Javier Villalobos studied chemistry in San José, Costa Rica. In his PhD project, he studies catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction by electrolytic water splitting. He is working on cobalt and manganese oxides as catalysts for oxygen evolution in electrolytic water splitting and analysing these catalysts at BESSY II. And he makes a point in using time wisely.Read More →
A native of Portland (Oregon), Katherine Mazzio received her PhD in a dual degree program in Materials Science and Engineering and Nanotechnology at the University of Washington in 2014. For her, obtaining a PhD is a critical training step to becoming a scientist. Right now, she supervises two PhD students, a master student and helps out whenever it is needed in her group.Read More →
Joachim Breternitz is at his office at the University of Potsdam, when my call reaches him. The chemist is a scientist at the HZB Department of Structure and Dynamics of Energy Materials since 2016. He is the scientific day-to-day supervisor of two, soon three, doctoral students.Read More →
Markus Schleuning is a true Berliner, which is a rare condition among the international doctoral students at HZB. He studied physics at TU Berlin and is now doing his doctorate at the HZB Institute for Solar Fuels as part of the international graduate programme HI-SCORE, which includes exchange with partners in Israel.Read More →
Marion is 27 years young and started her PhD in Antonio Abate’s group in September 2018. She is passionate about getting to the bottom of things, has worked in industry and loves running and playing volleyball. In this interview she tells us more about her experience as a PhD student.Read More →
Poster sessions can be quite frustrating – for everyone. Cognitive research offers tipps for better academic posters: the key message must be easy to grasp at a glance and inspire questions.Read More →
„If only we’d stop trying to be happy we’d have a pretty good time.“ Edith Wharton This topic is quite a controversial and also philosophical one. Let´s be honest here: we can´t guide you to fundamental happiness. There´s no neat trick that works for everyone. If so it would be a more peaceful and relaxed world. What we want to do is make you think. Because even if you´re totally against everything we will write down here: thinking about it may bring you a step further to your version of happiness. So join us on this ride! While being happy might be the ultimate goalRead More →
We often talk about heart and lung health, etc. but we seldom talk about brain health which is undeniably central to all our health. The brain is like any other organ. During our Mental Health Awareness month we actually talk a lot about stress. Stress is often portrayed as having only relatively short lasting psychological impacts, but it also alters the biochemistry happening in your body and especially your brain and therefore actually having also long lasting physiological impacts. So, if you properly take care of it, you will reap the most fulfilling benefits. As the renounced neuroscientist Dr. Daniel Amen [10] said: When yourRead More →
Dear all, it is time for the second newsletter on mental health among doctoral researchers and mental health in science in general. In case you missed the first one, catch up here. This time, we are talking about the statistics. What does the data show regarding mental health in academia and research? How is the Helmholtz Association doing on the topic of mental health, according to the 2019 survey? We wrap up with pointing to some common stressors: how to recognize them in others and ourselves; as well as how to help those who experience these stressors. Last, but not least, we invite you toRead More →
Dear all, October is officially a mental health awareness month. In order to raise awareness among the doctoral researchers, Helmholtz Juniors have prepared a series of informative letters to be sent out each Thursday in the course of October. However, since we – the team of representatives of the doctoral researchers at HZB – believe that this is a topic concerning everyone, we have decided to share some of this information with the whole HZB community. Take a moment, sit back, breathe and relax. We all know that doing a PhD can be really challenging, not only scientifically but also on the personal side. ThereRead More →