University
Feierliche Antrittsvorlesungen an der Vetmeduni
Am 21. November 2025 hielten drei neue Professor:innen der Veterinärmedizinischen Universität Wien – Jennifer A. Kirwan, Tobias Käser und Lea Liehmann – ihre Antrittsvorlesungen im Hörsaalzentrum der Vetmeduni. Nach der Begrüßung durch Rektor Matthias Gauly gaben die Vortragenden Einblicke in ihre Forschungsschwerpunkte und deren Bedeutung für Tier- und Humanmedizin.
Tobias Käser, Professor of Immunology at the Department of Biological Sciences and Pathobiology, kicked things off. In his lecture, he showed how findings from veterinary vaccine research contribute to preventive and therapeutic innovations at the interface between veterinary and human medicine. This was followed by Jennifer A. Kirwan's lecture entitled "Metabolites, mystery and method: from inflammation to better veterinary care, with robust and reproducible metabolomics." Jennifer Kirwan is the new Professor of Veterinary Metabolomics at the Department of Biological Sciences and Pathobiology at Vetmeduni Vienna. University Professor of Soft Tissue Surgery at the Clinical Department for Small Animals and Horses, Lea Liehmann, gave a lecture entitled "Small, complex, feasible? Minimally invasive soft tissue surgery in dogs and cats" on current developments and practical applications of minimally invasive procedures in small animal surgery.
The event was moderated by the relevant departments, represented by Mathias Müller, Head of the Department of Biological Sciences and Pathobiology and Miriam Kleiter, Deputy Head of the Clinical Department of Small Animals and Horses.
During their presentations, the professors also thanked their teams, colleagues, families and companions and emphasised that their current success is the result of joint efforts.
We wish our new professors every success!
Professor Tobias Käser, PhD.
Tobias Käser studied biology at the Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen, Germany. He wrote his diploma thesis at the Institute of Immunology at the Vetmeduni, under the supervision of Armin Saalmüller. As part of his diploma and PhD thesis, Käser focused on the characterisation of regulatory T cells (Tregs) in pigs. As a postdoc at the Vetmeduni, the immunologist studied the role of these Tregs with regard to the porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV). In 2013, Tobias Käser moved to the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organisation (VIDO) in Saskatoon, Canada. There he established the pig as a model animal to study genital chlamydial infections. In 2016, he became Assistant Professor of Swine Immunology at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, USA, where he focused on analysing the adaptive immune system, in particular the development of immunological memory after vaccination. Tobias Käser returned to Vetmeduni in early 2023 to take up the position of Assistant Professor of Immunology, specialising in immunotherapy and immunoprophylaxis. Käser has now been appointed Professor of Immunology.
Tobias Käser is the author of numerous scientific publications in renowned journals and a founding member of the Centre for Food Allergy Modelling in Pigs (CFAMP) and the Centre for Advanced Virus Experimentation (CAVE). He is also President-Elect of the American Association of Veterinary Immunologists (AAVI), a member of the Chlamydia Basic Research Society, the German Society for Immunology (DGfI) and the Austrian Society for Cytometry (ÖGfZ).
Prof. Jennifer A. Kirwan, PhD.
Jennifer Kirwan started her career as a clinical veterinarian and developed a growing interest in translational and evidence-based medicine before completing her PhD in metabolomics. She recently moved to the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, where she will focus on metabolomics in veterinary medicine. Jennifer Kirwan also heads the Berlin Institute of Health Metabolomics at the Charité University Hospital in Berlin. There, the veterinarian concentrates on translational health-related metabolomics, in particular on its quality management aspects. Jennifer Kirwan is a founding member of the German Society for Metabolomics, former Chair of the Coordinating Committee of the International Consortium for Quality Assurance and Quality Control in Metabolomics (MQACC), an active member of the International Society for Metabolomics' Working Group on Precision Medicine and Pharmacogenomics and one of the newest members of the APMA (Austrian Proteomics & Metabolomics Association).
Univ.-Prof.in Dr.in Lea Liehmann, Dipl. ECVS
Lea Liehmann studied veterinary medicine at the Vetmeduni. After her dissertation, she completed a residency in small animal surgery at her alma mater and was awarded the Diplomate of the European College of Veterinary Surgeons (ECVS) in 2007. Since then, Lea Liehmann has been a certified veterinary specialist in small animal surgery. She then moved to England for two years, where she worked in a large referral clinic in Hertfordshire.
In 2009, she returned to the Vetmeduni, where she took over as Head of Soft Tissue Surgery for Small Animals in 2020. Between 2022 and 2025, she worked in a surgical referral practice in the centre of Vienna - also as Head of Soft Tissue Surgery. Lea Liehmann was appointed Visiting Professor of Soft Tissue Surgery at the Clinical Centre for Small Animals at Vetmeduni Vienna to represent this specialist area in clinical practice, research, teaching and further training. Her work and research focuses on minimally invasive thoracic and abdominal surgery and interventional radiology.
You can find detailed portraits of our new professors in the issues of our VETMED magazine.
