She holds an MSc in Mathematics, a BSc in Biology, and an MEd in High School Mathematics Education from the University of Zurich. She obtained her PhD in Statistics from UC Berkeley in 2011. After short postdoctoral positions at the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications at the University of Minnesota and at ETH Zurich, she joined IST Austria as an assistant professor (2012-2015). Her research focuses on mathematical statistics, in particular on graphical models and the use of optimization, algebraic and geometric methods in statistics, and on applications to biology. She is an elected member of the International Statistical Institute and she received a Sofja Kovalevskaja Award from the Humboldt Foundation and a START Award from the Austrian Science Fund.