CUI Graduate Summer School: research highlights and hiking

5 July 2022

Photo: UHH

Five days full of exciting research highlights, discussions and Science Slams awaited the students during the Graduate Summer School, that took place from 30 May to 3 June. An extensive programme with 13 student talks and over 40 posters, presentations covering topics across all areas of the cluster – from the development of photo-controlled superconductors to nano-medical treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, was offered.

This years’ Summer School was the first opportunity for the students and post-docs of the cluster to come together in person for over two years, to share their work and scientific results. “For some of our junior PhD students, this was even their first opportunity to present their work in a live format since starting their studies in the middle of the pandemic,” says Matthew Robinson, one of the summer school organizers. In addition to contemporary science contributions from the graduates, the students also received a number of introductory courses by invited external speakers on key subject areas critical to the cluster.

The speakers and topics were:

• “An introduction to science performed at large facilities, including Free-Electron Lasers and Synchrotrons” by Prof. Dr. Henrike Müller-Werkmeister of Universität Potsdam, Germany
• “A history of and introduction to ultrafast lasers and contemporary pump-probe spectroscopy of biomolecules” by Prof. Dr. Giulio Cerullo of the Politecnico di Milano, Italy
• “An introduction to Generating and Detecting Topological Insulators in Quantum Simulators” by Dr. Alexandre Dauphin of the ICFO, Barcelona, Spain

Other invited talks included a discussion of the “Prebiotic Chemistry of the Hadean Earth Under the Young Active Sun” by Prof. Vladimir Airapetian of the American University, Washington, DC, USA, and Senior Astrophysicist at NASA. Additionally, an overview on how the expertise of the cluster could be beneficial for the research of cognitive science and brain studies, as well as the importance of collaboration between diverse branches of science to achieve a common goal to help humanity, was provided by Dr. Enrico Patrono of the Czech Academy of Sciences.   

Students also relished in the chance to chat with the cluster’s diversity officer, Eileen Schwanold about issues concerning diversity in science and discussed vividly how the cluster can help to tackle challenges relating to diversity and inclusivity in science. Besides the hard skills topics, the graduates took part in the adrenaline-filled challenge to present their work in 60 seconds during the fast-paced “Poster Slam” and tested their general science knowledge in a late-night “CUIans Pub Quiz”.  The participants used the chance to get to know each other on a free day while hiking in the Harz mountain area. 

 “Overall, the return of the summer of school was a great success, and we now count the days until its return next year,” agreed the organizing committee of the summer school. 

^{The CUI:AIM 2022 Summer School was organised by  Daniel Bosworth, Felix Bourier, Cesar Cabrera Cordova, Irene Fernandez-Cuesta, Susanna Gevorgyan, Dominik Höing, Alessandra Picchiotti, Matthew Robinson, Philipp Wessels-Staarmann, and Tamme Wollweber, with the support of the Cluster Office.}