In addition to the parental home, school also has a major influence on children's development. In Pascal Liedtke's case, it was teachers at the HLW in Weyer who sensitised him to sustainability and steered his life in a different direction.
Pascal, one of Lower Austria's Young Researchers of the Year 2023, actually started out in the catering industry. Today, he only cooks in his free time and primarily vegan. "Vegan cuisine is an enormous lever for contributing to sustainability," he is convinced.
His path led him to Pinkafeld to study Energy and Environmental Management and then Building Technology and Facility Management at the Burgenland University of Applied Sciences. He quickly discovered his fascination for technology, energy and biomass - at the time in the course of a pyrolysis process in which synthetic gas, a liquid similar to crude oil and biochar are obtained from biomass. "That was the absolute wow effect for me," says Pascal.
He now conducts his own research at the BEST - Bioenergy and Sustainable Technologies GmbH competence centre at the TFZ Wieselburg. He is particularly involved in the optimisation of intelligent energy networks, so-called smart and microgrids.
His job therefore consists primarily of modelling and simulations. But his project management skills are also in demand. He acquired these during his studies at the Burgenland University of Applied Sciences - and hated it at the time, as he admits. "But the curriculum taught me a lot! Colleagues who went into a completely different field also benefited greatly from the programme. Everyone can take something away for themselves."
However, many things are only learnt on the job, he explains. "It would be important to incorporate programming languages more into the degree programme. Digital solutions bring great added value to plants and systems." And while we're on the subject of Pascal Liedtke's appeals: "I've been involved with sustainability since I was 15 years old. Accordingly, some political discussions are difficult to listen to. There are currently no solutions to many of the problems we have in relation to sustainability. That's why research is very important in many areas. We need new system solutions - basic research is needed. More money definitely needs to be invested here for the future!"
You can also read more about Pascal Liedtke in the"Chemiereport".
