Valuable experience at the CUI summer school in Schwerin

21 August 2024

Photo: CUI Graduate School

Group photo in Schwerin: The Summer School is a good opportunity to take a break from everyday research life and immerse yourself in a week of learning and internal networking.

Five days full of exciting research highlights, discussions, and science slams awaited the students during the CUI Graduate Summer School in July 2024. An extensive program with 23 contributed talks, more than 30 posters, and presentations covering topics across all areas of the cluster.

The Summer School brings an opportunity for the students and post-docs to press pause on their usual research life and delve into a week of learning and internal networking. This journey became more memorable with the ambiance of the pristine and newly-appointed UNESCO World Heritage medieval city of Schwerin. What made this year’s Summer School even more special was the inclusion of master's students sponsored through CUI scholarships, who participated extensively in all the activities. In addition to the contemporary science contributions from the graduates, the students also received several introductory courses by invited external speakers on key subject areas critical to the cluster.

The speakers and topics were:

• “Diffractive Imaging Probes of Structural Dynamics at the Nanoscale” by Dr. Kartik Ayyer from the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, Hamburg, Germany
• “Rydberg atoms and molecules as a platform for quantum science” by Dr. Matthew Eiles from the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Dresden, Germany
• “X-rays for Molecular Spectroscopy and Dynamics” by Dr. Rebecca Ingle from the Department of Chemistry, University College London, United Kingdom

Apart from these scientific talks, Lizzy Harmstorf from the DESY Start-up Office, Innovation, Technology Transfer Team, gave an “Introduction to the World of Start-ups”. Another invited speaker was Lisa Kamlade, GENERA Project Manager, DESY, who highlighted with facts, figures, and numbers how GENERA Network is trying to enhance gender equality in physics within Universities, research institutions, and funding agencies and is creating a more diverse and inclusive culture in academia.

"It was invigorating to see a room full of young minds captivated by myriad discussions, from discussing science to competing in the annual pub quiz. The week was a wholesome experience for them all," the organizers are happy to say. Many of the participants informed them about their experience and especially how fruitful the discussions during poster sessions were. The CUI Summer School 2024 was organized by Sarodi Jonak Dutta, Irene Fernandez-Cuesta, Susanna Gevorgyan, Prince Prabhu Rajaiah, Matthew Robinson, Philipp Wessels-Staarmann, and with additional support from Daniel Bosworth and the Cluster Office. The organizers are hopeful that this experience shall provide all the members to continue their research with a whole new exuberance.