Maria Vinther Juhl

Consultant, Maria Vinther Juhl, Centre for Plastic Technology, chemical engineer

I was educated at the Technical University of Denmark and joined the Danish Technological Institute as a newly qualified chemical engineer. Now I work in the centre for Plastic Technology and I am attached to the medical group, where we work mainly with the development of materials for tissue-regeneration.

My job title is consultant, but actually development engineer would perhaps better describe what I do. I work on different projects, including EU and national projects. My job varies between practical work in the laboratory and project application and report writing, and with the EU projects there’s some travelling involved, going to meetings with business partners around Europe. The projects are cross-disciplinary and very goal-orientated, and are very exciting and educational to be a part of because I have to find out what the other technical groups do and understand what they need so that I can provide a solution for my part of the project.

In general, much of the development work is carried out in collaboration with external partners across borders, companies and technical groups. At the same time the work is very independent, and to a large extent I can organise the job myself. If I get an idea as to how to solve a particular problem, then it’s just a question of going into the laboratory and trying it out. I have the Danish Technological Institute behind me and colleagues whose knowledge covers almost every technical sector, and whose competences I can always draw on if I need to.