Whether analysing the raw materials required for the transition to renewable energy, developing crystalline sponges from metal-organic framework compounds for encapsulating pharmacologically active substances or analysing quantum materials with the aid of neuronal networks, doctoral and postdoctoral researchers at the institutes for mathematics, physics, and materials resource management are working on diverse and fascinating topics. The new MNTF Graduate Centre provides junior researchers with the opportunity to exchange ideas, gain further training, as well as funding for scientific events and individual projects.

Regular opportunities for exchanging ideas, conferences, meetups, and external science-oriented courses facilitate researcher “onboarding” into everyday academic life. Participation is open to all doctoral and postdoctoral researchers, which accounts for more than 300 researchers at the faculty of mathematics, natural sciences, and materials engineering. “The MNTF Graduate Centre offers doctoral and postdoctoral researchers in our faculty a great platform for targeted further training and joint exchange. I am very excited about the ideas that have been discussed, which have already produced great diversity,” says the dean of the faculty, Prof. Dr Manfred Albrecht.

A monthly “MNTF Graduate Get-Together” has already been established, which provides researchers with the opportunity to share their research, with two or three researchers presenting their research at each get-together. Regular women’s meetups also take place alongside various soft skills courses. Future doctoral workshops and conferences are also in planning, as well as laboratory visits to industry and other working groups. All these offers are open and accessible to researchers and are not part of official doctoral or habilitation procedures.

Coordination through self-initiative

All activities are organised and administered by researchers themselves, with the faculty receiving financial support from the university’s central graduate centre through the “matching grant” model. Event and funding proposals are submitted to the junior board of the MNTF Graduate Centre, to which three doctoral and postdoctoral researchers were elected at the opening launch in spring. They provide information, help coordinate activities, and are available as contact persons. Material resources and funding are approved by the senior board, which is composed of three professors from the faculty. All three institutes of the faculty are represented on both boards: mathematics, physics, and materials resource management.

The MNTF Graduate Centre was conceived of with the participation of academic staff on the faculty’s committees represented by Marcus Kollar, Christina Kunzmann, Peter Quast, and Amelie Schischke. “I am incredibly pleased about the committed and systematic approach taken by the faculty of mathematics, natural sciences, and materials engineering in setting up its graduate centre. The initiative serves as a role model within the university and complements the emerging university-wide graduate centre. The faculty is setting the standards here," says Vice President Prof. Dr Peter Welzel. He expects that the networking between different working groups and disciplines will lead to new research ideas and further collaboration.

For further information:

www.uni-augsburg.de/de/fakultaet/mntf/infos/gradzent/