Alumni meeting 2015

MOI I Alumni meet PhD-students of MOI II

On the evening of the 20th of February 2015 nine alumni of the Manchot Graduate School ‘Molecules of infection I’ met the PhD-students of the new MOI II generation.

In the splendid surrounding of manor house ‘Schloß Mickeln’ the speakers of the graduate school, Prof. Johannes H. Hegemann and the Vice President for Strategic Management and Equal Opportunities, Prof. Klaus Pfeffer received especially the alumni and the PhD-students.

Subsequently, the Vice President for Research and Technology Transfer, Prof. Peter Westhoff cordially welcomed everybody. He expressed his expectation, that this kind of meeting would take place more often at the university.

During the meeting, four of the alumni gave short talks about their career progression and their education at the university. This provied the PhD-students a deeper insight into four very different job opportunities.

First, Dr. Marek Widera talked about his classical Post-Doc career at the University of Essen. Then Dr. Sabrina Thomas presented her experiences in the field of quality management in a globally acting company. Next Dr. Elisabeth Graef presented her career path. She was trained as clinical monitor and has already acquired a lot of working experience. Last but not least, Dr. Sandra Vergin reported about her every day work life as an editorial department trainee in a publishing company.

Thanks to the alumni the PhD-students got deep insight into different job opportunities. Moreover, they also learned what kind of difficulties they likeley may face in the near future after they have finished their PhD.

After the talks and the discussions the PhD-students and the alumni were divided and the doctoral researchers got the opportunity to ask questions in this smaller group setting. Three project leaders acted as moderators.

Culinary, the evening was completed by a finger food buffet. All participants agreed that the meeting had been very interesting, informative and motivating. Everybody is looking forward to the next alumni event embedded in the curriculum of MOI II.