Staff Spotlight: Heike Hofstetter

Meet Heike Hofstetter. Heike holds the equivalent of a Ph.D. in chemistry (Dr. rer. nat.) from the Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen in Germany with a focus on organic/analytical chemistry. She was a post-doc at the Department of Chemical Biology at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. Her job is to provide research support, teaching, and facility organization of the MR facility, which is part of the Paul Bender Chemistry Instrument Center. There are about 300 users for the facility from the department and across campus. Heike says, “I love the many interactions with our facility users.” She says there are very few days where she knows what challenges will come her way. “This makes for an exciting and stimulating atmosphere and keeps us pushing forward.” Heike has been in the department for over 10 years. Before UW, she managed the departmental analytical laboratory at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois.  Outside of work, she enjoys “anything related to water,” such as kayaking and ice skating. She enjoys ballet, hiking, playing games with friends, and good food.