Univ.-Prof. Dipl.-Biol. Dr. Katja Sterflinger

Katja Sterflinger has headed the Institute for Natural Sciences and Technology in Art at the Academy of Fine Arts since 2020. A biologist by training, Katja Sterflinger's doctoral thesis, completed in 1995 at the Carl von Ossietzky University in Oldenburg, dealt with microbiological processes that lead to the alteration and ageing of works of art and materials. Her habilitation in geomicrobiology followed research stays in the Netherlands and Belgium in 2000. Katja Sterflinger joined the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences in Vienna in 2000 and followed the call to the Academy in 2020. She teaches and researches on the topics of microbiology, material ecology and material sciences in art and conservation. In addition to her scientific work, which has been published in more than 350 publications, Katja Sterflinger's work is strongly characterised by a practice-oriented approach, which is reflected in her many years of collaboration with numerous museums, the Federal Office of Culture of Switzerland, the Federal Office for the Protection of Monuments, as well as restorers and artists. Since 2021, Katja Sterflinger has been chairwoman of the Advisory Board for Monuments at the Federal Office for the Protection of Monuments.

Katja Sterflingers publications:

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Katja-Sterflinger/