On 29 March 2019, the Doctoral School in Science and Engineering (DSSE) organised an informative and networking event entitled “Doctorate at the DSSE: Prospects and Perspectives” on Belval campus. The main objective was to offer a panel discussion on different topics to Master students and junior doctoral candidates with invited alumni. Fruitful and instructive discussions summed up this first edition.
Orchestrated by Oliver Glassl (Doctoral School Facilitator at the DSSE) and Françoise Bertrand (Alumni Relations Officer), the event started with a welcome speech by Prof. Serge Haan (Vice Dean of the Faculty of Science, Technology and Communication (FSTC)) and Philippe Delfosse (Advisor to the Vice-rector for research) , as well as a presentation by Nicole Paschek, Project Manager of the brand new project DESCOM (Doctoral Education in Science Communication).
The panel discussion, which was moderated by Prof. Susanne Siebentritt (Head of the DSSE), was composed by a group of eight doctoral alumni coming from a variety of scientific fields, such as Physics and Material Sciences, Biomedicine and Engineering: Mads Weber (Postdoctoral fellow, ETH Zurich), Alex Gansen (Postdoctoral researcher, University of Luxembourg), Guillaume Nataf (Research Fellow, University of Cambridge), Isabelle Naegelen (Project manager, Environment Agency Luxembourg), Sean Sapcariu (Programme manager, Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR)), Linda Wampach (Postdoctoral researcher, Laboratoire National de Santé), Maria Angeliki Pavlou (Postdoctoral researcher, University of Luxembourg) and Hubert Moser (Head of Microsatellite Solutions, LuxSpace). They all shared their personal experience and gave much useful advice to the attendees.
Discussion during the event covered a number of different topics:
- The added value of formal doctoral courses and formal training activities for the professional career
- The transferrable skills training
- How to get noticed in the job market: building skills that translate to all careers
- Getting postdoctoral experience in industry
- Moving into industry without postdoctoral experience
- Finding and succeeding in an academic postdoc
- Academia: balancing teaching & research
The alumni expressed a very positive attitude towards doctoral studies and the life after. Motivating comments as in how rewarding personal engagement during the doctorate can be, how little failures during the project are normal, and that an open minded and explorative stance is very important were amongst the take-home messages. After the panel discussion, a beer tasting provided a more informal frame for personal exchanges between participants and the invited alumni.
Due to a collective appreciation and enthusiasm of the participants, a second edition of the “Doctorate at the DSSE: prospects and perspectives” will certainly take place next year. More information will follow.