The Person Behind the Scientist: Nurturing Personalities By Julia Becker by order of the JSMC

When Xinran Liu arrived at the School for Microbial Communication (JSMC) in Jena to start her doctorate, it was her first trip to Europe. Of course she was nervous: Would things with the flat in Jena work out? What would the city be like? Would she able to communicate with people?

But the scientist's worries quickly disappeared when she realised that everything was perfectly organised: the management of the graduate school had arranged a flat for her in the university's guest house and taken care of the bureaucratic hurdles, conversation in English was a matter of course, and the city of Jena immediately appealed to the young woman from China: "Life is peaceful and people are helpful", says the 26-year-old, "When I saw the mountains all around the city and the beautiful river, I immediately felt at home."

Xinran Liu is one of 40 JSMC fellowship holders (see inset). The scientist from China won out against hundreds of competitors in a multi-stage recruitment process. Liu chose to complete her doctorate in Germany because this is where she sees the best conditions for her scientific career: "Germany is top of the league when it comes to science, and here at JSMC I receive first-class training", explains the hydrologist.

An interdisciplinary network

Crisanto Lopez, who came to Thuringia from Manila, has an equally positive opinion of post-graduate study in Jena: "The programme at JSMC is outstanding and designed to meet the needs of excellent, international scientists. The interdisciplinary network is really very well organised here", says the 30-year-old. Biologists, physicists, geoscientists, computational biologists, chemists and medical scientists collaborate across disciplines at JSMC. "This enormous network of scientists and partners from industry is very well co-ordinated here", agrees his colleague Liu.

On her arrival in Jena, Liu immediately made contacts and friends among her colleagues. One reason for this is that the approximately 150 doctoral candidates at JSMC are offered a huge range of opportunities to organise themselves: for example, the scientists plan leisure activities such as canoeing or mountaineering, or hold grill parties.


"We try very hard to entice our fellow students out of their labs and show them life in and around Jena", says PhD student representative Frank Schindler, "and thanks to the shared activities, friends can be found very quickly here." The 31-year-old microbiologist is the student representative for the over 150 postgraduate students at JSMC and represents their interests on the executive board of JSMC.

Proactive students wanted!

At the JSMC, emphasis is based on initiative of the PhD students: the graduate school passes a lot of the "creative freedom" arising from the Excellence Initiative conception on to its students. "The JSMC got the go-ahead from the Excellence Initiative in late 2007, and is therefore still very young. This means that we PhD students have many opportunities to participate in shaping the School", says Nadine Möbius, representative of the graduate school's fellowship holders. The 26-year-old biochemist has been at JSMC since last year; her responsibilities as "PhD Fellow" representative include organising informal meetings and symposia where the JSMC students present their work. The postgraduate students at JSMC plan lecture series themselves and invite guest speakers of their choice to Jena. "For next year we are currently planning a large international PhD student symposium, for which we will be bringing outstanding scientists to Jena", explains Möbius. Projects like this improve organisational abilities, create valuable contacts and at the same time broaden working horizons.

Another project the JSMC PhD students are currently working on is setting up a series of seminars with JSMC's industry partners. "We want to present our work to the industry and in return find out what the industry expects of us and our work. That way we will be ideally prepared for later jobs in the private sector and for co-operation projects with industry partners", says student representative Schindler.

A training program offering a wide choice of opportunities

The combination of training programmes offered by the research training groups united under the umbrella of the JSMC creates a huge selection of lectures and classes. Doctoral candidates can design their own individual "timetable": everything from subject-specific methodology courses through language courses all the way to soft skills courses is available. "We are encouraged to expand our horizons beyond the limits of our disciplines and take a holistic approach to our further education", says fellowship holder and course instructor Dennis Görlich. The computational biologist offers his colleagues courses on operating specific computer programmes.

The courses are mainly held by professors, post-doctoral students, research group leaders, or the PhD students themselves. "We find out how we can help our colleagues from the other disciplines, and organise the required courses", says Görlich. So biologists learn from computer scientists and vice versa. In addition, courses on "transferrable skills" offered by the Jena Graduate Academy are open to all JSMC students.

It is precisely this complete package of an interdisciplinary, international environment and excellent support that Xinran Liu from China appreciates so much. The scientist has been living in Jena for a year now and has made many friends here. "The good thing is that not only am I offered an excellent scientific working environment, I can also develop my personality to the full", says Liu.

For more information on the JSMC please visit www.jsmc.uni-jena.de», contact is Dr. Carsten Thoms