Prof. Dr. Christoph Herwig, a bioprocess engineer from RWTH Aachen, worked in industry in the design and commissioning of large chemical facilities prior to beginning his interdisciplinary Ph.D. studies at EPFL, Switzerland in bioprocess identification. Subsequently, he positioned himself at the interface between bioprocess development and facility design in the biopharmaceutical industry. Since 2008, he has been a full professor in biochemical engineering at the Vienna University of Technology. His research area of focus includes the development of data science methods for the integrated and efficient bioprocess development of PAT and QbD principles for biopharmaceuticals. In 2013, he founded the company Exputec, which is now part of Körber Pharma, pioneering data science software solutions for the biopharma life cycle.

The following is a short interview with Prof. Dr. Christoph Herwig:

1. What are your research areas?
Methods for efficient and scalable bioprocess development.

2. What are the latest developments in your research field?
Digital twins integrated into real-time solutions for optimized control solutions and continuous biomanufacturing.

3. Can you briefly share your career development story? For example, what cases have influenced you the most?
I have seen the biopharmaceutical industry change during my industrial career. I have also seen many decisions made around empiricism and manufacturing outcomes based on hope rather than on prediction. This is what I wanted to change from the basis: providing robust, transferable and sound scientific methods.

4. Do you have any valuable suggestions you would like to share with young students and early career researchers?
Have affinity for data. Believe that you don’t always need more experiments and data, but take time and use advanced data science methods to turn data into knowledge. Base your decisions on knowledge, and establish knowledge management in your organization.

5. What do you think of the development of open access in publishing?
It is crucial and a basis for the transparent sharing of knowledge between organizations across the world.

We are thankful for Prof. Dr. Herwig's time and support of Bioengineering.