Scholarships & HGS-HIRe abroad. Page 4

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1 AUGUST 2011 Newsletter HGS-HIRe at the Night of Science Scientific Program & Soft Skill Courses Scholarships & HGS-HIRe abroad Upcoming Events of the Graduate School Organizational Issues Page 1 Page 2-3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 HGS-HIRe at the Night of Science HGS-HIRe doctoral students organize experiments for everyone at Frankfurt Night of Science Dear Reader, the Helmholtz Graduate School HIRe is constantly growing; we just recently welcomed our 260. participant in the program. In addition more and more lecture weeks, power weeks and softskill events are organized to offer an attractive program for all doctoral students in the school. We thought it is time to compile some information on HIRe, to tell you about events in the past and about all the things we plan for the next future. The annual Night of Science at the Goethe University was this year actively supported by doctoral students of HGS-HIRe. As a follow-up of a HGS-HIRe soft skill seminar several HGS-HIRe students got together and developed, organized and realized several experimental stations at the Night of Science 2011 ( Hundreds of students (both from schools and universities) as well as the general public interested in physics and science visited and tried the experiments. And there was plenty to play around with: Following the theme Die Welt der Wellen und Teilchen ( The world of waves and particles ) visitors could experience experiments from Van-de- Graaff generators to non-newtonian fluids or spark chambers and much more. Additionally to the experiments visitors could put their newly acquired knowledge to a test and participate in a quiz to win popular science books or FAIR goodies. More than 500 people visited the experiments - a success that encouraged everyone to already plan a follow up for next year. The Night of Science Project was organized and executed by: Jordi Albert-Fort, Leyla Atar, Giuseppe Colucci, Sabrina Geyer, Martin Grahl, Jan Michel, Tobias Weilbach and Daniel Yueker. This is the first edition of the HGS- HIRe Newsletter, which shall keep you up-to-date from now on about HGS-HIRe, its active community and events. I am happy to let you know that the scholarship rates for all scholarship programs organized by HGS-HIRe could be increased significantly, and more and more participants join our events like HGS-HIRe Perspectives and HGS-HIRe abroad. And of course there is much more... I hope you enjoy the read, Henner Büsching - 1 -

2 Scientific Program and Soft Skill Courses Helmholtz-Rosatom School The first Helmholtz-Rosatom-School was held February 12-17, 2011 in Hirschegg/Kleinwalsertal. The Fair Russia Research Council (FRRC) and HGS-HIRe jointly organized a broad program of lectures covering atomic physics, plasma physics, accelerator physics, hadron physics and QCD physics to reflect the scientific spectrum of FAIR. Roughly half the participants came from Russia, the other half from HGS-HIRe. The speakers, among many others, included the directors of FAIR and GSI, Profs. Boris Sharkov and Horst Stöcker. The next event in this new series is currently in the planning and will be held in Russia in Power-Week AdS/CFT June 27-30, 2011, a HGS-HIRe Power-Week on the AdS/CFT correspondence was organized at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies. About a dozen students spent a week to learn about the AdS/CFT Gauge-Gravity correspondence in hand-on exercises and lectures. The feedback on the event was overwhelmingly positive, both from participants as well as from the lecturer Matthias Kaminski (Princeton). H-QM Lecture Week Manigod The lecture week High p T physics of the Helmholtz Research School on Quark Matter Studies was held in Manigod/France from February 27 to March 6, In addition to a set of lectures by Carlos Salgado (Santiago de Compostela) and Marco van Leeuwen (Utrecht) the program included presentations by participants and exercises to be solved in small groups. Lecture Week Nuclear Structure Kloster Schöntal March 7-11, 2011 Kloster Schöntal was the venue of the HGS-HIRe Lecture Week on Shell Structure of Complex Nuclei. The lecturers Nadya Smirnova (University of Bordeaux) and Gabriel Martinez Pinedo (GSI) gave the theory lectures and Dieter Ackermann (GSI) held lectures on experimental issues of nuclear structure

3 Scientific Program and Soft Skill Courses New structured soft skill education An integral part of all Helmholtz Graduate Schools is a training in transferable skills ( soft skills ). In collaboration with an internationally experienced team of coaches from Great Britain, in early 2011 HGS-HIRe developed an integrated course for all participating doctoral students. Within the first year of their studies the students take part in the first course, which focuses on developing the skills to successfully start the thesis project. Within the second year participants join the second course, which is focusing on more advanced aspects of transferable skills as e.g. project management. Finally, in the third year of their studies, they will be trained in leadership skills and career development. The resonance to the first courses has been extremely positive. Every participant is asked to fill out a feedback form immediately after the course and a separate review session with roughly a month s distance is held after the course. Especially the quality of the program and the competence of the tutors has been evaluated as very good. Basic Course III: Leadership and Career Development In June 2011 the first instance of Basic Course III was held in Buchenau. During several exercises within groups and introductions to theoretical background the students discovered chances and challenges in various situations first-hand, especially experiencing being in a leadership position. Additional focus was put on career development, especially profiting from the knowledge of the tutors in non-research environments like assessment center exercises and interview situations. Future Plans After successfully implementing the new system the first two basic courses and one advanced course were organized. Two more basic courses will be held in Once all students went through the first course we will offer the subsequent courses starting next year while still offering basic courses for new participants of HGS-HIRe. Basic Course I: Making an Impact as an Effective Researcher For new students of HGS-HIRe the Basic Course I is the first soft skill course they experience. During many practical exercises they learn how to effectively communicate in groups, present their science to scientific and non-scientific audiences and become more effective as a researcher. Although theoretical background is presented the emphasis of the course lies on practical experience so participants can develop and test new methods throughout the course. -3-

4 Scholarship Increase / HGS-HIRe abroad New scholarship rates Since July 1, 2011, scholarship rates in the partner scholarship programs of HGS-HIRe have been increased. The effort of HGS-HIRe to agree on common scholarship rates for all participating programs was finally successful. The base scholarship was increased from 1200 Euro to 1447 Euro per month; including the supplement payment of 103 Euro the scholarship now totals to 1550 Euro per month. The rates for health insurance supplement, child support, and family support will remain the same as before (for the exact rates see the box to the right). To benefit from the scholarship increase it is not possible to keep extra GSI working contracts in parallel. Scholarship Rates Base scholarship 1447 General supplement 103 Health care max. 120 Family supplement 154 Child supplement 154 each additional child (up to 3 total) 51 HGS-HIRe abroad Additionally to a personal travel budget of 1000 Euro per year of participantship all HGS-HIRe students have the chance to participate in the HGS-HIRe abroad program. Students can file a research proposal to conduct research in a collaborating institution for a period of one to three months. In addition letters of recommendation from the local supervisor and a supervisor at the hosting institute have to be provided. After a successful application the students receive a per diem depending on the hosting country and travel cost reimbursements. Here is what participants say who joined the HGS-HIRe abroad program: Marlene Nahrgang says about her visit to Uppsala, Sweden: Is there anything more to enjoy than some serious path integral calculations? I asked myself while biking along the river Fyrisån and up the hill to Ångströmlaboratoriet. The HGS-HIRe abroad program is the perfect opportunity for me to work together with my co-supervisor Stefan Leupold for a longer period of time. The working atmosphere at Ångström is very focused on the physics and the lab offers perfect conditions to concentrate on the analytical improvement of our model of chiral fluid dynamics. Jan Uphoff reports about his stay in Cape Town, South Africa: Because of HGS-Hire abroad I had the opportunity to visit the University of Cape Town (UCT) in November UCT is the oldest university in Africa and is located in a suburb of Cape Town, just at the bottom of the Table Mountain and Devil s Peak. I stayed in Cape Town for 6 weeks to work together with Prof. Andre Peshier, with whom I have already started to collaborate during his time in Frankfurt. We studied the energy loss of a heavy quark in a flowing medium and compared analytical and numerical results. During my visit, there was plenty of time to discuss with Andre and I learned a lot. In addition, I could ask several questions concerning some calculations of him, which were too difficult to address via

5 Upcoming Events 2011 HGS-HIRe Perspectives The next HGS-HIRe Perspectives presentation will take place November 3 at GSI. The intent of the seminars is to show students possibilities of working environments after graduation. Special focus lies on fields outside of physics and research, although all speakers graduated in physics. The next presentation will give an insight into the work of the publishing business, with special focus on scientific publishing. The speaker will be Dr. Stefan Scherer of the Springer Group. Lecture Week Accelerator Physics The next HGS-HIRe lecture week will take place in Puidoux in Switzerland and will give an introduction into the field of accelerator physics including a visit to CERN. The dates are set to October Registration is already closed but a waiting list is still open. Soft Skill Courses After the successful installment of an integrated soft skill course (see page 3) HGS-HIRe will host two more Basic Courses I this year for students within the first year of their studies. The first course is scheduled September 5-8 in Buchenau, the second course takes place October 4-7 in Bodenrod. Registration is now open. Tag der Weltmaschine In early 2010 the exhibition Die Weltmaschine in Frankfurt organized in cooperation with HGS-HIRe was a huge success with more than 5300 visitors and 75 school classes visiting. The exhibition will come to GSI end of August On November 23, 2011, all over Germany a one-day event Tag der Weltmaschine will be organized to keep the general public informed. HGS-HIRe participants are actively joining the event with various activities. Power-Week: Statistics December 5-9, a Power-Week on Statistics and Statistical Methods will be organized in Herborn. The approach of the power week will be broad to be useful for students from all fields in HGS-HIRe, especially for those who work in experimental fields. Lecture Week Atomic Physics November 13-18, the next Lecture Week on atomic physics will be held. The topic will be Precision experiments with stored highly charged ions and the venue will be Kloster Marienburg close to the river Mosel. HGS-HIRe Graduate Days Our annual Graduate Days will take place from October in Königstein/Taunus. It is the time of the year where everyone involved with HGS-HIRe comes together and celebrates past achievements and presents future endeavors. Accompanied by a highprofile scientific program the HIRe-Feier will be an integral part of the Graduate Days. HGS-HIRe Summer Student Program at GSI From August 1 to September 23 HGS-HIRe and the Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research GSI will offer undergraduate students the chance to experience research at GSI. Together with GSI and its partner universities HGS-HIRe organizes lectures, soft skill courses and social events for roughly 40 students. All HGS-HIRe students are invited to join the lectures. H-QM Power-Week: QCD Energy Loss November 9-13 the third H-QM Power-Week will take place in Chamonix, France. In this week a hands-on introduction to factorized perturbative QCD calculations of hadron production at large transverse momentum and energy loss calculations for phenomenology will be provided. This week is intended for students who have an active interest in this area of research and want to improve their practical skills

6 Organizational Issues Travel Money Each participant of HGS-HIRe can make use of a personal travel budget. The money can be used for travel to conferences and workshops, however not to meetings with collaborating institutes or extended research visits. For such occasions the participants have the possibility to apply for HGS-HIRe abroad (see page 4). For more information regarding applying for travel money and HGS-HIRe abroad please visit New Scientific Coordinator Starting July 2011 Dr. Sascha Vogel reinforces the team of HGS-HIRe as an additional scientific coordinator. He graduated in 2009 in Theoretical Physics at the Goethe- University Frankfurt and was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Subatech in Nantes, where he worked on Heavy Quark Physics in Ultra-Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions. Forms and Logos All forms of HGS-HIRe including travel reimbursements, expense coverage requests and PhD committee protocols, as well as logos can be found under Applications to HGS-HIRe HGS-HIRe has implemented a common application procedure for the program. The first step is filing an online application at and sending all relevant documents afterwards. After the necessary information has been submitted the selection process begins. Scholarships It is a common misconception that HGS-HIRe grants scholarships. Scholarships are given by our scientific partners, whereas HGS-HIRe manages the organizational part. For more information regarding scholarships please visit PhD Committees It is required that all participants hold a regular meeting with their individual PhD committee. This committee consists of the student, the supervisor, an external advisor and possibly a mentor. The goal of the meeting is to check the progress of the work in the last six months and to set aims for the next six month period. For more information please check Contact Information info@hgs-hire.de Post: HGS-HIRe FIAS Ruth-Moufang-Str Frankfurt Phone: Note: For all questions and notifications regarding HGS-HIRe including event registrations please send an to: info@hgs-hire.de History Though HGS-HIRe was started only two years ago we can look back on quite some program and achievements. If you are interested on life in HGS-HIRe and want to learn a bit about the people behind the Graduate School and the history please visit For all other information please refer to Newsletter - 6 -