On Tuesday, 23rd July 2019, it is our pleasure to welcome Philipp Alter to the AlumniTalks series. He will tell us about his position as Regulatory Affairs Specialist at PTW-Freiburg. After an apprenticeship as a biological technical assistant, Philipp Alter studied Bioengineering at the FH Aachen and succeeded to do his PhD work at the University of Regensburg on the processes regulating flowering time in maize. In 2017 he started to work in regulatory affairs in two different companies and since 2018 at PTW-Freiburg. The company specialises in dosimetry technology for radiation therapy, diagnostic radiology, radiation monitoring and metrology.

The decision between a career in industry or academia was an easy one for Philipp Alter. A series of fixed term contracts and the lack of middle level positions in academia were just not tempting. Although his current job has little in common with his education and he misses scientific work now and then, he is very happy in his job. Mainly, he reads legal texts, regulations and norms and assess whether the company fulfills them. For the company to be able to sell their products worldwide, he also has to deal with documentation of product development and registration with authorities all over the world. If the legislation changes, the main task is to check whether internal documentation has to be adapted. Thus, his job is of relevance and importance for many areas of PTW-Freiburg. When asked to what kind of personality he would recommend a position in regulatory affairs, Philipp Alter says that people that think analytically and bring creativity to the job are much appreciated. He also stresses that although his job is a pure desk job and might seem very dry, there are many different aspects and a variety of tasks to the job that make it constantly interesting.

We are looking forward to hearing more details about his current job and the area of regulatory affairs in general, the decisions that brought him there, and his recommendations, on Tuesday, 23^rd July, 5 pm in room H53.

Anna Fuchs