The Dortmund Graduate School of Physics has started
- News
Around 30 young scientists receive their doctorate at the Department of Physics every year. In order to support all of them equally in their personal and scientific development during their doctorate, the department has anchored the "Dortmund Graduate School of Physics" in its new doctoral regulations. Prof. Kevin Kröninger, Dean of the Department, explains, "The aim of the Graduate School is to set the framework for optimal support of young scientists during their doctoral studies."
Networking and career planning are among the cornerstones of the program, as are internationality or family-friendliness. For example, the Graduate School offers doctoral student meetings where doctoral students can exchange information about their projects as well as personal experiences during their doctoral studies. The department also offers help with career planning in order to point out paths in science, but also to support career choices in business. At the same time, doctoral students are also encouraged to build their own career-enhancing academic network. Likewise, the Graduate School specifically promotes international research and provides support on the way abroad. Those who have children or are caring for relatives also receive advice and assistance in balancing family and doctoral studies.
The Graduate School provides structural measures to ensure the quality of the doctorate. For example, at the beginning of their doctorate, doctoral students sign an agreement with their supervisor that defines goals and expectations. There are also two mandatory feedback meetings per year. "We want to encourage doctoral students to reflect on their progress and also write an annual report on the status of their own doctorate for this purpose. This will enable them to tackle their doctorate in a more targeted and structured way," explains Dr. Doris Reiter, director of the new Graduate School. Two persons of trust are available to assist the doctoral candidates in the event of conflicts.
However, the most important thing in a doctorate is and remains doing exciting research at the highest level. Joshua Althüser, the first doctoral student in the graduate school, is also looking forward to this. He is working in Prof. Götz Uhrig's group in theoretical solid-state physics on the topic of "Composite collective excitations in correlated quantum materials". In this work, he wants to investigate different interactions that compete with each other in order to better understand novel quantum materials. Even though a project outline has been written for the work, new and unexpected results are always welcome. "After all, physics is most exciting when you discover something new," says Prof. Uhrig.