NextGen@Helmholtz 2016

Alumni Discussion

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.