LI Blog: Welcome to the Yokogawa Life Science Europe Team! Could you please introduce yourself briefly—your background, current role, and what brought you to Yokogawa?
Eric Sobierajski: Thanks for the warm welcome. My name is Eric Sobierajski, and I have recently joined the Life Innovation Business Team as a product manager for the SCA and CSU products. Before I started at Yokogawa, I was a research associate at the Ruhr University in Bochum, where I also graduated in Neurobiology. During my doctoral thesis, I frequently used confocal microscopy to image and analyze different cellular components and their development in the brain. The passion to work with this fascinating kind of devices and the possibilities that they are giving us in the perspective of scientific research led me to this position at Yokogawa.
What It Means To Be a Product Manager
LI Blog: In your role as a Product Manager, what are your core responsibilities, and how do they contribute to Yokogawa’s mission?
Eric Sobierajski: The tasks of a Product Manager consist of a repertoire of responsibilities. Leading the products to their desired purposes, this requires close cooperation with customers, sales, marketing and production. Market analysis for potential competitors as well as requirement analysis are also on the list of tasks. In doing so, we aim to achieve Yokogawa’s mission, providing the most reliable incubation and live-cell imaging systems to the world, framed with excellent service.
Innovating with Impact
LI Blog: What makes the SU10 stand out, and why do you believe it offers real value to our customers?
Eric Sobierajski: The Single CellomeTM Unit 10 offers a fully automated and targeted injection of a variety of compounds like biomolecules, drugs, and gene editing tools (CRISPR/Cas9) and offers therefore a great variability to influence single cells or even cell organelles. What makes the SU10 unique is its high injection success rate and cell survival rate because it is minimal invasive. Moreover, the SU10 is easy to use because deep knowledge of microscopy is not required. Knowing the struggle from my doctoral period, these aspects are really of high value.
What Fuels Eric’s Daily Motivation
LI Blog: What aspect of your work do you enjoy the most, and what keeps you motivated every day?
Eric Sobierajski: I like the fact that the work as a product manager gives you insights into the different departments of the company and that I can learn new things “outside the box” every day. Since we are a small team, I have also the opportunity to choose parts of my tasks I want to focus on in particular. And finally, not losing the connection to science is very important for me.
Why Neurobiology?
LI Blog: What sparked your interest in neurobiology, and how has that passion evolved over time?
Eric Sobierajski: Since I can actively remember (and according to my parents also the time before), I always loved watching animals and plants in nature and going to the zoo. With the years more and more questions around the “why’s” and “how’s” rose my curiosity, which hardened during school and afterwards. Neurobiology – “the brain thinking about itself” – was my favorite discipline after a short time. And after years of study in which I learned a world about the nervous system, there’s still worlds that we just begin to understand.
Life and Culture at Yokogawa
LI Blog: What have you enjoyed most so far about working at Yokogawa?
Eric Sobierajski: At Yokogawa, the spirit of the people working here is wonderful and I really like the relaxed and friendly atmosphere and working culture. So, this made my start easy, and I look forward to the challenges that are waiting for the Life Science Team.
LI Blog: Is there something you’d like to share with our blog readers?
Eric Sobierajski: I am always happy to talk with other people who have the same fascination about the today’s possibilities in microscopy and confocal imaging!
