Skateboards and foxgloves

The biologist Jennifer Munkert and mechanical engineer Marcel Bartz have been awarded this year’s Prize for Excellence in Teaching from the Bavarian Ministry of Science and the Arts.

It is not unusual for Marcel Bartz to come into the lecture theater with a cart in tow. Today he is planning to disassemble a clutch in order to explain the topic of drive technology. “Writing equations up on the board has its place and is still important. However, it should always be linked to practical applications,” emphasizes the team leader for machine elements and tribology, who works at the Chair of Engineering Design and holds lectures in engineering design and machine elements.

Just as his parents sparked his own enthusiasm for technology, so he hopes to pass on his enthusiasm by teaching for and with students. “I enjoy the fact that we are dealing with practical applications, with electric cars, e-bikes, wind power plants or trains, all of which are connected to topics such as climate change and sustainability.” In his research, the 39 year old engineer and keen skateboarder explores how to design structural components for drive systems, for example in skateboards. “It is always possible to alter and improve the axes, or indeed anything incorporating rolling bearings. Generally speaking, our aim is to reduce friction and material wear and tear, which in turn reduces energy consumption and saves resources.”

Quiz with expert knowledge

Jennifer Munkert hopes that her research will make a contribution to treating diseases. At the Division of Pharmaceutical Biology, she is interested in a plant that forms grape-shaped flowers and is toxic: foxgloves. The active substances she is interested in are classed as cardiac glycosides. Her research focuses on their bioactivity and biosynthesis.

Originally, doctors used these substances to treat cardiac insufficiency. However, they also have the potential for fighting tumors and viruses. “With our Brazilian partners, we are working to identify less toxic cardiac glycosides, that are still effective against, for example, herpes simplex viruses,” she explains. In her current project, she is combining cardiac glycosides with a natural system for transporting active substances, which allows her to link her own research focus with the new areas of interest at the Division.

The 39 year old also supervises lectures and laboratory courses in the subjects biology and pharmacy. Like her colleague Marcel Bartz, she uses a digital tool for feedback and includes young people in current research. She sees her remit as extending beyond merely teaching subject knowledge to encouraging students’ personal development. Recently, she worked with students to develop a “Phytochemistry Escape Room,” a quiz game where you have to use your specialist knowledge to escape from a room. “For me, good teaching means using innovative teaching methods and being willing to try out something new,” says Jennifer Munkert.

Author: Elke Zapf

This article is part of the FAU magazine

Innovation, diversity and passion: Those are the three guiding principles of our FAU, as stated in our mission statement. At FAU, we live these guiding principles every day in all that we do – in research, in teaching and when it comes to sharing the knowledge created at our university with society.

This, the second issue of our FAU magazine, underlines all of the above: It shows researchers who tirelessly keep pushing the boundaries of what has been believed to be possible. It introduces students who work together to achieve outstanding results for their FAU, talks about teaching staff who pass on their knowledge with infectious enthusiasm and creativity. And it reports back on members of staff with foresight and a talent for getting to the crux of the matter who are dedicated to improving the (research) infrastructure at FAU as well as people in key positions who are there for their university and are committed to its research location.