The Big Bang - The beginning of all
On 22 November 2021, the MaP Doctoral School received its premiere event, onsite and in-person.
On the occasion of The Big Bang, diverse talents from over 25 MaP research groups came together. With a great deal of excitement, Lucio Isa, director of the MaP Doctoral School, opened the event, which marked the beginning of the initiative. Next, Manfred Sigrist, ETH Vice-Rector for Doctoral Education, highlighted why a doctorate at ETH is an excellent investment for a future scientific career and how the MaP Doctoral School prepares its doctoral students to make an impact in science and society.
A glimpse on future transformations of how Materials and Processes shape the world
Keynote speaker Aaswath Raman inspired the participants with his pioneering research in metamaterials and nanoscale devices as enabling new technologies to mitigate climate change. The chairs of the five thematic tracks of the MaP Doctoral School capped it all off by presenting their frontier field view in their thematic area and the promise of the MaP Doctoral School to push the frontiers in the respective fields. As the first exchange among talents in the different thematic tracks, the doctoral students gave 1-min pitches introducing the topic of their thesis.
Community matters - jointly striving for impact
In the Impact Workshop moderated by MaP postdocs, the participants of The Big Bang discussed their motivation to push scientific frontiers, what is driving them and what would support them best to maximise impact with their research. The teams ideated for transdisciplinary formats that support junior researchers to tackle the grand challenges of modern society in a holistic approach. In a democratic choice, the doctoral students elected 'Skills Speed Dating' as the winning idea. Many congratulations to the winning team - Madeleine Fellner, José Luis Ocaña Pujol, Lea Forster & Philippe Nicollier - moderated by Flavia Timpu! We will realise the format in 2022.
In the peer-to-peer workshop, the doctoral students assembled in their cohort to share their personal experiences and prioritise interests for topics and formats to train personal skills. The discussions serve as a starting point for developing new offers of the MaP Doctoral School. In the spirit of The Big Bang, the event was concluded with an afterglow networking reception led by David Geisser and his team. The community was immersed in the fascinating world of molecular cuisine, tasting some delicious results of soft materials science.
See you in the galaxy era! We are looking forward to meeting you at our next events.
... and as your chilis grow, we would love to receive your images of how you use our gift to spice up your doctoral student life. Please upload your image labelled with your full name at external page https://external page bit.ly/3nvdYvJ - thank you!
Many thanks to all contributors of The Big Bang:
Welcome note: Manfred Sigrist
Keynote: Aaswath Raman
Chairs of thematic tracks: André Studart & Ingo Burgert, David Kammer & Laura De Lorenzis, Markus Bambach & Mirko Meboldt, Mathieu Luisier & Ralph Spolenak, and Lucio Isa
Workshop moderators: Laura Alvarez Frances, Yinyin Bao, Michael Christiansen, Ahmet Demirörs, Rafael Libanori, Flavia Timpu, & Evgeniya Vorobyeva
Interactive networking reception: David Geisser
Organisation: Daniela Rothe & Larissa Schefer