Women in STEM: Gitte Barknowitz’s journey to leading global initiatives

Now a global market development manager, she plays a pivotal role in shaping solutions for food safety and environmental protection. In this Q&A, Gitte opens up about her inspiring journey, the hurdles she’s overcome as a woman in STEM, and the lessons she’s learned along the way.

Could you give us an overview of your work?​

SCIEX is an analytical solutions provider with equipment that can measure chemicals in different samples like blood or food. My main focus is strategic planning for the food and environmental market, which means I identify global growth opportunities and give directional advice to different departments on requirements from food safety testing to authenticity testing, to environmental screening of matrices like water or soil. I also need to have a detailed understanding on operational requirements of food and environmental labs like service, support needs and software and identify what we can do to support these areas as well as the technical demands.

When did you realize you were interested in science - as a young child, teen, or older?​

As a teenager I started to systematically read about food and particularly plants anything from gardening to recipes for making your own tea mixtures and which plants or foods help with sickness or injuries to heal faster.

Could you describe your personal journey bringing us to where you are now?​

From a young age, I collected and dried herbs, learned about what they are used for and wanted to continue in this field, so I studied biology. With a specialization in pharmaceutical biology, I came across mass spectrometry as a tool to investigate chemicals in plants and later in humans. I took a position at the German Institute for Human Nutrition for my PhD in Nutritional Toxicology in Germany investigating biomarkers from human exposure to food. After that I moved to Singapore and worked as food application specialist in mass spectrometry helping government, industry and academia across Southeast Asia. After that I returned to Europe and lived in the UK taking care of global food applications. About two years ago I took the decision to move away from the lab in a more strategic position. I am very lucky that my company is flexible on my location for this global role which allows me now to be living close to friends and a community I chose. After years of moving where the job was, I feel happier and more empowered, especially after becoming a parent. It had a tremendous positive effect on the wellbeing of my family and my productivity at work.

What challenges did you face - as a woman or otherwise - along the way and what is the most valuable lesson you have learned?​

I have felt in the past, that I have to behave somehow ‘male’ in STEM in order to be taken seriously. It was only in the last years that I see more in the media around the female way of working and that a female perspective can bring a lot to the table and is in fact often needed.

What ignites your passion in your current role?​

I love that I work with a lot of like-mined people who are driven by improving the quality of food and environmental protection and I love that I need to constantly learn be it with regulations or emerging contaminants, climate effects on the food supply chain that make products prone to fraud or environmental investigations from government and academia to monitor water and soil globally. It is interesting to see how different testing works in different geographies and understand the unique challenges for each region. I get to interact with people from all over the world and beside scientific interactions I learn a lot about local working routines and culture. I am passionate for traveling and people and this job gives me great opportunity to combine that passion with work.

What is your current work ethos/style?​

Learn and condense. I am exposed to a lot of different information on a lot of different topics every day and need to condense that knowledge. I also need to give directions and make sure we do not get side-tracked by short-lived trends that might only affect one region. I embrace working across time-zones even if it does make my schedule different from usual 9-5 jobs.

Could you share some advice for young women starting to develop an interest in science or wanting to pursue a career like yours?​

Science can bring you to live in different places, especially in academia after graduation in for example postdoctoral positions. Which can also mean being away from family or friends for years. I think it is important to be aware, decide if that works and find a solution that fits your needs.