About 80 CUI members used the opportunity at the second CUI Annual Meeting to obtain a comprehensive overview of the cluster’s development in nearly all areas.
The main emphasis was on the scientific research results, which were presented and discussed in talks and poster presentations. Another focus was, amongst other things, the structural development of human resources. The cluster was able to welcome five new professors in the past months: Gabriel Bester (W3), Ulrike Frühling (JP), Holger Lange (JP), Arwen Pearson (W3) und Henning Tidow (JP). Another W2 position is to be filled with a female researcher, which would make CUI reach a quota of 50 percent regarding the new acquisitions.
By now, the Graduate School includes 57 doctoral students, postdocs and associate members. The number of international students is not up to our objectives yet, Peter Schmelcher, spokesperson of the Graduate School, admits. 60 percent of the members are from Germany, 39 percent from non-EU countries and eleven percent from the EU (excluding Germany). The objective is a further internationalization – on a high level. The final grade of the applicants must at least correspond to a B+.
It is still an important concern to integrate the new groups and to find a common scientific language within an interdisciplinary team, CUI-spokesperson Prof. Horst Weller emphasized. A new offer will be the CUI Forum, which is intended to give all CUI members the opportunity to discuss and exchange scientific ideas in an informal atmosphere. It will take place for the first time on Thursday, 10April 2014, with coffee and snacks from 12p.m. to 2p.m. – thus directly before the CUI Colloquium. In the future, the CUI Forum will always take place right before the CUI Colloquiums.
With regard to the positive development of the cluster and to enable interdisciplinary work of the areas of Physics, Chemistry and Biochemistry, a building with space for laboratories and offices is at the planning stage.
CUI Board member Dr. Melanie Schnell gave an overview over the activities in the area of Equal Opportunities, which particularly centers on the balance of family life and career as well as on the support of women in natural sciences. During the next winter term, for example, workshops on leadership are planned for postdocs and doctoral students. “We also applied for hosting the Annual German Conference of Women in Physics”, Melanie Schnell announced. Furthermore, nominations and applications are collected for the Mildred Dresselhaus Award 2014.
Finally, the area of Public Relations presented its activities. Ingeborg Adler described vividly, how for example the photo session during the mayor’s visit was organized and how tricky dealing with the media can be. Afterwards the press officer referred among other things to the newly installed RSS Feed on the homepage, via which it is possible to subscribe to the News, and drew attention to the list of scientific publications.
At the end of the day, the participants met in the CFEL foyer to end this year’s Annual Meeting in an informal atmosphere.