The PhD student meeting of the International Doctorate Program "Topological Insulators" is an annual event. This year, the meeting took place in Leuven, Belgium, to which all doctoral students of "Topological Insulators" met to discuss and share their latest scientific results in the field of topological insulators.
The annual PhD student meeting of the International Doctorate Program "Topological Insulators" of the Elite Network of Bavaria took place from 12 to 16 April 2016 in Leuven, Belgium. The meeting was organized by PhD students from the University of Regensburg in cooperation with the Virtual Institute for Topological Insulators (VITI).
The retreat was attended by PhD students from the Universities of Würzburg and Regensburg, the RWTH Aachen, the Forschungszentrum Jülich and SIMIT Shanghai. At the meeting, each PhD student has the opportunity to give a talk on current research results. As an invited external scientific speaker, Jens Bardarson from the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems in Dresden, a leading expert in the field of topological insulators, gave two very interesting lectures, in which he provided insights into the fundamental properties of topological insulators and presented his latest scientific results.
In addition to the scientific program, soft-skill seminars are an essential part of the annual PhD student meetings. For example, a coach for neuro-linguistic programming was invited. He talked about the topics "strengths and abilities", "flow and motivation" as well as "goals and values". Guided by the coach, the students e.g. identified important strengths and abilities for PhD student and what e.g. motivated them to become involved in science. In addition, strategies have been developed to promote strengths and motivation.
Text: International Doctorate Program "Topological Isolators"
