Peaks & Pioneers: Isabelle Kohler on Life Beyond the Traditional Academic Track

Isabelle Kohler didn't plan on a career in chromatography. Trained originally in pharmacy, she discovered her interest in method development during a master's internship at the Swiss Laboratory for Doping Analysis, using gas chromatography (GC) and liquid chromatography (LC) to analyze small molecules in biological fluids. A PhD in Geneva pulled her toward capillary electrophoresis (CE), and a postdoc in the Netherlands, meant to be temporary, became the foundation for the career she has built at Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam over the past six years.

Kohler, now assistant professor in VU Amsterdam's Division of BioAnalytical Chemistry and founder of NextMinds, is the first guest on Peaks & Pioneers: Women in Chromatography, a new video series from LCGC International hosted by Daniela Held.

In the episode, Kohler explains why she chose not to pursue a traditional professorship track, and how helping PhD students and postdocs navigate academia and well-being led her to found NextMinds three years ago. She shares candid observations from her coaching practice: although she initially worked mostly with women, she has found that the questions PhD students bring her, from career direction after the degree to managing stress and impostor syndrome, are PhD-specific rather than gender-specific.

The conversation also covers how analytical sciences is taught through the joint VU Amsterdam–University of Amsterdam program, and Kohler's balanced view of artificial intelligence (AI) in the field: a powerful opportunity for data analysis and personalized medicine, but a growing threat to students' critical thinking when used as a shortcut rather than a support.

Peaks & Pioneers continues throughout the fall with more conversations spotlighting the women shaping the future of chromatography and separation science. Watch the first episode now.