Interview with Marcella
What’s your name?
Marcella Frauscher
What are your hobbies?
Sports, Hiking, City Walks, Cooking, Reading, Friends, Traveling (hopefully soon again).
What did you study and what is your highest educational attainment?
I studied chemistry with focus on analytical chemistry. My experience in mass spectrometry brought me in contact with lubricant chemistry, lubrication and lubricated systems.
Where do you work and what’s your position?
I am area leader of the research area “Sustainable Lubrication” at the Austrian Competence Center of Tribology (AC2T).
Since when are you part of working group “Young Tribologists“?
My first contact with the “Young Tribologists” was at the symposium held @AC2T in Wiener Neustadt, and my first group meeting was in February 2020, when I became a member.
In which part of the group are you currently participating?
I am participating in the group “International contacts”. Unfortunately, there are only digital activities due to the situation with COVID-19 and no personal meetings and conferences are possible. We use this unwanted break to collect ideas and are looking forward getting in touch with young tribologists from all over the world soon.
Why are you a member of working group “Young Tribologists”?
I liked the idea to get in contact with young researchers who are facing the same challenges and problems, and to be able to discuss with them in personal ideas to solve them. Additionally, it is a great network when it comes to sharing of experiences, equipment or contacts. And last but not least it is interesting to see in how many different fields young tribologists work and support the success of industry and research.
How did you end up in the field of tribology?
My supervisor at the University, Prof. Günter Allmaier, has a long collaboration with AC2T in the field of lubricant analytics, in particular chromatography and mass spectrometry. Thanks to him and the experience I was able to collect during my master thesis with high pressure liquid chromatography I was able to start my PhD thesis there. From the very first moment I enjoyed this research field because of its interdisciplinary, the interesting talks with colleagues from other research fields and the impact in industry.
What topics are you working on and are there any connections to the field of tribology?
During my work at AC2T I was able to work on many interesting topics, all directly related to tribology. Most of them are dealing with lubricants, lubrication and the interface mechanisms. In the last years another focus are alternative fuels, lubricants and sustainable lubrication.
Do you have any favorite anecdote about the broad field of tribology?
It is not an anecdote, but a moment when I realize how broad this field is: whenever you go through the list of partners we are working with and realize how many different industrial or scientific partners from all over the world and different fields we have the pleasure to work with.