Women in SEN3APP

Dr. Gabriele Bippus

Who I am?

My name is Dr.Gabriele Bippus. I'm 34 years old and am living in the heart of the Austrian Alps, close to Innsbruck. In my free time I enjoy the multifaceted options to spend time in the mountains, in summer and in winter time. Beside sports, I have a passion for singing, and am active in the chamber choir of Innsbruck.

My profession

After studying meteorology at the University of Innsbruck I started working in 2007 at the company ENVEO IT GmbH in Innsbruck, Austria. There, I got the chance to make my PhD within an ESA funded DUE (Data User Element) project, named GlobGlacier, and finally received the degree Doctor of Natural Sciences in 2011.
I continued working at ENVEO, and am now senior scientist, working in multiple projects on national, European and international level.
My professional interests and expertise in general are the research of the Earth's surface, especially of cold regions including snow and glaciated areas, the so-called cryosphere, mainly by means of satellite data.

My gender related experiences

During my studies of meteorology at university the majority of the students and most of the professors in this research area were male. Anyway, this caused neither problems for me nor had I any privileges, as nobody on the institute of meteorology did even think about the gender issue. But we were all colleagues just interested in meteorology and related topics.
In many project teams I am currently working with the quota of female team members is rather small compared to the male ones. This might look strange from outside, but I have not experienced yet any impact on the work nor any problems to by accepted as a full team member.
In fact, in many current job advertisements related to natural sciences female are favoured over male candidates with the same qualification. This can, but must not, be an advantage and a disadvantage at the same time: an advantage to have a higher chance to get the desired job, and possibly a disadvantage to have problems with being accepted by colleagues as you got the job because you're female. Anyway, if you are good in what you are doing this is not a problem at all.

My advice

My only advice is not to think too much about gender issues, but just do what you want.
If you are convinced of yourself and doing a good job you will be accepted by the colleagues independently of your and the others' gender.

My role in the project SEN3APP

In this project I am responsible for the development of methods and algorithms for the generation of glacier products and monitoring seasonal snow especially in mountainous areas using data of the new Sentinel satellite family, and validating these products with very high resolution reference data.
Additionally, I will lead the Work Package on demonstration activities in the second half of the project period.
As all other partners, I will also contribute to the dissemination of the project.