during her doctorate. 

For the time being, nothing will change professionally for Sarah Heß: she has already been working for a large biotechnology company as a scientist in research and development for over two and a half years, which she says both challenges her and gives her great pleasure. 

We wish her all the best!