Max Planck Symposium 2017 for Alumni and Early Career Researchers

UPDATE: Registration is closed.

Please note that the available programme is up-to-date since all speakers are confirmed and workshop topics and abstracts are finalized by the attendees. We invite you to view last year's conference website and programme for reference.

Note to alumns, especially when travelling from abroad: We have a limited number of travel grants available to all alumns* travelling from abroad. If you choose to apply for a travel grant during registration, we suggest to spend extra care on filling out the motivational questionaire. If you need an invitation letter for your visa application, please contact Birgit Adam directly.

Note to participants travelling with children: We highly enourage you to make use of our on-site daytime childcare. After you've checked the corresponding box during registration we will get in contact with you to arrange the details.

There is no registration fee.

* To include all genders and facilitate transparent communication, alumni and alumnae will be referred to as alumns, henceforth and throughout the conference.

Programme

Thursday, August 31^st 2017
Arrival and Welcome Dinner

16.00 | Registration Desk opens (Harnack Lobby)

19.00 | Welcome Dinner with Specialties from Berlin (Harnack House Restaurant and Garden)

Friday, September 1^st 2017
Career Path Highlights and Networking

8.00 - 9.30 | Registration (Harnack Lobby)

9.30 - 10.00 | Opening and Welcoming Address by Eberhard Bodenschatz (Goethe Saal)

10.00 - 10.30 | Simon Bungers and Florian Hauer

“From scientists to entrepreneurs for the benefit of scientists" (Goethe Saal)

10.30 - 11.00 | Ira Milosevic

"Good and not-so-good sides of academia and Postdoc/PI work -- perspectives of a scientists' family" (Goethe Saal)

11.00 - 11.30 | Coffee Break (Harnack Lobby)

11.30 - 12.00 | Dominik Michels

"Academic Development, Research Activities and Opportunities in the Gulf Region" (Goethe Saal)

12.00 - 12.30 | Sir Richard John Brook

"Research. Why? For whom? How?" (Goethe Saal)

12.30 - 14.00 | Lunch (Harnack House Restaurant and Garden)

14.00 - 18.30 | Networking Sessions

Michael Genkin and Schiller&Mertens

Professionally led internal Networking Session exclusively for Alumni Officers of the Max Planck Institutes (max 24 ppl) (Ruska Saal)

Xiang-Yi Li and EURelations

Professionally led Career Networking Session for everyone interested in Global Funding Opportunities, from science to entrepreneurship (max 24 ppl -- first come first served) (Mozart Saal)

Magda Schiegl

Interdisciplinary Networking Session on Socio-Economic Physics (max 22pl -- first come first served) (Humboldt Saal)

Marija Pesic and Irene Ferreira

Networking Session on the MPAA Career Mentoring Programme (unlimited seating available) (Goethe Saal)

Eliza Lvova

Networking Session on the MPAA Lifelong Learning Programme (unlimited seating available) (Warburg Saal)

Roman Prytuliak

Networking Session on "Adding Value to Your Contacts. Exploiting Opportunities Available at Your Max Planck Institute" (unlimited seating available) (Meitner Saal)

Richard Schubert

Networking Session on "MPAA Network on Fundamental Questions" (Köhler Saal)

19.00 | Barbeque Dinner (Harnack House Restaurant and Garden) and Jam Session (Einstein Lounge)

Saturday, September 2^nd 2017
Career Path Workshops with Expert Support

8.00 - 9.00 | Registration

9.00 - 9.20 | Welcome and Summary of last year's activities by Birgit Adam and Filippo Guarnieri (Goethe Saal)

9.20 - 9.30 | Jo Havemann and Tina Persson

"Introduction to the PhD Career Stories podcast" (Goethe Saal)

9.30 - 10.00 | Daniel Biene

"From Legal to Media to Tech — Between the Worlds of Academia, Corporations, and Startups" (Goethe Saal)

10.00 - 11.30 | Career Path Workshops (with Expert Support) I 

| Jacob Verghese Jr. and Martina Schäfer (Goethe Institute)

"Navigating the German language while being employed at a MPI- strategies, suggestions and tips" (Goethe Saal)

| Tobias Klose and Babette Regierer

"Pitch me if you can and make the story sticky!" (Humboldt Saal)

| Prateek Mahalwar and Jon Tennant (Science Open)

"Leaving Max Planck and maintaining access to papers -- how it's done and how Open Access can help" (Warburg Saal)

| Matthew A. Hood

"Getting Your Work Recognized in Academia" (Mozart Saal)

11.30 - 12.20| Kamila and Henry Markram

"From the Human Brain Project to the Imperative of Open Access Publishing" (Goethe Saal)

12.20 - 13.30 | Lunch (Harnack House Restaurant and Garden)

13.30 - 15.00 | Career Path Workshops (with Expert Support) II 

| Monika Schreckenbach and Godfrey Zari Rukundo (Mbarara University of Science and Technology)

"Making field research projects sustainable for the local community – going back and doing good" (Goethe Saal)

| Dragomir Milovanovic, Kathy Edersheim (Impactrics), and Christoph Schumacher (Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting)

"Challenges and potentials of volunteering teams" (Warburg Saal)

| Suneel Kateriya and Karan Bhola (Ashoka)

"Research networking avenues and Alumni Networking in India" (Humboldt Saal)

| Chris Armbruster

"Science to Data Science? When and how to leave for industry." (Meitner Saal)

15.00 -15.30 | Coffee Break

15.30 - 17.00 | Career Path Workshops (with Expert Support) III

| Judith Reichel and Anke Sparmann (Springer Nature)

"Science communication – turning a hobby into a paycheck" (Mozart Saal)

| Yorick Peterse and Maria Eichel

"Communication strategies to improve mental health and other important issues of employees (an Alumni-ECRs alliance)" (Meitner Saal)

| Irene Ferreira, Sneha Kumar and Ulrike Böhm

"MPAA group for women empowerment/leadership" (Warburg Saal)

| Jinhua Liu, Chenchao Liu and Jian-Ke Sun

"MPAA Network China" (Ruska Saal)

| Alizier Martinez

"University studies in physics and chemistry within the Cuban scientific landscape" (Humboldt Saal)

18.30 - 19.00 | Closing Reception (Einstein Lobby)

19.00 | Festive Closing (Goethe Saal), Cultural Running Dinner (Harnack House Lobby, Restaurant, and Garden) and Dance Party (Einstein Lounge)

Sunday, September 3^rd 2017
Departure and 1^st Assembly of the MPAA (members upon invitation only)

9.00 | Departure of all participants

10.00 | 1^st Assembly of the Max Planck Alumni Association, Harnack House (members upon invitation only) (Goethe Saal)