HiWi is the abbreviation for the German term ‘Hilfs-Wissenschaftler*in’, which translates to research assistant, and describes a job position for students, often offered by faculties or research institutes. I am definitely not talking about the second definition given by German Wikipedia. For nearly six years I’ve been one of many HiWis, going through research groups […]
November 2023, ich stehe auf der großen Bühne in der Pumpe, einem Veranstaltungszentrum in Kiel. Vor mir sitzen etwa 200-250 Leute, die Sitzplätze sind alle besetzt und ein paar Leute müssen sogar stehen. Sie sind bereit, zwei Stunden lang zu stehen, um zu erleben, wie junge Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler bei der Science Show ihre Forschung […]
November 2023, I am standing on the big stage in “die Pumpe” an event centre in Kiel. In front of me, there are about 200-250 people, the seats are all occupied and a bunch of people are standing. They are willing to stand for two hours to experience young scientists explaining their research in an […]
My experience with teaching geophysics to high-school students It all started with a rather inconspicuous email with the subject title: Do you fancy primary schools? I got quite confused. Why would I get such a message? I am not a teacher. Hmm. Luckily, I decided to read the email anyway. It said something about a […]
One of the biggest realizations during my PhD so far was that doing science means that literally nobody has ever done whatever you are doing. Duh! That’s kind of the point of science, isn’t it? Generating new knowledge? Yes, but I was somewhat unaware of the consequences for me as a scientist. In a nutshell: […]
If you received an invite to a “Hackathon” event – would you sign up for it? Chances are, if you’re not a programmer by training, studied IT or went far down the rabbit hole called modelling for your research, your answer will be thanks for the invitation, but no thanks. “No way!” was my first reaction […]
Hello dear readers! We are Rania and Mélanie, two 21 year old students studying geophysics at l’École et l’Observatoire des Sciences de la Terre in Strasbourg, France. We took our first step into the world of internships this summer at GEOMAR and we’re happy to share this experience with you! Strasbourg being far from any […]
I was probably about thirteen years old. I wanted to put pasta into a pot of boiling water, when I suddenly stopped and stared at the bubbling liquid. It’s not like I had never seen boiling water before, but I had never seen it like this. Instead of just noticing the movement and the steam […]
Some people say family and a scientific career are not a good match, others say there is no better time to become a mother than during your PhD. Follow along as we, Katharina and Kim, share our journey of balancing motherhood and continuing our doctoral research project. How it all began: Katharina: Since I was […]
„How to move from academia to industry (or to the private sector)?” is a question, that I often hear since I started my doctoral thesis. But before, my question was rather “How do I move from industry to academia?”. In fact, after my studies in geosciences and mining engineering, I didn’t want to engage myself […]