After a successful start in 2014 the Graduate Days of the Cluster of Excellence CUI have gone into a second round. More than 80 female and male scientists had accepted the invitation to gain a good overview about basic research topics within physics, chemistry and biology in different courses from March 9 to 11.
Participants of the Graduate Days. Credit: UHH, RZZ/MCC, Mentz
The vast programme was again directed to master-students, PhDs and Post-Docs. Especially the lectures of the five invited speakers from Italy, Germany, France and Switzerland attracted great interest. In addition to the scientific lectures, the participants had the chance to attend a lecture by Dr. Thomas Pattard from The American Physical Society and an Industry Event by Dr. Wolfgang Becken (Rodenstock). “The Industry Event was particularly appealing as it had more the character of a scientific lecture,” says Dr. Antonio Negretti, coordinator of the Graduate School. “We heard how research results are realized in commerce, which was quite exciting”.
All three days included soft-skill-courses such as the one by Rob Thomson with the topic “Objectives – Choices – Ideas” plus courses with a practical reference. Mike Kesselmeier from National Instruments showed how measuring instruments, for example an oscilloscope, can be controlled by the software LabView. Besides an exciting three-day programme the participants highly appreciated the informal talks during the coffee breaks.
“For me the Graduate Days are a good opportunity to receive a wide overview of the current research and to make comparisons with my work, which is the ultrafast spectroscopy of photovoltaic devices,” says Simon Bretschneider. The PhD student from the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research had come from Mainz to attend the CUI Graduate Days. Negretti’s conclusion: “The positive feedback and many registrations for the sessions of the second Graduate Days showed us, that the three days were accepted quite well by the scientists”.
The next CUI Graduate Days will take place again in 2016.