Alumni Discussion
What will you do after your PhD?
For many the path beyond the PhD is not fixed yet and there are diverse and interesting opportunities in science and industry. To get some ideas of what to consider it's best to talk to people who already experienced the same situation: Helmholtz Alumni.
The speakers of the alumni session are:
Andreas Holtel
Scientific and Policy Officer
European Commission DG,
Research & Innovation,
Health Research
Taking charge of a thematic
biomedical research area
at the EC's DG R&I, currently
mental health disorders, both in
terms of policy development and in
terms of selecting projects through
calls and of the subsequent
management of EC-supported
cooperative H2020 and FP7
biomedical research projects in the
area of mental health disorders.
PhD: Genetics of Bacterial Nitrogen Fixation
University of Sussex, Brighton,
UK, Agricultural and Food
Research Council Unit,
1988
Benedikt Soja
PostDoc
GFZ Potsdam
I deal with the analysis of space
geodetic data in order to monitor
sea level rise, plate techtonics, and
seismic activities.
Starting in November 2016, I will
continue my studies at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in California.
PhD: Application of Kalman Filtering
in VLBI Data Analysis
GFZ Potsdam, Geodesy,
2016
Dieter Weber
Entrepreneur & Project Manager
Bond Consulting, fyro-stove.de,
FZ Jülich, PGI-5
After finishing my PhD, I worked as a
product manager at Zeiss for two years.
Then I quit my job and started Bond
Consulting bond-consulting.de
together with my wife. FYRO
fyro-stove.de is our biggest
project currently. Now I am going to
work part-time at my old institute where
I did my PhD as a project manager
while continuing with our ventures. I’d
be happy to answer your questions and
share my experience so far!
PhD: Oxygen Transport in Thin Oxide
Films at High Field Strength
FZ Jülich, Materials Science,
2014
Dörthe Jones
Scientific Officer/Assistant to the
Management Board
ForschungRegion Braunschweig
Parental leave, before: The main task was
to be the head of a contact point between
schools and science. This included among
other things the coordination of projects
for pupils and the support during a career
decision. Furthermore, I was in charge of
organizing meetings, e.g. of the
administration managers of the different
institutions belonging to the
ForschungRegion. I did take care of the
website and the social media including the
writing of small press reports.
PhD: Development of Cell-based Tests
to Detect New Unwanted Effects
of Anthropogenic Substances in
Water
HZI, Biological Systems Analysis,
2011
Jessica Türk
Manager Science Communication
Yakult Deutschland GmbH
Responsible for the Scientific PR and
networking in the field of microbiology,
immunology, gastroenterology and
nutrition. I communicate the scientific
background of Yakult, probiotics and
microbiota to health care professionals,
scientists, journalists. For this I publish
press releases and newsletters, I create
newsletters, websites, brochures, new
ideas and organise symposia, give
lectures or cooperate with academics in
research projects.
PhD: New Virulence Factors of
Listeria Monocytogenes
HZI, Dep. Cell biology,
2003
Jochen vom Brocke
Scientific Officer
European Chemicals Agency ECHA,
Helsinki
In short: Make the world better, in an area
I know something about: chemicals
In detail: At the desk, evaluating
(non-)animal studies, I check and support
companies' obligation: "To demonstrate
the safe use of chemicals" – which we all
use in our daily lives, in mixtures and
devices. In meetings, I facilitate this, with
government authorities, industry, and
academia. In the back of my head, I look
for ways to improve it all.
PhD: 3-Nitrobenzanthron induziert
G:C→T:A Mutationen in
Sequenzen der humanen
DNA-bindenden Domäne von
p53
DKFZ, University of Heidelberg
2009
Jürgen Bode
Honorary Professor
Hannover Medical School
Biochemistry / Gene expression principles:
Analysis and design of autonomously
regulated transcription units as well as
replicating nonviral/viral episomes
Recombinase-Mediated Cassette
Exchange (non-destructive, targeted
integration) at a given genomic site
Systems Biology approaches (SIDD); in
situ verification and design of potential
chromatin domains (cooperation with
C Benham UC Davis, CA)
PhD: Meue Methoden zur
Konfigurationsermittlung von
Chlorophyllen und deren
Abbauprodukten
TU Braunschweig,
1971
Melita Vidaković
Principal Investigator and Group
Leader
Institute for Biological Research
Molecular Biology Laboratory,
Belgrade
Current focus is on epigenetic
mechanisms, i.e. on revealing basic
principles of DNA and histone
methylation/demethylation and its
involvement in diabetes development.
At present, working on
transdifferentiation of pancreatic alpha
to beta cells via targeted epigenome
editing using Epi-CRISPRs directed
DNA methylation and starting to explore
active DNA demethylation via TET
family of enzymes.
PhD: Association of Poly(ADP-ribose)
polymerase-1 (PARP-1; EC
2.4.2.30) with the nuclear
matrix.
HZI, Epigenetic regulation
Department,
2005
Michelangelo Villano
Research Scientist
DLR, Microwaves and Radar Institute,
Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany
I am in charge of the design of
innovative high-resolution
wide-swath (HRWS) synthetic
aperture radar (SAR) systems for
Earth
Observation. I am actively involved
in Tandem-L, a proposal for a
spaceborne SAR mission to monitor
dynamic processes on the
Earth’s surface with unprecedented
accuracy and resolution.
PhD: Staggered Synthetic Aperture
Radar
DLR Oberpfaffenhofen/KIT,
2016
Sabina Heim
Senior Technology Manager,
Head of Portfolio & Quality Management
Ascenion GmbH, Braunschweig
Ascenion is exclusive technology transfer
partner to numerous research institutes.
As Technology Transfer Manager I
identify and assess commercially
attractive research results and inventions,
support patenting processes, develop
commercialization strategies, initiate and
negotiate licensing and cooperation
agreements with industry, coach start-up
founders, manage patent portfolios and
educate scientists about patenting and
commercialization.
PhD: Phosphorylierung von Proteinen
und Phospholipiden in
pflanzlichen Zellkulturen
GBF (Gesellschaft für
Biotechnologische Forschung,
now HZI), Department of
Enzymology, 1986
Thomas Kirchartz
Professor
FZ Jülich, University Duisburg-Essen
The group works on solution
processable materials that can be used
to make solar cells.
These materials can be organic
semiconductors, nanoparticles or
inorganic semiconductor that can be
processed from solution. A
focus of the group is the electrical and
optoelectronic characterization and
simulation of the materials and devices.
In addition, I teach photovoltaics at the
University Duisburg-Essen.
PhD: Generalized detailed balance
theory of solar cells
FZ Jülich/RWTH Aachen,
Photovoltaik,
2009
Ute Römling
Professor of Medical Microbial
Physiology
Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm
My long-standing research interest is the
molecular and epidemiological analysis of
multicellular behavior (biofilm formation) in
microorganisms with a certain focus on
regulation by cyclic di-nucleotide second
messenger signaling and the implication of
extracellular matrix production. Another
major long-standing research interest
concerns the survival and persistence
mechanisms of a clone of Pseudomonas
aeruginosa predominant world-wide in
patients and aquatic habitats.
PhD: Genome analysis of
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
TU Hannover/Medical School
Hannover,
1993
If you are a Helmholltz Alumni yourself and are interested to participate in NextGen@Helmholtz 2017 or have a suggestion who to invite, please contact robin.roth@kit.edu .