Meet the Members: Dirk

Get to know Dirk! Our fantastic Labfolder frontend engineer, who has a love for the great outdoors and gardening!

Tell us about yourself?

Hello, my name is Dirk and I am a frontend engineer for Labfolder. I originally come from a town close to Kassel. Kassel might be known for the 5-yearly modern art expedition Documenta and also has a UNESCO-World heritage site. If you’ve not seen either I’d definitely recommend it!. When I have time to spare, I enjoy spending it in the garden. I currently live in Leipzig and love the simplicity of working with a garden that requires minimal digging and weeding- all I have to do is put fresh compost on it every year, so it is a win-win on all fronts. I guess I am an environmentalist at heart, spending time in the garden is great as it is very therapeutic and also plays a small part in removing some of the carbon from the air. I tend to grow veggies more than flowers as the latter tends to be more complex as they all bloom at different times of the year. I love growing veggies that you get to cook with and eat later on! 😀

I’ve always had a love of science and nature, which is reflected in my higher education studies. At university I first majored in Physics, writing my thesis on ecological modelling that featured a simulation of how spider nests are distributed across Namibia in accordance with food supply. I then went on to do a Masters course in South Africa that instead focused on ecology, economics and genetics which also included lots of programming! Following this, I did a PHD in biology which focused on vaccination strategies against the reemergence of fox rabies in Marburg.

Funny Anecdote

In South Africa I was once tasked with getting people at a national park to fill out my questionnaire about the proposed changes to the national park. Unfortunately, I phrased the question wrong and no one wanted to cooperate. I later realised that what I thought was me asking whether participants would mind having me ask some questions to them, was actually me asking them whether they could ask me questions! I was incredibly confused when a woman took me up on my unintentional request and started asking me loads of questions I had no answers to. It was a really confusing experience, both for me and I bet the people I talked to!

Wildcard Question

If you could read any book again for the first time, which book would you read and why?

It would have to be Cees Nooteboom’s “The Following Story”, I cannot recommend it enough! It was the winner of the European Literary Prize for Best Novel, so trust me, it is well worth a read!

Why did you join Labforward?

Considering my extensive background and interest in science and the natural world, it made sense for me to work for Labforward, a company that aims to advance and streamline complex processes within the laboratory. I was reluctant to work in the laboratory environment because I found that too often it was a solo job that rarely gets wide recognition. It was particularly difficult producing some research you thought was really interesting only to have a minuscule number of people be interested. Before I worked for Labforward I was self-employed, but this wasn’t something I enjoyed. I’ve been at Labforward for 3 years and a bit, and it’s been such a good match!

What is your main role?

Despite not pursuing a scientific career, I fully appreciate and understand the day to day struggles of working in research and development without digitization. My role at Labforward is to create a good product that has people who want to use it. Simply put, if you’re a programmer you just want to program. You also want to work in an area where you can stand behind, as it’s especially important to be proud of your work. In my role I am a frontend developer, so most of the time I work on UI and trying to modernise code with minimal breaks! Unfortunately, I can’t disclose any more about what we’ve been working on, you’ll have to wait till it’s released! 😉

What excites you about your job?

I love the innovative nature of work as a programmer. The constant need to improve and simplify the ways of doing things without interruptions keeps you on your toes. If you can work smarter, you can improve productivity and get more efficient at your job. I guess I’ve always been attracted to this style of work as it relies on excellent problem-solving skills, to find not just easy fixes to problems, but maintainable, robust solutions, that improve our customer’s experiences. The life of a programmer is also constantly evolving as new browser techniques and tools are introduced. I find it interesting to follow these developments and use these new tools!

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