“Peppy! Did you know…?” Oh, crinkly candy, here we go again. We were hours into Christmas night on our way back north, somewhere over the African Atlantic Coast and the Boss kept talking about geology. Listening to Santa Claus rambling was one of the many perks not mentioned in the job description of the prestigious […]
How to grow in the shadows
I walk through the forest and see a few old and sturdy trees, that are dominating their surroundings. I look up and see how they sway in the wind, but they bend and hold and aren’t bothered in the slightest. Down here in their shadow, I am surrounded by an army of saplings. Most of […]
FYORD Travel Grant Reports: Impressions from the largest European geoscientific conference (Part 1)
With this blog post, we would like to introduce and launch our new cooperation with FYORD! FYORD is a joint network by CAU and GEOMAR initiated to connect and support Early Career Researchers of the marine sciences from Master’s to PostDoc level. After occasional exchanges in the past (see our blog here), we are very […]
From Hypatia to Marie Tharp – Some women you should know
This blog post was inspired by the books “Forces of Nature – The Women who Changed Science” by Anna Reser and Leila McNeill and “Women in Science – 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World“ by Rachel Ignotofsky. Both shed light on a wide variety of women in science and their contributions. Here, I was […]
At the beginning there was bureaucracy
Last year in summer I finished my Master’s degree. I was, and still am, very much in love with science, and enjoyed my research-focussed program a lot. No surprise that I wanted to pursue a scientific career, and that I was very happy I had managed to secure a PhD position as the next step […]
The Perspective of a retired Hiwi
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 […]
“Drama, Baby!” Meine Erfahrungen im Wissenschaftskommunikationszertifikatsprogramm
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 […]
“I need more drama” – What I learned in the science communication certificate program
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 […]
Back to school with Rent-a-Scientist 2023
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 […]
Science – at the edge of knowledge
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: […]