PD Dr. Andrea Loettgers
I’m a historian/philosopher of science with a background in physics. I have a longstanding interest in scientific modeling in physics, neurobiology, astrobiology, and systems and synthetic biology. In my time as a physicist, I performed modeling studies in neurobiology and quantum mechanics. In the history of science, I contributed to the general discussion on experimental practices in physics by putting a focus on the construction and application of scientific instruments in astrophysics. In my philosophical research, I am most interested in epistemological questions of modeling practices pertaining to biology, astrobiology, and physics. Questions such as how, using a combination of different types of models, scientists in systems and synthetic biology search for general organizational principles in biological organisms, is the current topic of my research. One of my main sources in this research are laboratory observations in the lab of systems and synthetic biologists.
