Career Blog

► Mahin Ahmed, Senior Scientist, Intelligent Wireless Systems

Nominated for the Upper Austria Research (UAR) Award, Mahin Ahmed has built an impressive career in wireless networks — from studying telecommunications in Pakistan and mobile communications in South Korea to becoming a leading researcher in Linz. She completed her PhD at the University of Klagenfurt and joined SAL in 2019 while still finishing her thesis.

► Nastaran Behravan, Junior Scientist, Thin Film Technologies

For Nastaran Behravan, becoming a Junior Scientist at Silicon Austria Labs marked a significant step forward in her scientific journey. Originally from Iran, Nastaran completed her master’s degree with a particular focus on thin film deposition and characterization. Her academic path led her to Silicon Austria Labs, driven by a passion for applied research in sustainable technologies, especially in the field of piezoelectric and ferroelectric thin films.

► Augusto Daniel Rodrigues, Research Engineer, Heterogeneous Integration Technologies

Augusto Daniel Rodrigues is a Research Engineer in the Heterogeneous Integration Technologies (HIT) Unit at SAL in Villach. Originally from Brazil, he first joined SAL in 2019 through an exchange program during his electronics engineering studies and spent seven months at CTR working on his master’s thesis. After completing his degree – delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic – he stayed in touch with SAL and successfully applied for a position at the end of 2020. He has been part of the team in Villach since April 2021.

► Khaled Ibrahim, Junior Scientist, Sensor Systems

Originally from Egypt, Khaled Ibrahim has been living in Austria for seven years. After completing his master's degree, he joined SAL in 2021 and became part of the Electronic Sensor Systems team in Graz. Two years into his work at SAL, Khaled started his PhD studies alongside his job. His main focus is on multi-sensing approaches for Lithium-ion battery state estimation and sensor technologies, where he also manages the Electronic Sensors Lab (ELS) and contributes to European research projects. One notable achievement is his involvement in designing a battery management system for an electric glider within the scope of the ARCHIMEDES project.

► Johanna Zikulnig, Scientist, Sensor Systems

From daily lab work to sensor innovation – Johanna Zikulnig combines technical skills with creative curiosity and a true research spirit. She grew up in the south of Carinthia and studied Medical Engineering at TU Graz. During her studies, she completed a longer internship at Wild GmbH. Her master’s thesis was written in an industrial environment – and afterwards, she started her career in 2017 at CTR in Villach. Not long after, she joined SAL, where she has been part of the Sensor Systems area ever since.

► Tutku Bedük, Scientist, Advanced Sensors and Electronics Technologies

Tutku joined SAL two years ago. She is originally from Turkey where she finished her bachelor’s and master’s degree in chemistry. Afterwards, Tutku transferred to KAUST (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology) in Saudia Arabia where she got her PhD in Materials Science and Engineering. In this position, she worked on sensors for medical applications during the COVID-19 pandemic, developing prototypes of devices to detect COVID-19 and working together closely with patients. This is also where Tutku met Jürgen Kosel – SAL’s Head of Sensor Systems – who invited her to use and expand her knowledge at SAL!

Our Staff Scientist Johannes Schicker has been part of Carinthian Tech Research (CTR) since 2010 – well before it was merged with SAL. He completed his studies in civil engineering at the Technical University of Berlin before launching his research career at the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) in the same city. After several other exciting positions in Northern Germany, he ended up in Austria – Villach to be precise, beloved by Johannes “for its proximity to Italy”.

► Madeleine Petschnigg, Junior Scientist für Thin Film Technologies, Villach

Master student, Junior Scientist and PhD student: That sums up Madeleine Petschnigg’s career at SAL so far! Madeleine joined SAL in 2020 as a master student to write her thesis on piezoelectric thin films. Now she is working as a Junior Scientist for Thin Film Technologies and writing her PhD thesis. When she is not working, Madeleine likes to take a walk through the woods of Villach and to bake – which she even got to do in our new SAL MicroFab before it was opened. :-)

Matteo Montagnese is a solid-state physicist with a spectroscopy and laser background. He joined SAL as a Senior Scientist in 2021 after more than ten years of gaining valuable experience all over Europe as a postdoc in different universities in the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland.

Raheeb Muzaffar is a Senior Scien­tist for Wire­less Commu­ni­ca­tions since 2020. At SAL, he esta­blished the 5G re­search and expe­ri­men­ta­tion testbed in Linz and is leading the DETER­MI­NIS­TIC6G project. Raheeb is also chai­ring the Indus­trial Auto­ma­tion vertical for COST INTERACT.

Herbert Hackl started his career at SAL in 2018, while he was still writing his dissertation. This makes him one of the top five longest-serving researchers at the Graz site. He is a Senior Scientist in the Coexistence & Electromagnetic Compatibility (CEMC) department and leads the "Bat2Share" project.

Fun Fact: Herbert is one of the few people from Vienna who came to Graz to study, instead of the other way around. And because he liked it here so much, he never left the Graz TU-Inffeldgasse campus professionally. :-)

Cele­brate her one-year anni­versary at SAL with Emily Bezerra! Emily is origi­nally from Brazil and has a back­ground in mate­rials engi­nee­ring with a focus on printed elec­tro­nics. In her free time, she loves to go trave­ling, hiking and skiing – all activi­ties that her new home in Villach is perfect for. “Looking out of the windows at work, the stun­ning views of the Austrian moun­tains are a constant reminder of the beauty of the world”, shares Emily.

Ingo Pill, Staff Scientist for Trustworthy Adaptive Computing, has been part of the SAL family since 2020. He started his scientific career at Graz University of Technology and stayed there for a total of twenty years: first as a Master and PhD student in Telematics (now Information and Computer Engineering) and later as a Senior Researcher. At SAL, Ingo is conducting research in the DES Lab (Dependable Embedded Systems); he is board member in the SAL-DC (Doctoral College) and deputy head of two research units.

In his career blog, Ingo tells us how research differs at university and at research centers, and the upcoming events he is looking forward to. 

From Vienna to South Africa, Saudi Arabia and back to Austria again: Jürgen Kosel has traveled quite a bit of the world in his scientific career. Now we are all the happier that he has returned to Austria, where he has joined SAL as Head of Research Unit Advanced Sensors and Electronics Technologies (formerly Sensor Applications) in Villach in 2020. Whenever Jürgen is not working, he enjoys being active outdoors and recharging his batteries in nature. 

Meet Fjolla Ademaj-Berisha! She joined SAL in 2019, right after she graduated from Vienna University of Technology with a PhD in Telecommunications. Less than one year after her start at SAL, she was leading two projects in the field of security and safety. Learn more about her success story in this edition of our career blog! 

Isabella Preuer started at SAL in 2019 as a Commu­ni­ca­tions Specia­list. From 2020, she has been Head of Commu­ni­ca­tions & PR and respon­sible for all internal and external commu­ni­ca­tion as well as public rela­tions. In this inter­view she tells us how she came to SAL after being self-employed in the film industry and why her #1 advice for job appli­cants is “Take the chance!”.

Christian Mentin has been making a name for himself as one of the first employees at SAL since 2018. He is now Heads of a research unit in the field of power electronics and tinkers with electronic systems in his spare time.

Katrin Unger is a materials scientist with a focus on intelligent polymers and their applications, but also Austrian Champion in the strategy game Go. In this interview she tells us why she decided on SAL.