1. Tell me in five words who is Alexander Lercher
   Curious, creative, cat-person, speedy, nerdy
    
2. What made you join CeMM?
   I was truly impressed by the cutting-edge research of the individual labs at CeMM and even more so by CeMM’s super-collaborative spirit, which I think allows for magic to happen. This environment enabled me to discover and learn about new fields of research, which not only helped my own projects but also shaped me as the person and scientist I am now.
    
3. What is it about science that interests you the most?
   What I like about science is that your main job is to stay curious. You are encouraged to ask questions that challenge established dogmas or current models, then you get to do the experiment and be the first one to know if you were right or wrong. Although, usually, it turns out to be more complicated than you initially thought. So, you get to ask more questions, iterate your hypothesis, do more experiments and finally come up with a better or new model of how things work.
    
4. What is the best career advice you ever received, or you can give to the CeMM community?
   The best advice that I received during my PhD was to surround yourself with positive and driven people who inspire you. This advice helped me to become a better and happier scientist and to ditch an overly realistic (some might call it pessimistic) mindset.
    
5. Tell us what happened to you after you left CeMM?
   Toward the end of my PhD, I applied for postdoc positions and decided to join Charlie Rice’s lab at Rockefeller University in New York to study antiviral immune memory. Starting this new adventure in November 2020 turned out to be challenging, but looking back, it was also quite unique to experience “the city that never sleeps” during that time. NYC has since awakened, and it has been a very exciting adventure. Time has passed incredibly fast, and once again, people are starting to ask the ominous question of “so what’s next?”…
    
6. What book do you have on your night table at the moment
   The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann – a true story about survival and mutiny on a British warship after it wrecked south of Chile.
    
7. What is the last song you heard?
   Lost by Linking Park – released 20 years after it was recorded, makes me feel nostalgic.
                 
8. Any message you would like to give to CeMMies or a former colleague?
   Looking back, I appreciate even more how unique CeMM is. Enjoy your time, don’t stress too much if experiments/hypothesis don’t pan out and trust that things will make sense eventually. 

Alexander Lercher is an HFSP long-term fellow and Harvey L. Karp fellow at the Rockefeller University in New York. He studied Immunology at the University of Vienna, Austria and received his Ph.D. in Immunology with Andreas Bergthaler at CeMM, Vienna. He then joined the Laboratory of Infectious Disease, headed by Nobel Laureate Charles M. Rice in New York for his postdoctoral work. He is the recipient of the DZIF Dissertation Award from the Gesellschaft für Virology (GfV) and the Award of Excellence by the Austrian Ministry of Education and Science. His research interests revolve around molecular networks that govern establishment, maintenance and recall of innate immune memory in response to infectious diseases.