MDC/FMP graduation ceremony 2014
But when I was fortunate enough to be invited to the graduation ceremony for the MDC and FMP’s PhD graduates of 2014 on 14 November this year, I saw the whole thing in an entirely different light. The graduation ceremony is an important part of obtaining a doctorate, and one that should be given due regard. The long, arduous period of writing your doctorate is over – that, and the effort you put into it, should be honored and celebrated. But alongside the feelings of excitement, most freshly graduated PhD's have a need to reflect on what they have achieved in the past years, and often also have a sense of uncertainty about the future.
“You have learned to question everything.”
Even before the event’s official commencement, it was clear that this wasn’t going to be a stiff, boring affair. There was much lively chat and a sense of joyful reunion between the former fellow students. This mood was set to remain throughout the event. The room was full of the graduates’ parents, grandparents, friends, colleagues, and in some cases even their children. The dress code was on the casual side and quite mixed. The ceremony was officially opened by Prof. Thomas Sommer, interim chairman of the board of directors and scientific director at MDC. He is the first to congratulate the new graduates and encourage them to celebrate. As he recalls, “My time as a doctoral student wasn’t always easy, and there were long periods of frustration. I expect you’ll all be familiar with that. But that’s simply a part of it.” Sommer told the graduates that he hoped they would retain fond memories of the MDC and that those who would go on to lead groups themselves would remember what they did and didn’t like as doctoral students.
This year, the ceremony, which has been taking place at the MDC for three years, was held jointly with the neighboring FMP for the first time. FMP’s director, Professor Volker Haucke, summarized what it means to graduate: “On the one hand, you’ve just come through a period of scientific education. On the other hand – and this is what makes you a scientist – you have learned to question everything and to challenge everything. So your period of doctoral training is a time when you do not only question your project, your group leader and your colleagues, but yourself as well. And now some of you will also be questioning your future.” Haucke also thanked the graduates, telling them that it is their work that makes up the lion’s share of the research at institutions such as MDC and FMP and that they are the ones more likely to take on risky projects.
This year’s prizewinners
The prizes for the Best Presentation and the Best Poster at the MDC/FMP PhD Campus Symposium 2014 and the Publication Prize 2014 were awarded by Professor Michael Gotthardt, one of the spokespersons of the TransCard Research School. Felizia Voss won first prize for the Best Presentation, with Julia Kofent coming in second, and the third prize going to Andreas Ofenbauer and Eric McShane. First prize for Best Poster went to Elena Torlai Triglia, second to Ena Kolundzic, and third to Stefanie Seelk. The Publication Prize, awarded for the first time this year, also went to Felizia Voss of Professor Thomas Jentsch’s research group at FMP. Gotthardt emphasized that the quality of the work of the seven candidates proved how much excellent research was being carried out at MDC and FMP. The Publication Prize was made possible through a donation by the Annelise-Pritzsche-Stiftung. Ms. Voss then gave a brief presentation of her paper, entitled “Identification of LRRC8 Heteromers as an Essential Component of the Volume-Regulated Anion Channel VRAC,” which was published in Science magazine in 2014. Voss, who is set to defend her dissertation in January 2015, said: “At the start of my time as a doctoral student I had two projects. And, unusually, it was the ‘riskier’ project that ended up being so successful. The publication was made possible thanks to a little bit of luck, but mainly thanks to the concerted support of Thomas Jentsch, in the form of funding and sheer hard work, and of my colleagues.”
Initially, Voss will stay in Jentsch’s research group as a post-doc, and she says that she is very happy about that: “The topic of my PhD dissertation has developed into lots of interesting new projects, which I am intensively involved in.” After finishing her time as a post-doc with Jentsch, she hopes to pursue a research stay abroad. “I can certainly imagine staying in academia,” she says. “I regard the currently still very low proportion of women in academia as an incentive. But a possible plan B for me would be industrial research.”
“Choose the right life partner!”
Food for thought was provided by Professor Ferdinand Hucho of the Institute of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Freie Universität Berlin (FU), whose inspiring talk was a high point of the ceremony. As ombudsman for young researchers at the FU, he knows all about the ups and downs of being a doctoral student, and started his talk by pointing out that the graduates need never take another examination. He also gave them his personal guarantee that every one of them would get a job: “All of you are fit and ready to take on all different kinds of job. We have taught you how to learn and how to sink your teeth into a problem and not let go until it is solved. That makes you very attractive employees.” Hucho ended his speech with some very personal advice for a successful life: “Choose the right life partner!”“
Three more brand-new doctors: Sanum Bashir, Karl Sydow and Maciej Czajkowski
Like Felizia Voss, many of the new graduates will stay at MDC and FMP for the time being. Among them are Maciej Czajkowski and Sanum Bashir.
Czajkowski, who comes from Poznań, Poland, was in Professor Carmen Birchmeier-Kohler’s working group from 2008 to 2014, where he wrote his dissertation on “The role of Notch and Integrin-β1 signaling in muscle development.” This month he will start work as a post-doc with Dr. Oliver Rocks. “I already knew Oliver Rocks from a previous project with Carmen Birchmeier-Kohler,” said Czajkowski. “When I learned that he was advertising a post-doc position I arranged for an interview with him and was lucky enough to be accepted. I’m delighted about that, especially because I love Berlin and would like to stay here for a while.” Czajkowski will be working on a project investigating the Rho GTPase activating protein 36. Among other things, he will create a knockout mouse for the protein and study its phenotype. When speaking of his time as a doctoral student, Czajkowski enthuses about the “extremely well organized” international “MolNeuro” Research School, which he was a part of: “Unlike with other programs, at MolNeuro you’re an employee of the institute and not just a grant recipient. That gives you more security and also financial advantages. Being part of the Research School and receiving this financial support allowed me to travel lots and expand my horizons. For example, I attended conferences and seminars in Israel, Greece and Croatia. During my time at MolNeuro, and particularly my time in the guesthouse at the start of my doctorate, I made lots of new friends.”
Sanum Bashir, originally from Pakistan, worked in Professor Zsuzsanna Izsvak’s group and investigated the Sleeping Beauty transposon system as a tool for genetic manipulation in mice. “When I started my doctorate, my son was just 18 months old, so I was heavily dependent on my husband,” she says. “Without his support, and the family-friendly policy of MDC, I would not have been able to complete my doctorate.’’
One graduate who has already left the campus, on the other hand, is Karl Sydow. The licensed pharmacist, who studied for his doctorate in Dr. Margitta Dathe’s research group at FMP, started work in November at the Berlin headquarters of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds (GKV). Before taking up the position, Sydow received several job offers, including in the pharmaceutical industry.
When asked about his time as a doctoral student, he said: “For my dissertation I tried to optimize nanoparticles so they can penetrate the brain and thus be used for therapeutic and diagnostic purposes. The high point of my four years as a doctoral student was my research visit at Northeastern University in Boston, USA. I worked with Professor Vladimir Torchilin, a renowned expert in medical nanotechnology, to investigate whether nanoparticles can be used to treat brain tumors.” Sydow was a doctoral student representative at FMP. He recalls life on campus as being very lively and very open, but does say that there is still a perceived separation between the MDC and FMP. This, he says, is something that needs to be improved.
