Researchers from Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Medicine have one common goal: excellent science. This does not mean, however, that they are talking one scientific language. Thus an important goal of the first CUI Graduate Days from March 10-12 was, with the help of various courses about fundamental topics from Physics, Chemistry and Biology, to deepen the knowledge of young scientists beyond their specific subject boundaries and to find a language for everybody to understand.
“I’m pleased that we could reach so many students, considering that it is the first event of this kind”, says Prof. Peter Schmelcher, spokesperson of the Graduate School. 75 participants from mainly Hamburg and half of which were CUI members had registered in advance for the Graduate Days addressing master’s students as well as PhDs and postdocs. It was a positive sign, too, that the interest in the different scientific topics of the six invited speakers from Italy, Austria, Swiss and Germany was distributed nearly evenly. Only within the soft skill courses, due to the organization the number of participants differed to a higher degree. “Also the high number of around 50 participants at the Industry Event is a confirmation to broaden our perspective beyond science”, Prof. Peter Schmelcher emphasizes. Two representatives of the Hamburg-based company Philips Medical Systems had focused on industrial management of innovations, using their company as an example.
As the final highlight of the Graduate Days, Prof. Franz Kärtner, Dr. Markus Perbandt and Prof. Ralf Röhlsberger and their teams faced the questions of the audience. Before that, Prof. R. J. Dwayne Miller had had with a “Hitchhiker’s Guide to Atom Gazing” a close look at CUI’s special topic, namely the connection of atoms and cells. The questions referred to both his talk and to CUI-related topics. Vice Dean of the MIN Faculty, Prof. Chris Meier, had the particular task to draw the questions one by one from a collection pot and pass them as requested on to one of the teams. That team then tried to explain vividly the complex matters with the help of different methods and utensils. At the end, the audience voted and named the entertaining team of Prof. Franz Kärtner winner of the first CUI Science Slam. Good food and Greek music of the band Mousikorama made the first CUI Graduate Days complete. In the future, the Graduate Days are to take place once a year.