Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Kerstin Thurow studied chemistry and received her doctorate from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in 1995. In 1999, she habilitated in measurement and control engineering. In the same year, she was appointed to the professorship of "Laboratory Automation" at the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Rostock. Since 2004, she has held the chair of "Automation Technology / Life Science Automation" at the University of Rostock and is Director of the Center for Life Science Automation (University of Rostock). Dr. Thurow has authored more than 300 publications, including three monographies. Her research topics include the automation of life science and analytical processes, robotics, mobile robotics, IoT in automation, as well as system integration and systems engineering. Dr. Thurow is a founding member of the Academy of Sciences Hamburg and a member of the Technical Academy acatech.