#054: Dennis Fink Story

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Dr. Dennis Fink, a PhD in Marine Microbiology, is back to our podcast!

In episode #20 Dennis told us how he became a science communicator and started his own company right after a PhD.

In October 2017, Dennis came back to big business and joined the famous biotech company Qiagen as a campaign manager and social media channel expert.

What motivated his choice?

How do his PhD and the skills he developed while being self-employed help him in the new job?

And why being present on Social Media can boost your career?

The answers to these questions in our new episode!

“Social media is not the answer to everything, but, for sure, it’s not a hazard. […] As a scientist, you should not be scared about the use of social media. Actually, contrary to this, you should use social media, you should use career networks, because it will make your life easier, especially, your professional one.”

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#051: Luca Forcucci Story

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©_Ignacio_Aronovich2.png Our guest today is Luca Forcucci.

Luca Forcucci is a scientist and an artist at the same time. He holds a PhD in Music, Technology and Innovation from De Montfort University in the United Kingdom. In his research, he investigated how the human brain perceives sounds and space, and how our memories influence the images that we create while listening to the sounds.

Nowadays he is based in Berlin, but he prefers to call himself a “nomad” since he presents his artworks and conducts the research all over the globe.

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#049: Martjin Bijker Story

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The guest of our new episode is Dr. Martijn Bijker.

Martijn Bijker was born and raised in the Netherlands where he did both his Masters and PhD in immuno-oncology. In 2007 he moved to Sydney, Australia to start his postdoc at the Garvan Institute and 4 years later transitioned to the pharmaceutical industry where he consecutively worked as a Medical Science Liaison (MSL).

Nowadays Martijn is an entrepreneur, and his career and coaching company “from SCIENCE to PHARMA” helps many PhDs and Postdocs to prepare for a smooth transition from academia into the pharmaceutical industry and MSL positions.

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#047: Erik Alexandersson Story

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In this episode, Tina Persson interviews the associate professor Erik Alexandersson from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Alnarp (SLU).

Erik has a background in plant molecular biology, and he is currently studying the interaction between potatoes and pathogens, as well as potato defense mechanisms both in the laboratory and in the field. He is also leading a project on biofortification of cassava. Half of the time Erik is the director of PlantLink – a collaboration between Lund University and SLU created to strengthen plant research in Southern Sweden. For a couple of years, he had also worked as an in-house editor at BioMed Central publisher in London before he decided to come back into the academic career.

Erik will reflect on his career choices and discuss with Tina how the series of life events may lead to the job of your dream and what do you need to sacrifices to get it.

“Dare and make the step, and move between environments, and going between countries. Because, I think, you learn and develop so much from seeing different systems. So if you have the possibilities, do not hesitate. Make a move!”

Dr. Erik Alexandersson

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#043: Interview with Jon Tennant about Open Science

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Jon Tennant

In this episode, Johanna Havemann will talk with an expert in scholarly communication and publishing Jon Tennant.

He will tell us why he has decided to join the Open Science community, what are the main challenges on the way to alter the traditional publishing system, and share his tips how to contribute to the open access culture being a PhD student or a young researcher.

Jon finished his award-winning PhD at Imperial College London in 2017, where, as a paleontologist, he studied the evolution of dinosaurs, crocodiles, and other animals. For the last 7 years or so, he has been a fervent challenger of the status quo in scholarly communication and publishing and became the Communications Director of ScienceOpen for two years in 2015. Now, he is independent in order to continue his dino-research and work on building an Open Science MOOC to help train the next generation of researchers in open practices. He has published papers on Open Access and Peer Review, is currently leading the development of the Foundations for Open Science Strategy document and is the founder of the digital publishing platform paleorXiv. Jon is also an ambassador for ASAPbio and the Center for Open Science, a scientific advisor for Guaana and ScienceMatters, a Mozilla Open Leadership mentor, and the co-runner of the Berlin Open Science meetup. He is also a freelance science communicator and consultant and has written a kids book “Excavate Dinosaurs”.

We spend billions and billions and billions and billions, perhaps even trillions, every year, on doing research. And then we spend billions and billions and billions and billions, locking that research away. That just does not make any sense. That is not democracy; that is not a benefit to society.

– Dr. Jon Tennant

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#021: Filippo Guarnieri Story

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Dr Filippo Guarnieri earned his PhD in theoretical physics in 2014. He is currently working as a postdoc in theoretical physics at the Nordc Institute for Theoretical Physics NORDITA in Stockholm, Sweden and is the chair of the Max Planck Alumni Association. In this episode, Filippo will share his story about his transition from academia to entrepreneurship, which he is presently undertaking.

“Many PhDs aim to transition outside of academia. However, many PhDs also prefer to procrastinate this transition, further venturing into academia. Procrastination may provide additional time to better develop your transferable skills and find your mission in life, but may also come with a price.”

Dr. Filippo Guarnieri, Postdoctoral Fellow at NORDITA

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