Career Talks
We'd love to take your questions on board!
Incoming episodes
COMING SOON!
COMING SOON!
Episode 54
TBA
Krzysztof Choromański
Krzysztof Choromanski is a research scientist at Google Brain Robotics New York and an adjunct assistant professor at Columbia University.
Prior to joining Google, he completed his PhD at Columbia University working on structural graph theory (Ramsey-type results, in particular the Erdos-Hajnal Conjecture). His interests include structural & random graph theory, robotics & reinforcement learning, quasi Monte Carlo methods for machine learning, Riemannian optimization and more recently, attention-based architectures for sequential data with applications in robotics (memorization, lifelong learning), bioinformatics and vision.
Episode 53
TBA
Roger Royce
Roger Royse is a partner in the Palo Alto office of Haynes and Boone, LLP and practices in the areas of corporate and securities law, domestic and international tax, mergers and acquisitions, and fund formation. He works with companies ranging from newly formed tech startups to publicly traded multinationals in a variety of industries. Roger is a Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel and former chair of several committees of the American Bar Association Sections of Business Law and Taxation. He has been an instructor or professor of legal, tax and business topics for the Center for International Studies in Salzburg, Austria, as well as the Golden Gate University School of Law and Stanford Continuing Studies.
Episode 52
TBA
Amy Cunningham
Amy Cunningham is currently the Director of Marketing and Communications for Columbia Hospitality. She leads a team of 21 people to support digital marketing, social media and public relations across more than 25 properties within the Columbia Portfolio.
Before joining Columbia, Amy was principal of ElUquote, a consultancy that focuses on better business communications. She ghost-wrote speeches for presentations across the globe, and led internal communications across four teams for Deloitte Consulting, representing more than 15,000 employees. Before Deloitte, Amy also worked with PR firms and digital marketing agencies for 20 years, building awareness campaigns and writing thought leadership pieces for technology and medical device clients including Philips Healthcare and IBM. She is a recipient of the STAR award of excellence for her work in technology communications. Often working closely with C-level executives, Amy's expertise is the ability to message key thoughts and ensure each word supports the speaker’s goal.
Amy spends her free time as a marathon runner, a TedX Seattle volunteer, traveling with her family and coach for the St. Anne middle school speech team.
Episode 51
TBA
Miquel Heinonen
Miguel Heinonen is an entrepreneur who has worked in the startup community across the United States and United Kingdom. He is the founder and CEO of Heirizon, an employment marketplace that pairs employee with employers. Heirizon collates jobs by geography to make sure that out users can find employment conveniently. Miguel bootstrapped and built from the ground up, and he is an expert in building companies with little to no financial resources.
He also serves as a board member, advisor and avid YouTuber.
Episode 50
TBA
Maura Declercq - Mîndrilà
Maura Declercq-Mindrila LLM, is a Belgian M&A Lawyer turned Entrepreneur. She is the founder of STAFF, an executive search agency focussed on senior tech profiles within the STEM industries, helping companies grow Europe wide.
Maura studied International & European Law and Economical Law in Dutch and French at the Catholic University of Leuven (KUL) in collaboration with HUBrussel and at the Saint-Louis University in Brussels. She also holds a degree in Fashion from the Akademie for Fashion and Design (AMD) in Hamburg, Germany. Maura lived in Belgium, Germany, Romania and is currently based in Madrid, Spain. She is fluent in 6,5 languages.
She came in contact with politics and networking at the age of 16. After having successfully completed 2 internships in the Belgian Federal Parliament - with Senator Martine Taelman and with Deputy Hilde Vautmans, she was a board member of Open VLD Grimbergen, President of Jong VLD Grimbergen and PR and of Communication Manager for the Blue Ladies and LIMA.
Maura had a few career turns: from M&A lawyer, to headhunter on the pharmaceutical market in the DACH area, to owner of a production agency in the fashion sector, and finally owner and managing partner of an international network-based recruitment business. As an avid networker and serial connector, she is an active member of 18 network organizations globally organizing and attending events. She loves connecting people, building communities and creating meaningful relationships, based on trust. Lastly, Maura is a Polymath, with varied interests: technology, neuroscience, biohacking, philosophy, yin yoga, podcasts, animal welfare, gastronomy, music, cinematography, and many more!
Reach out to Maura:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mauramindrila/
maura@staff-europe.com
Episode 49
April 25th 2021
Enikő Manek, PhD
Dr. Eniko Manek is the Founder of Teuton Tech, the world’s first Nanoformulation Consulting company. Eniko also acts as Head of Research at a pharmaceutical start-up; as well as scientific advisor at different nanotechnology, biotechnology, IP law and innovation management firms. Currently, Eniko is affiliated with the College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Khalifa University in the United Arab Emirates, while previously she collaborated with the Florida International University in the US.
Eniko holds a PhD in chemistry, an MSc degree in materials science, and a BSc degree in environmental science, and she also has education in executive management, thermal analysis, quality assurance and life cycle assessment. In her early career, Eniko worked at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics as a research associate and as a lecturer in physical chemistry. Subsequently, she transitioned to industry and gained experience in various executive-level positions - such as Board Member, Deputy & Interim CEO, Chief Technology Officer, Head of Nanotechnology Department and Head of Formulation Laboratory - at various enterprises in the US and in the EU that focus on the development and commercialization of nanoformulated pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals and cosmetics. During this time, Eniko also served as board member of the American Chemical Society, Hungary Chapter.
In 2018, Eniko turned her dream into reality and created Teuton Tech, the first and only Nanoformulation Consulting enterprise in the world. At Teuton Tech, Eniko and her team help companies to develop their own nanoformulated products and thus drastically enhance the bioavailability, efficacy, stability and safety of their active ingredients. At present, Eniko’s commercial projects cover the fields of pharmaceuticals, nutritional supplements, cosmetics and agrochemicals; while in her academic studies she concentrates on nano-therapeutics for the treatment of brain diseases.
Episode 48
April 18th 2021
Alessandro Crimi, PhD
Dr. Alessandro Crimi is an Italian-born researcher turned educator and entrepreneur. He holds a PhD in Medical Imaging from the University of Copenhagen and an MBA in International Healthcare Management from the University of Basel. He alternated formal research in neuroimaging to healthcare-related projects, mostly based in Ghana. Since 2012, he is a Visiting Lecturer of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Ghana. Among his achievements to date, he pulled off a prenatal care project which was using portable ultrasound machines in rural Ghana, and supervised talented PhD students as a part of the program "Women in science for the developing world."
Currently, he is focused on building two startups:
1. Yawlab, which aims to empower the global South with tools and education about biotech (now registered in Ghana);
2. QC4All, which aims to prepare the global South for the next revolution in quantum computing (in the foundation phase).
Ultimately, the two projects should converge into quantum chemistry simulations. For more information, please see Alessandro's Medium profile.
Previous episodes
Click on the guest’s photo to watch the recording of the episode
COMING SOON!
Episode 47
April 11th 2021
Justin Shenk
Justin Shenk is the CTO and Co-Founder of VisioLab, an AI software company. He is completing an external PhD with Radboud University. His background includes neuroscience research and building deep learning applications for Intel and Peltarion as a Data Scientist. He is based in Berlin, Germany.
Episode 46
April 4th 2021
Matteo Tardelli, PhD
Dr. Matteo Tardelli is a Postdoctoral Scientist at Weill Cornell Medicine in NYC and the author of the book “The Salmon Leap for PhDs: Swimming upstream a career from academia to industry”. To date, apart from doing science, he has assisted many researchers in gaining the confidence to launch new and diverse careers by taking part in career panels and volunteering for scientific communities. You can follow him on Twitter @salmon_phd.
Episode 45
March 28th 2021
Laura Pirro, PhD
Dr. Laura Pirro is an Italian chemical engineer, who obtained her PhD at Laboratory for Chemical Technology of Ghent University at the end of 2020. Currently, Laura works as an R&D engineer at Yara Sluiskil, in the Netherlands, in the field of agricultural products.
In this episode, she will tell us more about several aspects which characterized her professional life choices so far and some lessons learned on the way.
Here are some highlights:
- Not everybody is ready to start a PhD at the same time. After obtaining her master in 2014, Laura decided to work in the chemical industry for a couple of years, to get a taste of the ‘world outside of academia’, before deciding whether to commit to a post-graduate study. During this episode, we will discuss the pros and cons of such a decision.
- Your PhD is not only about your own research. During her doctoral studies, Laura got engaged with numerous activities which went beyond her specific domain of study, including an initiative to bring the Agile philosophy for project management into academic research projects. We will ask her about how this initiative developed and what added value Agile can have for doctoral and post-doctoral researchers.
- Finding two jobs in the year of the pandemics: mission (im)possible? As the end of her PhD was approaching, Laura had to search for her way back into the chemical industry…but a few pitfalls came across, including getting fired after only three weeks because of financial instability of the company that hired her. We will explore with her how to evaluate the options at the end of your PhD, and how to get back on your feet if the professional world punches you in the face.
Episode 44
March 21st 2021
Olga Ukolova, MD
Dr. Olga Ukolova holds the title of Doctor of Medicine obtained from the National Medical University 'O.O. Bogomolec', Kyiv. While obtaining the title, she worked as a Research Scientist at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Her research considered autophagy in Alzheimer's disease, and autophagy perspective of heart attacks and strokes. After that, she worked as a Project Manager and Senior Analyst in software development, banking and AI development fields.
With time, she and a group of enthusiasts and professionals in various fields, started working on the idea of creating a decentralized, private and censorship-resistant computing ecosystem, which would eventually lead to fulfilling the ultimate goal - reaching immortality. She co-authored the FreeAI manifesto (manifesto.ai), where the group established their core principles. On the same note, she co-founded a Swiss company Pandora Core AG, which is currently focusing on building technological layers and products that would become building blocks of the future evolution of Bitcoin ecosystem, thus also bringing the initial idea of immortality closer to reality. One of the most known technologies, where Pandora Core is the main driver, is RGB - a privacy-first smart contracting and bearer rights system, which enables many real-world cases to be done in a proper way: with individualism and sovereignty at heart. Though, Olga’s interests are not lying solely on protocol-level activities. Recently her company released Bitcoin Pro and MyCitadel products, which would bring more power to the individuals and help them operate in the digital world with confidence and professionalism.
Episode 43
March 14th 2021
Olga Pougovkina, PhD
Dr. Olga Pougovkina is a scientific leader in the R&D sector of Janssen Biologics where she works within the analytical development for early, late phase and commercial biologics. She obtained her PhD in Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam after which she decided to leave academia. While finishing her PhD she faced the challenges of making career choices and transitioning into industry firsthand. She also soon saw that career development doesn’t stop after getting your dream job as you’re constantly growing further and moving into new directions
This inspired her to start her company Post PhD Career where she gives career development advice to scientists through lectures, workshops and coaching..
Episode 42
February 28th 2021
Manolo Castellano, PhD
Dr. Manolo Castellano is a career consultant and talent recruiter. After obtaining his PhD in neurobiology at the Universidad de Sevilla (Spain) in 2006, he moved to the USA, where he focused his research on auditory synaptic physiology at the Rockefeller University and Stanford University. Back in Europe, he worked at the Universidad Miguel Hernández in Elche, applying electrophysiological techniques to the study of pancreatic cell physiology and diabetes.
Outside the lab, he has always been active in outreach activities, science communication and science activism associations, such as Ciencia con Futuro, Científicos Retornados a España-CRE or the Federación de Jóvenes Investigadores-Precarios, where he participated in the coordination of the Research Career Report.
In 2017 he transitioned to science consulting, founding Carreras Científicas Alternativas, a platform devoted to guide scientists and researchers to find new professional paths.
Manolo conducts training seminars and workshops related to professional careers, participates frequently in employability forums and runs a podcast about scientific careers, where he interviews researchers who happily made their professional career transition beyond Academia.
Manolo currently combines his career-guiding activities with recruitment consulting for R&D companies at Talento Cientifico.
Episode 41
February 21st 2021
Elodie Crespel, PhD
Dr. Elodie Crespel is a digital media expert. She was always passionate about screens, going from the silver one with a Bachelor in Arts from the famous cinema school at the University of Southern California to the digital ones when the first flash animations were made in the late 90s. She made the transition into the academic career by studying short film distribution before YouTube. And in 2015, she earned her PhD from the University of Montreal where she studied the role of online video in interpersonal communication on social media and in real life. She continued to work in higher education teaching communication classes and doing a Post-Doctorate in France.
She then decided to quit academia and she started exploring the world of freelancing. As an industrious jack of all trades, she enjoys connecting, sharing, and empowering people using digital media. Forever curious, she joined TH.0 Blockchain & AI Hackathon in November 2020. Her team won 3rd place for pitching an innovative concept to combat education inequality. And now, she is the new head of social media marketing at TH.0 to help foster a community of like-minded enthusiasts from across disciplines.
Episode 40
February 14th 2021
Aleksandra Drozd, PhD
Dr. Aleksandra Drozd is a Machine Learning Engineer at Facebook. After her Master’s studies in Physics at the University of Warsaw, she joined International PhD Studies. During her studies, she was a visiting researcher at University of California Davis and University of California Riverside. After her PhD, she joined Theoretical Particle Physics & Cosmology group at King’s College London as a Postdoc. In 2015 she left Physics for Data Science. In the last 5 years, she worked on fraud detection, sports trading, energy trading, and retail analytics.
Episode 39
February 7th 2021
Christopher Humphrey, PhD
Dr. Christopher Humphrey holds a BA in English Studies and an MA in Culture and Social Change, both from the University of Southampton. He completed his PhD in Medieval Studies at the University of York in 1997, and held a post-doctoral fellowship there until 2000. Since leaving academia, Chris has worked as a project and program manager in the private sector, specializing in technology, transport, financial services and sustainability. Today, he works as a team leader and project manager for a leading European sustainable bank.
In 2012 Chris founded the website Jobs on Toast as a way to help Masters students and doctoral graduates access the abundant career opportunities available outside of higher education. The popularity of the site is shown by the fact that Jobs on Toast attracts over 40,000 unique visitors a year, as well as having thousands of followers on social media channels including Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Episode 38
January 28th 2021
Danielle De La Mare, PhD
Dr. Danielle De La Mare works as a career wellness coach in private practice. She helps faculty who feel stuck in their careers to loosen their grip on perfectionism, people-pleasing, self-pressure, and shame so that they may find the clarity and courage to pave creative and meaningful career paths both within and outside academia. Her own career wellness journey began when she reached burnout as a tenured professor. Since then, she has found powerful tools to heal herself and others in similar situations. Danielle is the creator of the weekly podcast, Self-Compassionate Professor, which features guests who have found creative ways to re-build their careers after struggle.
Episode 37
January 17th 2021
Neha Gupta, PhD
Dr. Neha Gupta holds a PhD in the Data Science (2014-2018) awarded by the University of Warwick, Coventry, UK. In her PhD research she applied data mining, geospatial analysis, and statistical Big Data techniques to understand sentiment behind the social media (Twitter) data. Her research work tries to uncover the behavioral traits of people as perceived through social media channels. Before pursuing her PhD program, she worked as an IT professional in variety of software development and test management roles building bespoke software for multinational companies (Bharti Telecom group, LG Soft, India, TEOCO and Avon Cosmetics) across India and the UK.
Coming from an academic family and inspired by her father, who was a Professor in an Indian University, she wanted to explore a possibility of pursing an academic career. Therefore, to follow her aspiration she took a career break to take up PhD studies in Big Data in the UK. She did couple of Data Science consultancy roles at HSBC UK and UCAS alongside her PhD since she was always passionate to explore the application aspect of research. In the process of doing her PhD she became an applied researcher that not only expanded her software development experience with interdisciplinary data science skills but also opened new dimension of possibilities that exists in academia. She was able to perceive the challenges as well as opportunities available in Universities with a mature outlook. During her PhD studies she found her passion in teaching due to which she obtained Teaching Qualification required for higher education sector in the UK and got awarded with Associate Fellow of Higher Education Academy. Soon after her PhD she worked as a Teaching Associate at Warwick Business School which she recognizes as a very rewarding experience. Therefore, she continues to explore similar teaching opportunities in higher education where she could teach and share her knowledge alongside her applied research work in corporate sector. Currently, she works as a R&D Data Scientist in AGCO Corporation, Stoneleigh, UK where she is applying her research experience and cutting-edge data science knowledge to evaluate business forecasting models to predict supply chain demand trends.
In this webinar, Neha talk to us about both her transitions: from several years of work in IT industry to academia and back. Why did she choose to do a PhD and how she value that experience? What are the challenges she faced as a mature PhD student in academia and how she blended her industrial experience and networking skills with research knowledge to manage the expectations of PhD program? She shares with us how she realized that research intensive academic publication path was not for her and that she would rather be suitable for either a teaching-based role in academia or in an applied R & D focused role in corporate sector. She shares with us how her PhD journey has been transforming and self-realizing experience for her and how connecting and sharing ideas with people, networking has helped her to create positive experiences in her life and career journey.
Episode 36
January 3rd 2021
Natalia Bielczyk, PhD
Dr. Natalia Bielczyk is an entrepreneur, researcher, author, and philanthropist. She graduated from the College of Inter-Faculty Individual Studies in Mathematics and Natural Sciences at the University of Warsaw, Poland, with a triple MS title in Physics, Mathematics, and Psychology. Thereafter, she obtained a PhD in Computational Neuroscience at the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behavior, in Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
In 2018, she launched a public foundation, Stichting Solaris Onderzoek en Ontwikkeling, aiming to help early career researchers find new careers in industry. She also authored a book entitled “What Is out There For Me? The Landscape of Post-PhD Career Tracks”. In free time, she also blogs about careers at www.nataliabielczyk.com . Of course, she also owns Welcome Solutions!
In this episode, she will share what she learned this year — while developing her first company as a PhD and in the times of the pandemic. If you are considering starting a company in these uncertain times and without capital, don’t miss out on this material!
Episode 35
December 20th 2020
Aleksandra Lewandowska
Aleksandra Lewandowska is a PhD candidate at Universiteit Gent and Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Her joint PhD project combined genetics, plant physiology and biochemistry to understand how plants react to stress. After four years and long hours in the lab as well as in the greenhouse, she came to the conclusion that it’s time to look beyond the wetlab careers and think about the next steps.
Without even having to move countries, after her PhD funding finished, she was lucky to secure a place at the Blue Book traineeship scheme at the European Commission. While working in the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, she had a look at the process of science-based policymaking, particularly related to Circular Economy. She now continues her EU institution journey during her internship at the European Food Safety Authority, where she is a part of the Emerging Risks team.
Aleksandra has been involved in various science outreach and communication activities since 2005. While she contemplated a full-time SciComm career, she now believes that any science-related job should include a communication component.
Episode 34
December 13th 2020
Jonathan Weitzman, PhD
Dr. Jonathan Weitzman is a full-professor of Genetics at the Université de Paris and the founding director of the Center for Epigenetics and Cell Fate (UMR Epigénétique et Destin Cellulaire). He trained at the University of Manchester and the University of Oxford, UK. He worked at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA and was a faculty member at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. Jonathan has a background in signal transduction pathways and expertise in gene regulatory networks and epigenetic contributions to disease. Jonathan has authored over 60 research articles and reviews and published two books for a lay audience.
Jonathan is also passionate about teaching and is heavily committed to training and mentoring young researchers; he directs the European Masters’ in Genetics (Magistère de Génétique) at the Université de Paris and the Ecole Universitaire de Recherche G.E.N.E. Jonathan has led many interdisciplinary initiatives including the Laboratoire d’Excellence “LABEX Who Am I?” a research consortium focusing on questions of identity, the Académie Vivante, an innovative Art-Science teaching initiative and the “Dance Your PhD” graduate project. He is the co-host of the podcast “The Lonely Pipette; helping scientists do better science”
(bit.ly/TLPsubscribe).
Episode 33
December 6th 2020
Niels Zondervan
Niels Zondervan MSc is the founder and owner of the company Wallet Recovery NL. Niels is scientist and entrepreneur with a background in Biotechnology and Bioinformatics. During his four years as PhD student, Niels worked at the department of Systems & Synthetic Biology at Wageningen University. His research focused on pathogenic bacteria such as M. tuberculosis, M. pneumonia as well as Staphylococcus and Streptococcus species. These bacteria were studied using integration of multi-omics data, dynamic modelling, and genome scale modelling (GEM). After spending four-year in academia, Niels decided to switch career path from academia to entrepreneurship to find a better balance between his professional and family life.
In 2019 he founded his consultancy company, Wallet Recovery NL (https://walletrecovery.nl) which provides: recovery services for cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, blockchain forensics services and expert advice to crypto and blockchain related projects. In his free time Niels likes to be involved in boards, discussion groups, crypto projects, practice parkour, martial arts, play the piano and travel the world.
Episode 32
November 29th 2020
Nadia Holden, PhD
Dr. Nadia Holden is a cell biologist by training. In 2015, she earned her PhD from Stony Brook University, New York. She studied the role of lipid kinases in endocytosis and autophagy.
During graduate school, Nadia had a “mid-PhD crisis” when she realized she wanted to leave academia but didn’t want to leave science. Finding a lack of good career development resources for PhD students at her university, she decided to create her own. She designed a 9-step career development program for busy graduate students, called the PhD Career Ladder Program. In 2014, Nadia gave a TEDx talk called "Reimagining the PhD" to spread the idea that PhD training can no longer be viewed as a one way ticket to tenured professorship. The talk was watched over 250k times to date!
After graduating, Nadia transitioned to a career in science writing. She is currently a science writer/editor for the National Cancer Institute, where she writes about advances in all fields cancer research. She also helps create videos, graphics, and other educational materials dedicated to this topic.
Episode 31
November 22nd 2020
Fabio Gori, PhD
Dr. Fabio Gori is a multidisciplinary professional, using his mathematical and data science skills to tackle industrial and biomedical challenges. While completing his degree in mathematics at the University of Pisa (IT), Fabio began researching the biomedical field; he liked it so much that he decided to keep working in the experimental sciences.
Therefore, Fabio began a PhD in Bioinformatics & Data Science at Radboud University Nijmegen in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. The focus of his research was developing computational methods or the analysis of microbial communities. After completing his doctorate, he became a Research Fellow at the University of Exeter (UK), where he was using quantitative methods (bioinformatics, differential equation modeling, control theory) to study antibiotic resistance.
He later decided to move to the industry, and so he worked in the German biotech for precision oncology as a bioinformatics data scientist. He moved back to the Netherlands to work as a data scientist at the AI startup Machine2Learn, where he works both on industrial and biomedical projects.
Episode 30
November 15th 2020
Irina Sheftel, PhD
Dr. Irina Sheftel (Simanova) is a neuroscientist with ten years of experience in neuroimaging research, as well as in coordination and management of research projects. She holds an MSc degree in human physiology (2008, Moscow University) and a PhD in cognitive neuroscience (2014, Radboud University). During her PhD and postdoc at the Donders Institute, she studied multimodal perception and object recognition in the brain. Last year Irina worked as Grant Advisor at the Vrije University Amsterdam, and she is about to start a new job as a Grant Officer at One Planet Research Centre. In this new position, she will develop public-funded projects within the program Precision Health, Nutrition and Behaviour.
Next to her research career, Irina is a yoga teacher and yoga educator . She has been teaching hatha yoga since 2014. Irina works on integrating contemplative traditions and innovative research. In 2018 she joined Network Yoga Therapy, an international platform for education and support of healthcare professionals, where she helped to organize the Yoga Therapy Conference and several other science courses. Currently, she contributes as a guest teacher to the Yoga Teacher and Personal Development Training for Healthcare Professionals in Amsterdam.
“I will be happy to talk about my experience in the field of grant advice/research support. I do not consider my path as a failure of a science career. Instead, it’s a shift to a new role that allows me to stay in the academic world, and fits my personality well. For a long time, I did not know that was possible. I will also be happy to answer questions about yoga and yoga therapy.”
Episode 29
November 8th 2020
Matthias Hombauer, PhD
Dr. Matthias Hombauer has a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology but decided to follow his passions, music and photography, and became a self-taught Rockstar Photographer. After his two kids were born, he decided to become a stay at home dad and built the most significant online community of concert photographers around the world from his bedroom. In his latest project, Dadpreneur (https://matthiashombauer.com/), Matthias is inspiring other Dads to turn their passion into a profitable business while gaining precious time for their family.
In this episode, Matthias told us how he launched his business as a concert photographer, and how he turned to helping dads with businesses. He also shared his views at how to effectively convert your passion into a job.
Episode 28
November 1st 2020
Jennifer Polk, PhD
Dr. Jennifer Polk, is an entrepreneur, career coach, and expert on PhD careers. She earned Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts titles from Carleton University. In 2012, she earned her PhD in history from the University of Toronto.
In 2013, she launched From PhD to Life, a career coaching and speaking business. Since then, she’s worked 1-on-1 and in groups with graduate students and doctoral degree holders based in Canada, the United States, the UK, Australia, and elsewhere.
Jen has spoken on university campuses and at academic and professional conferences throughout North America on issues related to graduate education and career outcomes for PhDs. Her writing has appeared in the Globe and Mail, University Affairs, Inside Higher Ed, the Chronicle of Higher Education’s Vitae portal, and Academic Matters. Her University Affairs blog, From PhD to Life, won three gold awards at the Canadian Online Publishing Awards. She’s also contributed essays to two books: Moving On: Essays on the Aftermath of Leaving Academia, and Reflections on Academic Lives: Identities, Struggles, and Triumphs in Graduate School and Beyond.
She created and hosted Self-Employed PhD, an online network of freelancers, independent consultants, entrepreneurs, and small business owners. For three years Jen hosted #withaPhD chat, a twice-monthly Twitter discussion. She co-founded Beyond the Professoriate (2014-20) and in that capacity (among many other activities) produced online conferences attended by hundreds of graduate students, PhDs, and career education professionals.
Jen is actively engaged in online conversations about careers for PhDs, especially on Twitter (you can follow her at @FromPhDtoLife).
Episode 27
October 25th 2020
Carmen Rietdijk, PhD
Dr. Carmen Rietdijk obtained her PhD in Neuroscience from Utrecht University in 2016. In her PhD, she investigated the expression and function of Toll-like receptors on enteric neurons, which is one of the mechanisms involved in Parkinson’s Disease. Today, she is actively involved in politics and a representative of the Dutch Liberal Democrats party (D66) in the city council of Utrechtse Heuvelrug. She covers the topics related to youth, families, education, healthcare, environment, and culture.
Next to her political career, Carmen is also a certified coach and offers one-on-one coaching to PhD candidates through her company CDr Coaching (https://cdrcoaching.nl). She supports PhD candidates who struggle with issues of motivation, emotional well-being, and stress. She coaches PhD candidates at all stages of their PhD: whether they are trying to find their way in their first year, facing a lack of motivation and confidence later on, or are wrestling with the last steps towards their PhD defense. She is also active on Twitter (@CDrCoaching) where she posts about PhD-related topics and answers questions posted by PhD candidates. She also writes a blog about how to cope with grad school.
In this episode, Carmen told us how she started her career as a politician after her PhD. How to get involved? What are the factors for success in politics? How to help PhDs to get through the graduate school and successfully complete their PhD program? How to marry a career in politics and a side-hustle as a coach with family life?
Episode 26
October 22th 2020
Nick Edwards, PhD
Dr. Nick Edwards is a neuroscientist by training, having completed his PhD and Postdoc training at Brown University, the NIH, and UC San Diego. As a Postdoc, he decided that business provided the best way to scale up solutions to problems he cares about. Since leaving the bench, Nick worked in business strategy at Boston Consulting Group and returned to San Diego to work for Illumina. Now, he is transitioning to a startup company in stealth mode. Nick is also the host of the Once a Scientist podcast (https://onceascientist.net/), where he interviews scientists about their careers in academia and beyond. He’s a passionate advocate for mental health and training the next generation of scientists who will change the world.
In this webinar, Nick told us about his odyssey through the job market after the PhD: from his work in sales in the startup culture, through his work as a consultant for the Boston Consulting Group, to business development at a company in genomics, Illumina. He also explained the origins of the Once a Scientist podcast, and the mission behind it.
Episode 25
October 18th 2020
Davide Rigoni, PhD
Dr. Davide Rigoni is appointed as Professor of Neuromarketing and Management Psychology at Hult International Business School and he is part of the research staff at the Business and Marketing Department of the Free University Brussels, Belgium. His research on free will and decision making is published in high-tier peer-reviewed international journals in the field of psychology and neuroscience. He is also the founder of the International Center for Evidence-Based and Neuroscientific Education (ICENSE, https://www.icense.org/), a company that provides education, training, and consulting in the areas of neuromarketing, management psychology, and economic decision-making.
In this webinar, Davide told us why he decided to get out of his comfort zone and take a step towards building his own company operating in neuromarketing. What is the condition of neuromarketing today? How can neuromarketing improve learning online? What are the tricks that marketers use to influence our decisions? What are the next steps for Davide’s company?
Episode 24
October 14th 2020
David Mendes, PhD (a.k.a. Papa PhD)
Dr. David Mendes completed his PhD in Cell Biology at the University of Coimbra (based on his research at McGill University). Since then, he has spent 9 years building his career in the medical communication and language services industry. After his PhD, he worked for 4 years as a Medical Writer in a medical communication agency, creating content for pharmaceutical sales training materials covering a wide range of therapeutic areas. David has since started his own business offering translation, revision, and connected services in the biomedical domain. Now a father of two, he is interested in exploring the different ways people have juggled professional and personal life after completing their PhD. To the wide audience, he is known as Papa PhD, the host of the Papa PhD Podcast (https://papaphd.com/).
Episode 23
October 11th 2020
Eric James Stephens, PhD
Dr. Eric James Stephens is the founder of #HireHigherEd, #ChangeHigherEd, and Thousand Plateaus Consulting, LLC. His organizations’ goals are to highlight the value of higher ed workers as they migrate to industry, government, and non-profits jobs outside of academia. During this foundational shift in the landscapes of higher education exposed by the COVID pandemic, Eric sees opportunity for change.
No one is happy with the state of higher education. Rather than theorize about change or offering just another white guy’s opinion on the “state of things,” Eric is committed to building a platform for others to share their stories. While earning a PhD in Rhetoric, Communication, and Information Design (Clemson University, 2018), he learned the importance of learning about others, hearing their stories, and helping to amplify those voices in a meaningful way that leads to action.
In this webinar, Eric told us about his personal story and motivation to launch his projects. We also talked about the values that industry rewards versus what we are rewarded for in the academic community. What are the biggest problems of the job market for PhDs these days? What is the best piece of career advice one can give? And lastly, what does Eric’s tattoo mean?
Episode 22
October 4th 2020
Parag Mahanti, PhD
Dr. Parag Mahanti is a life science professional with experience in life sciences strategy consulting, biotech valuations, and pharmaceutical access/commercialization strategy. Parag received his Ph.D. in Chemistry and Chemical Biology in 2013 from Cornell University where his research was focused on nuclear hormone receptors, steroid signaling, and metabolomics. He then transitioned to a career in management consulting at the IMS Health Consulting Group (now IQVIA) focusing on biotech/pharma strategy projects. Subsequently, Parag was part of an II ranked biotech equity research team at Barclays, where he focused on rare diseases (especially neuromuscular and ophthalmological diseases), gene therapy/editing/cell therapy platforms, and immunology/immuno-oncology companies. Since late 2018, Parag has been at Novartis, focused on strategic planning and operations around pricing and access, and is currently a Director of US Market Access Business Planning.
Since 2013, Parag has also been a volunteer for the USA-India Chamber of Commerce in organizing the Annual BioPharma & Healthcare Summit at Cambridge, MA. Parag continues to be passionate about early stage startups within the healthcare industry and serves as a mentor for the Entrepreneurship Lab (ELABNYC) launched by the New York City Economic Development Corporation to provide mentorship to biotech/health-tech start-ups.
Outside of life sciences and biopharma strategy, Parag’s passions include music, both playing and listening, and understanding the evolution of scientific reasoning and leadership skills. Parag takes an active interest in career progression of PhD students to explore and pursue non-academic careers and has participated in multiple career panels at Cornell, Gordon Conferences, Cold Spring Harbor Labs, and NYC-INET. Parag has also created PhD Career Networking Group https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8476427), a fast growing LinkedIn Group to foster career development of PhDs and graduate students which currently has 4,000+ members.
In this webinar, Parag told us his story and explained how he made his career decisions so far. He also told us about the origins of the PhD Career Networking Group on LinkedIn and the philosophy behind the group. How to network on LinkedIn? How to look for mentors? How to stay forever young? We touched all these subjects, and many more!
Episode 21
September 27th 2020
Lindy Ledohowski, PhD
Dr. Lindy Ledohowski (B.A., B.Ed., M.A., Ph.D.) was a former English teacher and then English professor in Canada before becoming an EdTech CEO for academic writing software platform, EssayJack (https://www.essayjack.com/). She has won numerous awards for her teaching, research, and publications, and is now an award-winning entrepreneur — among others, All Digital Schools Editors Choice 2020 (category: Communication with Students, English, Poetry, Reading, Teach Tools, and Writing), Pitchdeck Asia Startup Awards 2019 (winner of EdTech Startup Most Likely to Succeed), or Tech Edvocate Awards 2018 (finalist for Best Literacy App or Tool). She has published both peer-reviewed scholarship and popular pieces on writing and transitioning from the academy into entrepreneurship.
In this webinar, Lindy told us the story behind her decision to leave her tenure track. She also shared the origin story of her academic writing software platform, EssayJack. What was the motivation behind the project? What were the main bottlenecks so far? How to make sure that your online marketing works as expected? What is the secret behind the platform’s recent exponential growth? How to successfully develop a business as a couple? What is the most surprising and the most tricky aspect of moving from academia to industry?
Episode 20
September 20th 2020
Ricarda Braukmann, PhD
Dr. Ricarda Braukmann has a multi-disciplinary background in Psychology (BSc) and Cognitive Neuroscience (MSc), and she received her PhD in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience from the Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands in 2018.
During her PhD, she went for an internship arranged by the Professional PhD Program from the PhD Candidates Network of the Netherlands (PNN, https://hetpnn.nl/en/category/ppp/). Her internship took place at the Social Sciences at Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS), the Netherlands institute for permanent access to digital research resources.
Today, Ricarda works as a Program Leader at DANS. As such, she is part of the policy and communication department and involved in various projects promoting Open Science and sustainable Data Management. Ricarda has, for instance, been involved in the creation of an online Research Data Management training module for early-career scientists (www.cessda.eu/DMGuide). She is also currently leading the engagement and communication work package of FREYA, an EU project on Persistent Identifiers (https://www.project-freya.eu/en).
In this webinar, Ricarda told us all about her job at DANS. How do the workflow and the management look like? What does DANS do for Open Science? What does a “career” mean in such a place? Ricky also shared her insights on how to be a happy PhD candidate and her approach to careers in general.
Episode 19
September 13th 2020
Alican Noyan, PhD
Dr. Alican Noyan has a background in Materials Science. He went for an industrial PhD program in Hewlett Packard in collaboration with the Institute of Photonic Sciences (Institut de Ciències Fotòniques, ICFO) in Barcelona, Spain. During his PhD, he developed and fabricated a novel self-cleaning surface for HP. After his PhD, he continued working at ICFO. During his 2-year contract, he developed machine learning models for several photonics research projects. For example, he built a neural network for object detection and another for image-to-image translation for a novel microscope. He also used other machine learning algorithms for finding patterns inside particle scattering profiles.
Today, he works for his own company, Ipsumio (https://www.ipsumio.com/), where he uses machine learning to solve problems in physics and healthcare for research groups and companies. He juggles his time between small consultancy projects and long term projects that might lead to the development of new diagnostic methods in healthcare and incorporation of new startups in the future.
In this webinar, Alican told us how PhD programs in private companies such as Hewlett Packard look like. Do you also publish peer-reviewed articles? Who supervises you? How much is your PhD research influenced by the commercial interests of the company that hires you? Furthermore, Alican told us about his entrepreneurial endeavors. When did he first think about setting his own company? What is his business model? What are his plans for the future? What is his philosophy about building business and building life?
Episode 18
September 6th 2020
Danni Reches, PhD
Danni Reches received her BA in Middle Eastern Studies from Leiden University, the Netherlands, during which she co-established a student society. As part of her BA, she spent a semester at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on an exchange program. Danni also holds a BA certificate (1 year) in Peace & Conflict Studies and an MA degree in Diplomacy (cum laude), a specialization in International Relations, from the University of Haifa. In this framework, she received a scholarship for outstanding students. Currently, Danni Reches is a PhD fellow and research associate at the Haifa Center for German and European Studies (HCGES) at the University of Haifa. Her PhD dissertation focuses on policy and perceptions of immigrants in Europe. For this research, Danni receives a scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). Her supervisors are Prof. Stefan Ihrig, head of the HCGES, and Prof. Ireneusz Pawel Karolewski from the Political Department of Leipzig University.
Danni also hosts the podcast "What are you going to do with that?" of the Minerva Center for the Rule of Law under Extreme Conditions at the University of Haifa. In the podcast, she talks with early career researchers about their academic journey and raises awareness for mental health in academia.
In this webinar, Danni told us about her story so far, her motivation to help PhDs with their careers, the "What are you going to do with that?" project, and her outlook at the jobs for PhDs in humanities.
Episode 17
August 30th 2020
Jeffrey Glennon, PhD
Dr. Jeffrey C. Glennon’s story is very different from typical career stories in academia. After completing his PhD in neurophysiology at University College Dublin, for nearly 10 years, he was working as a pharmacologist in the pharmaceutical industry post-PhD at Solvay Pharmaceuticals. He developed a successful career in this area, but decided to continue his career in academia.
In 2010, he returned to academia in the Netherlands and later in Ireland. Today, he works as a Senior Conway Fellow and Assistant Professor at the University College Dublin. He is a neuroscientist linking experimental psychology to biological mechanisms with a track record in industry and academic settings. His academic interests are in rule making / rule breaking processes in cingulate cortex that govern rational versus emotional decision making. As a translational neuroscientist, he seeks to implement basic and preclinical efforts into clinical practice relevant to patients. On a more fundamental level as an experimental neuropharmacologist interested in disease mechanisms, he has been examining the role of insulin signalling and particularly a class of potassium channels regulating insulin release in relation to behavioral inflexibility.
His interest in cross-disciplinary teams has resulted in the leadership as lead-Principal Investigator of a 5.4 mln Eur Dutch public-private consortium (funded by TI-Pharma) encompassing Dutch universities, university hospitals, and pharmaceutical partners. Further, he has led a 4.5M euro EU Commission FP7 funded consortium (MATRICS) on conduct problems. In addition, he has been involved both as work package leader and partner in six Horizon 2020 / Marie Curie ITN funded / EU Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) II consortia focused on neurodevelopmental disorders, adult psychiatry and psychiatric conditions in neurological and somatic disorders (type I myotonic dystrophy and type II diabetes).
In summary, Jeffrey is an integrator. This pertains to people, research groups, complementary expertise, research ideas, and visions. This ability to integrate across people and topics to create platforms in which they can create new research together. Today, his wide contacts in both academia and industry allow him to build international networks across a range of expertise areas both in academia, in small-medium enterprises (SMEs), and major Pharma. This has led to novel translational treatment opportunities not only in Pharma but also in robotics. On a personal level, he has an innate curiosity over science and people, what motivates them, and how to develop them both as a person and as strong members of productive, effective multi-disciplinary teams.
In this webinar, Jeffrey told us about both his transitions: to the pharmaceutical industry and back. Why did he choose academia after all? What are the pros and cons of this choice? How does he stay positive no matter what? How to create your own opportunities?
Episode 16
August 23rd 2020
Adriana Bankston, PhD
Dr. Adriana Bankston is a Principal Legislative Analyst in the University of California (UC) Office of Federal Governmental Relations, where she serves as an advocate for UC with Congress, the Administration, and federal agencies. Prior to this position, Adriana was a Policy & Advocacy Fellow at The Society for Neuroscience (SfN), where she provided staff support for special and ongoing projects, including SfN’s annual lobby event and the society’s annual meeting. In addition to working at UC, Adriana serves as Co-Director of the Policy Taskforce at Future of Research (FoR), a non-profit organization that empowers early career scientists. She is also Chief Outreach Officer at the Journal of Science Policy and Governance (JSPG), a non-profit and interdisciplinary peer review publication serving as a vehicle for early career researchers to publish on science policy topics. More recently, Adriana became a Biomedical Workforce & Policy Research Investigator at the STEM Advocacy Institute (SAi), a think-tank building tools to expand pathways of access between science and society. Adriana obtained her PhD in Biochemistry, Cell and Developmental Biology from Emory University and a Bachelor’s in Biological Sciences from Clemson University.
In this episode, Adriana told us about her impressive career transition, and her long way from Biochemistry, Cell and Developmental Biology to Science Policy. What does it take to make the transition? How to build your career in Science Policy? What can you do early in your career to prepare for the industry position? Let’s find out!
Episode 15
August 16th 2020
Natalia Bielczyk, PhD
Dr. Natalia Bielczyk is an entrepreneur, researcher, author, and philanthropist. She graduated from the College of Inter-Faculty Individual Studies in Mathematics and Natural Sciences at the University of Warsaw, Poland, with a triple MS title in Physics, Mathematics, and Psychology. Thereafter, she obtained a PhD in Computational Neuroscience at the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behavior in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. In 2018, she launched a public foundation, Stichting Solaris Onderzoek en Ontwikkeling, aiming to help early career researchers find new careers in industry. She also owns Welcome Solutions, a company developing new tools and practices to help professionals in navigating on the job market, and in finding/creating their dream jobs. Even though she chose to work in the open market, she is still a researcher in her free time and has a strong belief in the compatibility of science and entrepreneurship.
In this special episode of the open Sunday webinar, Natalia talked about entrepreneurship for researchers. Is setting a company as a researcher hard? Under what circumstances should you consider registering a business? What are the traps you might potentially fall into? A startup or a sale proprietorship? How was Welcome Solutions created? What’s the vision, and the plans for developing the company further?
Episode 14
August 9th 2020
Victoria Sherwood, PhD
Dr. Vicky Sherwood holds a PhD in Biosciences from the University of Nottingham, UK. During her studies she worked on understanding the interplay between DNA tumor viruses and the host innate immune response. She then went on to do a couple of Postdoc projects, including one at Lund University in Sweden. During this time, she developed an interest in understanding the molecular basis for the development of metastatic skin tumors. This interest led her to start her own research lab in 2011 in the UK, where she ended up as a Principle investigator at the University of Dundee. Her research group worked on the development of novel therapeutic treatments for the deadliest forms of skin cancer.
Despite her academic career track, Vicky had always harbored an interest in taking the plunge to experience life beyond academia and discover what else was out there. In 2017 she went for it, and made a career transition into the medical communications field. Here, she works on developing a variety of promotional and non-promotional materials for the cancer immunotherapy market. Her experience from this transition has sparked a personal interest in career opportunities for STEM researchers.
Since January 2018, Vicky has published her own blog, BiomedBadass (http://www.biomedbadass.com/), revealing insights into the career transitions from research scientist to industry professional. The aim of the blog is to help researchers answer some of the challenging questions they face when considering an industry career. Questions such as; “What skills do I have that are useful in industry?”, “How does the work culture differ compared to academia?”, “Will I enjoy working in a company compared to academia?” and “What kind of opportunities are available to me?” to name a few. In this endeavor, she hopes this resource can provide much needed support for career planning by STEM researchers.
In this webinar, Vicky shared her impressions from leaving academia as a PI, her first steps in the field of Medical Communications, and talked about plans for her blog. She also gave us a lot of general career advice for easy career researchers.
Episode 13
August 2nd 2020
Mariam Kostandyan, PhD
Dr. Mariam Kostandyan obtained her PhD in Experimental/NeuroCognitive Psychology from Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium. In her PhD, she worked with multimodal neuro-cognitive and behavioral techniques, such as behavior studies, neuroimaging, electroencephallography, pupillometry, and brain stimulation. In the process, she became a researcher with broad expertise in behavioral and (neuro-)cognitive studies with a strong emphasis on data-driven approach and data analytics.
Yet, after her PhD she decided to step outside academia. Today, she works as a Research Consultant at a recruitment agency, Schelstraete Delacourt Associates. She is responsible for a strategic search for potential candidates on the executive level. She works with professionals across the board range of industries — from the agricultural industry to IT. Among other responsibilities, she determines the recruitment strategy based on parallels with the client or the nature of their business model, she conducts market studies to select the best candidates and conducts interviews with the candidates on the phone.
In this webinar, we will ask Mariam about her decision to switch from neurocognitive studies to recruitment. Is it difficult to make this jump? What is the most important while hiring executives? Is this true that most companies don’t trust in the management skills of fresh PhD graduates? How to increase your chances at the job interview?
In this webinar, Mariam told us about her decision to leave neurocognitive studies on behalf of the industry. How did she land a job in HR? What is the most important while hiring executives? Is this true that most companies don’t trust in the management skills of the fresh PhD graduates?
Episode 12
July 26th 2020
Alessandro Montalto, PhD
Dr. Alessandro Montalto holds a PhD degree in Statistical Data Analysis applied to neuroscience awarded by the University of Gent, Belgium. Before his PhD program, he completed his Master’s degree in Physics at University of Federico II in Naples, Italy. During his PhD, he developed a Matlab toolbox called MuTE to detect directed dynamical links among brain regions.
After the successful project in Gent, Alessandro moved to Sydney for a Postdoc project dedicated to complex systems. A few months into the project, he was hit by an overwhelming epiphany: he was pursuing an unfulfilling life, and the academic path wasn’t for him. He went through a tough time during which he came out of burnout and depression. Alessandro then decided to quit academia and start doing what he really loves: connecting, sharing, and helping. Thus, he went through an inner journey that led him to a certification in life coaching.
Alessandro envisions his life as a promoter and a facilitator of change. That’s why, after 15+ years of working remotely, Alessandro now helps other fellow remote workers create the most burnout-free and fulfilling remote work experience as a freelancer (https://www.alemontalto.com/). He shares his own life journey in combination with CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) and ACT (Acceptance Commitment Therapy) coaching tools. Furthermore, Alessandro freelances as a marketing consultant to help companies engage with their clients in a more human and team-oriented fashion.
In this episode, Alessandro told us about his long and painful transition beyond academia, his personal strategies to deal with pain, and about his approach as a Life Coach. He also explained how to become a Life Coach, and which qualities you need in this profession.
Episode 11
July 19th 2020
Patrick Britz, PhD
Dr. Patrick Britz holds a PhD degree in Biopsychology and worked on combining EEG and fMRI as well as on the interaction of emotion and attention. During his Ph.D., he started working for Brain Products GmbH as a Scientific Consultant and was offered to go to North America to work for Brain Vision LLC. From beginning as a Scientific Consultant, Patrick soon took over more responsibilities and in 2013-2019, was the President of Brain Vision LLC and in 2017-2019 was the President of Brain Vision Solutions Inc. in Canada. Brain Vision LLC provides solutions to the leading institutes, minds, and companies in North America to drive the most innovative research, as the distribution partner for companies of all sizes from academic startup companies to multinational concerns including Brain Products, NIRx, CGX (Cognionics), EasyCap, and CREmedical to name a few.
In this webinar, we will learn what Patrick learned about the recruitment process in the times when he was working as a CEO and President of Brain Vision LLC and he used to review over 200 job applications (mostly, coming from researchers) a year. We will also ask Patrick how he sees his future professional career, and where on the job market are the best opportunities for researchers in his field of expertise.
Since December 2019, Patrick works as the General Manager at NIRx GmbH in Berlin, an international company that provides life science comprehensive technology solutions for the most demanding investigative applications. NIRx GmbH offers a range of products based on multi-distance spectroscopic measurements. Patrick’s role is to drive innovation so that NIRx GmbH can offer the solutions you as a customer want to use in the future. Patrick perfected the art of predicting where the science will go next!
In this webinar, Patrick spilled some beans about the principles of the recruitment process. He acquired this knowledge in the times when he was working as a CEO and President of Brain Vision LLC and he used to review over 200 job applications (mostly, coming from researchers) a year.
Episode 10
July 12th 2020
Maria Otworowska, PhD
Dr. Maria Otworowska holds a PhD degree in the Computational Cognitive Science awarded by the Radboud University Nijmegen. Before her PhD program, she completed her Master’s degree in Cognitive Science at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland. She also spent one year at Università Degli Studi Di Catania as an Erasmus student. During her PhD she, like many others before her and undoubtedly many after her, tried to explain how the brain works, with a focus on learning and decision making.
Towards the end of her PhD, she made one of the most difficult decisions in her life and she decided to leave academia and try her luck in “the real world”. Uncertain what to do, she randomly moved to Barcelona without knowing the language or anybody there, where she entered the corporate world as a data scientist at King, an independent unit of Activision Blizzard Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI), an entertainment company producing games. As life experiences go, most of them are to a certain degree useful and educational, some may also be motivating, and such was this one. She quickly realized that the corporate world was not her life path, and it gave her all the courage and motivation needed to believe in her an original startup idea hat she got meanwhile, and pursue it full time.
She quickly got sucked into the app dev world and her first “side project,” after many additional adventures, became her current life path. She went from cognitive science to… skincare and chemistry (but with a healthy dose of AI as well). Now she is a proud founder of Skin Bliss (https://skinbliss.app) and was awarded a place in one of the most important accelerators in the beauty industry—Sephora Accelerate—where she has been receiving mentoring and guidance on her business.
Episode 9
July 5th 2020
Mattias Hansson, PhD
Dr. Mattias Hansson graduated from a PhD program in Mathematics at Lund University in 2013, with a thesis entitled, “Statistical Segmentation and Registration of Medical Ultrasound Data.” He then completed a Postdoc project at the University of Copenhagen and subsequently, he worked as a Scientific Programmer at the Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam. In 2018, he took a decision to leave the academic career track and become a Data Scientist. Initially, he chose to work for the Dept Agency in Rotterdam. However, as of now, Mattias works as a freelance Data Scientist.
In this webinar, Mattias told us about his post-PhD experience so far. Was the choice to work for a consultancy company a good decision? How did the corona crisis affect his job perspectives? How does he spend his time these days? How does he see himself in the future? Is it worth to do a PhD?
Episode 8
June 28th 2020
Andre Marques-Smith, PhD
Dr. Andre Marques-Smith was born in Portugal to a mixed Scottish and Portuguese background. After undergraduate studies in Psychology, he completed his PhD at the University of Oxford, mapping the development of sensory cortical neural circuits in neonatal rodents. In early post-doctoral work at King’s College London, he studied the role that genes play in instructing neurons to form the right connections. He then shifted to systems neuroscience, completing projects on the development of electrophysiological tools for simultaneously recording hundreds of neurons and on neural circuits underlying instinctive vision.
However, even though Andre developed a career in science — including publishing his work in the most prestigious research journals such as Science, Nature Neuroscience, Neuron & Nature Communications — and got all the credits to stay in academia for a lifetime, in 2019, he took a personal decision to pursue a new challenge and direction in his career. After a period of self-study on Deep Neural Networks and Reinforcement Learning, he joined CoMind Technologies to work on building a wearable brain-computer interface. He is very open about his motivation and life philosophy, and he is eager to help other researchers who are hesitating on how to pursue their careers.
In this webinar, Andre told us how he re-qualified from an experimental neuroscientists towards an expert in programming neural networks — all by himself and using only the knowledge acquired online. He also shared why he believes that the startup culture is particularly welcoming to PhDs, and why it is easier to thrive in a startup than in a corporation.
Episode 7
June 21st 2020
Natalia Vtyurina, PhD
Dr. Natalia Vtyurina was trained in Russia as a fundamental Physicist at Lomonosov Moscow State University (2011). She successfully graduated as a PhD in Biophysics from the Bionanoscience department at Delft University of Technology (2016) where she studied DNA-protein interactions at the single-molecule level. This experience prompted her to proceed further towards a new challenge in biomedical research. With the ultimate purpose of discovering how to maximize the delivery efficiency of engineered nano-sized drug carriers, she has completed a postdoctoral research project in the field of nanomedicines at the University of Groningen (2019).
Being social and communicative, she is actively contributing to the dynamic, fast-moving, and multicultural environment of the Controlled Release Society (CRS). In February 2019 she established a new CRS BeNeLux & France Local Chapter and in April 2019 was elected to be a president of this non-profit scientific association.
In November 2019, Natalia made a transition from academia to industry and joined ProPharma Group in Leiden, the Netherlands as an Associate Consultant. She is executing assignments and projects in Life Science Consultancy, Manufacturing & Development, and has experience in Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP), Internal Standards, Qualification and Validation, and Data Integrity.
In this webinar, Natalia told us about the process of transitioning from academia towards pharma industry. She also explained how she created the CRS BeNeLux & France Local Chapter association, and how she manages working on her business as a stretching class instructor after working hours. Lastly, she answered many questions about how to talk to recruiters.
Episode 6
June 14th 2020
Peter Lewiński, PhD
Dr. Peter Lewinski is a University of Oxford graduate with Postdoc/Assistant Professor in economics from the top business schools, with hundreds of citations and 8 years of experience in AI. He is a recipient of Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowship for his PhD at the University of Amsterdam. After his PhD, he worked as ING Bank director of the Credit Risk Modeling department and London Mayfair Fintech associate. Currently, he works as a management team member in four Amsterdam deep tech startups, driving sales/business development (earlier: R&D).
In this webinar, Peter told us about his unusual journey from his Master’s studies at the Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw, to where he is now – management teams of four deep tech startups at a time. Why did he quit his position as an Assistant Professor in a prestigious business school? Why did he choose to take a loan in a bank to do yet another Master’s program after quitting his Assistant Professorship position? Why did he choose to work under the radar and not promote himself on the media? What is the only thing that you cannot buy with money? In this webinar, he told us all this, and much more!
Episode 5
June 7th 2020
Ian Cameron, PhD
Dr. Ian Cameron works at the exciting interface between academia, entrepreneurship, industry, and society. Ian holds an impressive combination of positions: at the same time, he works as a coordinator at NeuroTech-NL, as a Domain Expert, Mental/Cognitive Health & Well-being, Precision Health & Nutrition, OnePlanet at OnePlanet Research Centre, a Senior Researcher at the Donders Institute for Brain Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, and a Senior Researcher at the Biomedical Signals and Systems, University of Twente. He is driven towards the societal applications from neuroscience and psychological research and brings management and entrepreneurial practices to academia. Ian enjoys working in multidisciplinary and team-based environments involving people from diverse organizations and backgrounds.
Ian has an MBA from TIAS School for Business and Society, in the Netherlands, where he wrote his management thesis about the alignment of culture, structure, and strategy to achieve societal impact from research. Beforehand, Ian earned his PhD from Queen’s University, in Canada, and did a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley, both involving human neuroimaging and behavioral studies.
As a researcher, he is interested in big-picture questions that connect neuroscience discoveries to clinical and societal applications. Specifically, Ian specializes in cognition and sensory-motor control in movement disorders, making use of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS), Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), and eye-tracking techniques.
In this webinar, Ian told us how to juggle a few jobs at a time, what new opportunities for researchers currently emerge in the private-public space, and whether it is compulsory to get an MBA title in order to work as a business developer.
Episode 4
May 31st 2020
Leonardo Morelli, PhD
Dr. Leonardo Morelli works as Scientific Software Developer at Alten Nederland in Rotterdam since February 2020. Leonardo completed a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Applied Mathematics at La Sapienza University, Rome (IT). Then, he moved to Leiden, the Netherlands for his PhD program in Mathematics. Although he insists that his PhD research in Mathematics concerns how the “Hola!” waves at football stadiums propagate, his research employed highly technical mathematical tools both on the theoretical and on the computational side. Halfway through his PhD program, he decided to switch his career path to the industry world — yet still, it took him another couple of years to find a topic that he would be passionate about.
In this webinar, Leonardo told us how he got his first job outside academia, made his first steps in the consultancy world, how to recognize a good employer, how does the scrum technique work, and how he feels like – as an Italian in the Netherlands.
Episode 3
May 24th 2020
Maciej Jedynak, PhD
Dr. Maciej Jedynak holds a PhD in Computational Neuroscience (Cum Laude), an MS diploma in Computational Physics (Cum Laude), and a Postgraduate diploma in IT systems design. Before his Master’s studies, he was also working as a Research Assistant at the University of Iowa.
Maciej was never faithful to one single domain; during his studies he coauthored a publication on complex networks, only to move to the field of particle physics, where he did his Masters and stayed for one more year of PhD studies, working for CERN and BNL experiments. Being faithful to unfaithfulness he quit and moved to industry, where he earned a long track record of IT projects. In particular, he has years of experience in telecommunication companies where he worked as an IT Specialist, responsible for IT project development, from requirements analysis to maintenance on production. Currently, Maciej works on human brain functional tractography at Grenoble Institute of Neuroscience as a postdoctoral researcher and a member of the Human Brain Project European collaboration.
In this episode, Maciej reveals why he decided to leave his well-paid and diverse job in the Telecommunications industry to embark on the academic journey. What are, in his mind, the similarities and differences between the academic and the industrial life? How to make sure that you will work for someone whom you enjoy and respect? How to actively (rather than passively) look for jobs?
Episode 2
May 17th 2020
Annika Rausch, PhD
Dr. Annika Rausch works as Data Scientist and Consultant at the IT service provider Ordina Netherlands. Before switching to industry, Annika studied Psychology at the University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands, after finishing high school in Germany. She finalized her Bachelor thesis on the topic of motor learning in 2011. She also obtained a Minor in International Business at the University of Twente. Annika later started the two-year research Master Cognitive Neuroscience at the Donders Institute in Nijmegen in 2011, where she specialized in functional connectivity fMRI analysis in Autism Spectrum Disorder. In 2014, she continued working on this topic as PhD candidate within the European EU-AIMS LEAP project, where she developed a keen interest in data analytics and obtained her PhD title. Today, Annika supports clients of Ordina with their digital transformation and implements intelligent systems that help companies with, e.g., automated decision-making processes. She first got hired by the Nederlands Woning Waarde Instituut (NWWI) in January 2019 where she implemented and developed automated validation tools for property valuation reports. She just started her second assignment via Ordina with the Dutch national police in April 2020.
In this webinar, Annika told us about her job as a Data Scientist and Consultant at the IT service provider Ordina Netherlands. Why did she decide to choose this particular job? How did the job interview look like? What are the main pros and cons? Are the legends about consultancy companies true – is the working pace really that fast? What is Annika’s relationship with her job and with her colleagues?
Episode 1
May 10th 2020
Claudio Corrao
Claudio Corrao is a Leadership and Team Performance Coach that focuses on creating healthier working cultures in startups and organizations (https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-upgrade/). His goal is to foster a sense of meaning, trust, engagement, alignment, and creativity among team members and organizations as a means to achieve healthier work environments that lead to higher levels of employee satisfaction. Claudio conducts workshops on how to influence our minds to define our vision and how to use the inner motivators that push us forward and overcome the saboteurs that hold us back, with the final goal of gaining the results that we want. He has coached several startup founders on providing them with the clarity and strategic plan that they needed to bring themselves and their companies to the desired state. With a background in business management and leadership, Claudio is passionate about communication, human behavior, leadership, and organizational culture.
In this webinar, Claudio focused on how to nail the job hunting. How to spot a job, a career, or a “calling”? What do they mean, and how to approach them? How to give ourselves a purpose, a vision, and goals, which are especially important when looking for jobs? How to develop a value-based approach? How to master self-expression when applying for jobs?
