hp_03_spring_2011

hp

het proefschrift journal for phd candidates at

career and opportunities with contributions by Anna Peksa, Anne-Lorène Vernay, Artur Palha, Audrey Bink, Barry Rawn, Charlotte de Kort, Frank van der Hoeven, Greet Vink, Julien van Campen, Laura Pander, Lennart Rem, Maarten Vonk, Nanneke J. de Fouw, Nelson Mota, Nishant Lawand, Pieter Stienstra, Sandra Verhagen, Shishir Sable, and Sylvie Dijkstra-Soudarissanane

Spring, 2011

Editorial

The cover of this HP’s issue is an adaptation of a graffiti created by the both famous and mysterious street artist and political activist Banksy. This image brings about some anxieties felt nowadays by some members of the PhD community. Can we still follow our dreams, or do we have to cancel them and stick to whatever comes by? Can we pursue Utopia or do we just have to accept the present?

Karl Mannheim, a German philosopher from the Frankfurt School, argued that a state of mind is utopian when it is incongruous with the immediate situation and when passed onto actions, tend to shatter the order of things.

Therefore, according to Mannheim, if you don’t feel comfortable with the actual status quo you should do something about it. This call for action can be, however, interpreted in many ways, but it is mainly related with revolutionary processes.

This issue of HP brings together contributions from very different origins with distinct approaches to one theme that concerns all PhD’s community: Career and Opportunities. The homonymous song performed by the mythical 1980’s punk band, The Clash, inspired this theme. The lyrics of this song reported a very pessimistic perspective of the early 1980s job market in England: “They’re gonna have to introduce conscription / They’re gonna have to take away my prescription / If they wanna get me making toys / If they wanna get me, well, I got no choice / Careers

Towards a Utopia of the Present?

Nelson Mota N.J.A.Mota@tudelft.nl

/ Careers / Careers / Ain’t never gonna knock.” Nowadays we also face some challenges but we would prefer to keep a more optimistic perspective.

That is the reason why we added an interrogation mark to the word “cancelled” in Banksy’s original graffiti. Are our dreams really cancelled?

Through the contribution of our fellow PhD colleagues, from professors and from professionals, in this issue we hope to shed a brighter light to some of the shadows of the present.

Nishant Lawand reports on Promood’s career event, which has already established itself as a privileged platform to bridge the gap between academia and society, between researchers and employers. Publishing has been always one of the most important outcomes of a PhD’s work. Therefore, the ethics of authorship, raised in Sylvie Dijkstra-Soudarissanane’s article is of major relevance. For the TU Delft’s Phd community the discussion about different funding systems is also a matter of concern. The pros and cons of a bursary position or a salaried contract is discussed by Julien van Campen and

Contents

All these contributions can help us to foster raising hope in the future. But they also suggest that we need to keep our eyes in the actual status quo, in the present. There is an appeal to keep our dreams alive while, at the same time, keep our feet in the ground. Is this the road towards a utopia of the present?

Cover

Editorial

03

Wysiwyg

13

Words from the board

04

Heroes of everyday life

14

PromooD news

05

Inside TU

16

Opinion

07

From the other side

18

State of the Art

08

His master’s voice

19

Life Post-Doc

10

State of the Art

20

PhD Policy

12

Links

21

Upcoming events

22

spring 2011

Anne-Lorène Vernay. And what about what happens after the PhD? Barry Rawn, Nanneke J. de Fouw, and Pieter Stienstra contribute with valuable advices for those who are on the brink of becoming a post-doc. Charlotte de Kort and Audrey Bink reveal some news concerning the forthcoming TU Delft Graduate School and how it will change the current state of affairs in the doctorate process. Shishir Sable reminds us that even a traditional sector such as the steel industry can be an opportunity for the future. Lennart Rem reports on the outcome of round tables organized by the Rathenau Institute and Maarten Vonk reveals how art come become of great help for researchers. Artur Palha unveils the mysteries of the Open Jet Facility and Sandra Verhagen reveals how choices matter in a PhD career.

Greet Vink and Laura Pander present TU Delft’s valorisation Center and how it can be useful for PhDs and, finally, Frank van der Hoeven explains some of the specificities of the research at the Faculty of Architecture.

Banksy “Follow Your Dreams. Cancelled” (adap.) © Creative Commons

3

Words from the board

Already half a year has passed since I took the position of president of PromooD. During the past six months, a lot of changes happened, within our organization, but also within TU Delft.

However, our aim remains the same: Bring the PhD’s of TU Delft together.

Last October 2010, the board of PromooD consisted of 13 members. Since then many board members left and others joined our journey. I want to thank Rajen (President), Alberto (webmaster), Deva (Career development), Emiel (Legal affairs), Irem (Internal affairs), Marko (Secretary), and Yue (Treasurer) for their active contribution during the past year(s).

PromooD is the official representative of PhD candidates in TU Delft. As such, we are proud to represent nowadays more than 2000 PhDs. This community is very large, therefore, we enlarged our board to 15 members who are: Qiaole (Secretary), Anne-Lorène (Treasurer), Nelson and Regina (HP Editors), Marcello (Public relations), Anna and Rodrigo (Social events), Theo , Hadi and Mark (Internal and legal affairs), Julien and Michele (Webmasters), Nasim and Nishant (Career Development).

This fresh new board already have shown their motivation with organizing new events that are now regularly taking place. One of the major event is the Career Event, organized every year late spring. During this event, PhD candidates from TU Delft have the op-

PromooD Moving Forward Sylvie Dijkstra-Soudarissanane S.S.Dijkstra-Soudarissanane@tudelft.nl

portunity to meet Alumni and experts working in the Industry or Academia.

They discover and learn about experiences from Alumni that went through the process of PhD studies and graduation. This event is a great success and become bigger every year.

As you also know, TU Delft is implementing the system of Graduate Schools. PromooD is closely involved in this process, to give advice on decisions taken that will affect the PhD studies. Moreover, we make sure to guard the interests of current and future PhD candidates. With respect to legal affairs, PromooD represents the PhD students on the campus and also helps to solve conflicts. We signalize bureaucratic obstacles and general problems that some candidates encounter during their PhD. We make sure that the vertical communication between the administration and the PhD candidate is effective.

As part of TU Delft, we try to reach as many PhD candidates as possible, to

inform them with the Doctoral Regulations, the news and activities organized by TU Deflt and other organizations. We also organize many events to gather our community and have a better communication among PhD candidates. We find it very important that PhD students meet each other, since doing a PhD is a long process and very isolating. Every month, the PrommoD VrijMiBo (Vrijdag Middag Borrel) allows PhD candidates to meet each other in a relaxed environment, such as the Bebop last time. The nice weather is back in Holland, and we will make sure to have even more activities to bring you all together and improve the communication in our community.

Half a year ago, I had a wish to change the communication in PhD’s world. We now busy with many improvements, that you should at the end remark and make benefit of. Our website will soon move to a new platform that will enable you to interact with us. Moreover, since this year, we managed to have our own headquarters. It is indeed very important for us to be physically present and have a place on the campus where you, PhD candidates can meet us. PromooD is now consisting of 15 voluntary board members, who work hard on improving our condition and communication at TU Delft. We are always welcoming new members, so don’t hesitate to join us in our journey and contribute to your world!

Colophon

hp _ het proefschrift is the journal of PromooD, the independent representative body of the PhD candidates at the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft).

For more information about PromooD: www.promood.tudelft.nl

hp editorial team:

colaborators on this issue:

President: Sylvie Dijkstra-Soudarissanane

Anna Peksa, Anne-Lorène Vernay, Artur Palha, Audrey Bink, Barry Rawn, Charlotte de Kort, Frank van der Hoeven, Greet Vink, Julien van Campen, Laura Pander, Lennart Rem, Maarten Vonk, Nanneke J. de Fouw, Nelson Mota, Nishant Lawand, Pieter Stienstra, Sandra Verhagen, Shishir Sable, Sylvie Dijkstra-Soudarissanane

Editor-in-chief: Nelson Mota Layout and Design: Nelson Mota

© Promood and the authors of the articles June 2011 Circulation: 2000 copies

4

het proefschrift

PromooD News

events, facts, membership, ...

Do Something!

See Something!

Meet Someone!

Up until now Promood has already some achievements to be proud of: we have organized annual summer BBQs, celebrations of the traditional Sinterklaas game, LBGTQ PhD candidates at TU Delft and other spontaneous good times! This year an after-work VrijMiBo (vrijdagmiddagborrel) is introduced, where PhD get-together every last Friday of the month.

So, after a hard month of work you have possibility to get together with your university fellows and enjoy evening by having fun! With almost every VrijMiBo we would like to propose different types of attractions. Our aim is to i.e. familiar our members with exploring world tastes of drinks and foods.

Hence soon should appear some beer, wine tasting etc.

Promood plans to implement some new ideas, like a half, one and two-day trips around the Netherlands, neighboring countries or even farther. We

Anna Peksa A.E.Peksa@tudelft.nl

hope that each of us from time to time feels the need of moving our thoughts from the workplace, from the apartment/house/ from our daily life…

Even though staying in Delft as such or around can be really attractive. Our town/city (depending on the reference time) can provide a range of sports infrastructures for open-air sports.

Moreover it is located in the vicinity of a beautiful seaside, so we should use the opportunities of meeting friends and in the same time enjoying sum-

mer by doing sports.

But to do in the most efficient way and to meet your needs, we need to know what are your expectations, and what you are interested in. We are flexible and we could adapt our activities to the expectation of the majority of applicants.

What is more…If you would like to communicate your scientific idea to the outside world, there we come with Alice or Wonderland (more info in this issue of HP). Together with artists and teachers of Sports & Culture we want to use theatre as a devise to communicate ‘scientific-art’. Through this unconventional (for the science) mean of communication we hope that the audience - society, could understand your work better.

Come on and enjoy good times with Promood! Promise, you will not regret this!

PromooD’s 2010 Sinterklaas 03 December 2010, Café de Klomp

PromooD’s 1st VrijMiBo 04 Februrary 2011, EWI Pub

spring 2011

5

PromooD News

events, facts, membership, ...

PromooD Career Event 2011 23 May 2011, Delft, The Netherlands

Career is something that’s dear to everyone’s heart, everyone’s got an interest in it, so in order to nourish this interest PromooD came up with its second “PhD career event 2011” on 23rd May, 2011.

This event was in line with the “Career Event 2010” aiming for the PhD candidates in their 3rd and 4th year which provided them with the necessary information about career related activities with offering them the other side of the research which would probably not possible for them in their academic life.

The event comprised of a keynote presentation on “PhD’s Doing it together with industry” followed by the career workshop conducted by a job consultancy firm (Xelvin B. V.). This workshop was conducted with an intention to give the PhD’s a knowledge about the DO’s and the DONT’s when they pre-

Nishant S. Lawand N.S.Lawand@tudelft.nl

pare for an interview and for the right curriculum vitae. This also included a small exercise of “elevator pitch” which prepared them for a fast introduction within a minute.

The outcome for this exercise from each group was awarded a gift for the best elevator pitch. The participants had an opportunity to put this elevator pitch into test at the “speed dating” session which followed the workshop.

In this speed dating session each alumni / academic / company expert was paired with four of the PhD’s for a time slot of 20 minutes. During this session the experts answered to the queries of the PhD’s concerning career and shared their experience of their journey during their PhD till the posi-

tion they have reached at present.

The event finished with informal drinks and discussion to end up with an inspiring and an motivating career evening for the participants. This event was also favoured by a short career related speech from the rector magnificus Prof.

Dr. Karel Luyben which gave an extra importance to it. With this event we were able to achieve our goal of bringing together PhD candidates, alumni, working professionals from industry and academia on a common platform from different fields for career discussion and professional networking.

This event provided the required information to the participants which will motivate them to think and decide for their future step in their career with an opportunity to create links with the professionals in the outside world which probably would not happen during their PhD tenure.

© Photos: Nelson Mota

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het proefschrift

Opinion

about research, sports, life and other subjects....

Of all the traits which qualify a scientist for citizenship in the republic of science, I would put a sense of responsibility as a scientist at the very top. A scientist can be brilliant, imaginative, clever with his hands, profound, broad, narrow-but he is not much as a scientist unless he is responsible”

The Ethics of Authorship

Alvin WEINBERG “The obligations of Citizenship in the of Science” Minerva, 16:1-3, 1978

Who is the first author? Who are the coauthors? In which order should they be listed? Who should be acknowledged?

You might have asked yourself these questions each time you wrote a scientific paper. Composing the author list seems to be the easiest part of preparing a scientific paper. In some journals, the authors are listed in alphabetical order, while in other journals the author with the greatest name recognition is mentioned first. However, in general the order of authors is determined by their respective contribution to the paper. The allocation of credit can become a difficult task when emphasis is given to fairness and the level of contribution. It is actually very difficult to decide who had the original research concept or who contributed the most to the success of the experiments.

Moreover, there is no clear guidance on what is expected of the authors of a paper.

When writing a scientific paper, credit can be assigned in three places: the list of authors, the acknowledgements and the references. These three specific locations are well defined and are often misused. Before considering the order of names of authors, let’s first have a definition of authorship: “An author is a person who actively contributed to the overall design and execution of the dealt experiment/topic of research”.

[R.A. Day] A question that rises directly from this definition is: what is an active contribution? Some supervisors will claim that the supervision of a PhD candidate is a reason good enough to be mentioned on all publications of his student. Is supervision (only) counted as an active contribution to a scientific paper? Are the regular progress meetings with a supervisor counted as an active contribution? In my point of view, it is cerspring 2011

Sylvie Dijkstra-Soudarissanane S.S.Dijkstra-Soudarissanane@tudelft.nl

tainly not enough. The fact that a PhD candidate regularly reports his advances on a topic to his supervisor is not enough to be a contribution from the supervisor, since he does not produce a significant involvement to the research. Generally speaking, I think that one cannot and should not appropriate others’ work only by only listening and acknowledging other people’s ideas. A good scientist should not allow such practice, and would value his contribution to the scientific world more than the number of publications per year.

A potential author should be, from the start of the research, actively involved and show interest in the topic.

He should be acquainted with the research area and think about possible methods that would solve the problem. An active contribution to a research involves not only the physical presence of a person, but also his intellectual involvement. An active contribution refers to the aspects of the study and developments of the theory and methods reported in the scientific paper.

Nowadays publications are more and more collaborative and multidisciplinary. Obviously, all authors can’t be acquainted with each and every aspects and statements made in the paper. Nevertheless, every author is held responsible for the content of the research. To my mind, a colleague or a supervisor should not ask or allow having their names on a work that summarizes a research, which they have not been closely involved with. Being an author is not only taking the credit of a work, but also being accountable and taking the intellectual responsibility for the content of the paper. All

authors should agree with the final version of the scientific work.

Many articles are containing lists of tens of authors, which would sometimes list lab assistants who barely know the application of the experiments as authors.

On the other hand, some article omit to list authors that actually had an important contribution. Another tendency is to mention renowned persons as authors, such as a promoter or the head of the laboratory where the experiment took place. The latter propensity is becoming common practice, often justified as giving a prestige to the article, even if the Professor or CEO never participated to any steps of the work.

I strongly believe that an author who had a little contribution or even never read the paper, when added to a list of authors would dilute the importance of the credentials. An author list should reflect the persons who designed the research concept, who thought about the presented ideas and who wrote the article. Such an “honorary author”, who is mentioned just for his reputation or his physical presence, should actually be mentioned in the acknowledgement section, especially dedicated for this purpose. Since research is often a continuation of previous achievements, these researchers should be acknowledged by citing their work in the reference section of the paper.

As part of PromooD, I receive requests from PhD candidates on the matter of authorship. I am quite convinced that a proper definition and clarification of an active contribution will certainly prevent authorship conflicts. Every person in TU delft should be aware of those definitions. An author should be aware of his rights, but most importantly of his obligations with respect to his contribution to the scientific world.

[R.A. Day]: “How to Write & Publish a Scientific Paper”, by Robert A. Day, Greenwood Press, 2006.

Sylvie Dijkstra-Soudarissanane (Orleans, France) is the president of Promood. She is also a PhD candidate at the Department of Mathematical Geodesy Positioning, LR Faculty 7

Opinion

about research, sports, life and other subjects....

PhD: a Bursary instead of a Salaried Position?

Two Perspectives.

The VSNU, the Association of Universities in the Netherlands, want to make the way universities can finance PhD students more flexible. They want to introduce bursaries next to the salaried positions that PhD students directly hired by a university enjoy now.

A drawback is, that bursary students do not have the benefits related to a salaried position, such as income, pension build, social security and a labour agreement to name just a few. One might argue that this will weaken the position of the PhD student in general, but I am inclined to take a different view.

The main advantage of the proposed change is that it becomes cheaper for universities to sustain a PhD student so they can be more flexible in hiring PhD students, and in the end can accommodate more PhD’s with the same means, or maybe more appropriately in the current climate, sustain the same amount of PhD’s as they do now with reduced means. It would not be the first time, if PhD research is cut short because of lack of funding, a scenario in which everyone looses. When salaried positions are no longer available, or when it is decided that temporary contracts are no longer extended, bursaries might be the answer; the research can continue and all money and effort invested in the project before, is not lost.

Salaried positions as they are now are of course a very valuable thing, not to be given up lightly. However, they also should be placed in perspective. There are many people in the Netherlands that during their entire career will never earn more than a PhD student with a salaried position, e.g. police officers, which definitely is something to think 8

Julien van Campen J.M.J.F.vanCampen@tudelft.nl

The main advantage is that it becomes cheaper for universities to sustain a PhD student so they can hire more PhD students

and the highly motivated PhD students get awarded a salaried position, that in general more people can benefit from doing a PhD, and that the university can get more research done.

If the system is not made more flexible, I am afraid that we might see universities hiring less and less PhD students.

This is of course in no ones’ interest, and could be avoided by giving in a little.

about. One could say this would be a justification for the choice between a few well-paid PhD students, or more PhD students each of which earn less money, and each of which enjoy no benefits like e.g. a pension plan.

Above, I sketched two extreme scenarios. Here I would like to plea for a combination of the two, under one very important condition: PhD students should be informed about the consequences of their choice up front, and if the university guarantees PhD students that choose the bursary option, that they will be supported by their bursary till the end of their PhD studies. Besides, bursary students should not be obliged to take part in teaching activities. Of course, one can also choose for a salaried position, knowing these will be scarce, and thus will be harder to obtain. The upshot of this system would be that the very bright

Julien van Campen (Nijmegen, the Netherlands), is a PhD candidate at the Aerospace Structures and Computational Mechanics group, AE faculty

het proefschrift

Opinion

about research, sports, life and other subjects....

At the beginning of March, I received, through the WTMC mailing list of which I am a member (WTMC stands for Netherlands Graduate Research School of Science, Technology and Modern Culture), the following message: “On the initiative of the VSNU (association of 13 Dutch universities), the Rutte 1 Government is planning to change the law, so that PhD researchers can be put to work as students on a bursary, not as proper employees (with all the related benefits, such as a decent income, pension build up, social security, a labor agreement etc.). Within the VSNU there a different opinions on this topic: some (Maastricht, Groningen), work with PhD bursaries, others (e.g.

Nijmegen), believe the PhD deserves to be treated as a proper employee.

Dutch PhD organizations have started a campaign against the bursary system, and with this email I would like to ask everyone within WTMC

who has sympathy with PhDs to support this initiative against the PhD bursary system. More information on this initiative and arguments against the bursary system can be found at http:// promovendus.org/ and www.hetpnn. nl.”

Agreeing with the initiative taken against the bursary system, I would like spring 2011

Anne-Lorène Vernay A.B.H.Vernay@tudelft.nl

Concerning personal development, PhDs will loose the opportunity to gain skills to share my opinion and some of my concerns with other TU Delft PhDs. The main reason behind this plan is that universities could spend less money when hiring PhD students. With the bursary system in place, PhDs, instead of being considered as employees, will have the official title of research fellow.

In terms of work, one main difference will be that research fellows can not give education for instance. Regarding finances, this means that all educational activities that are currently done

by PhDs: supervising master students, correcting papers or exams, giving lectures, etc. will have to be done by more expensive teaching staff. Universities will be saving money on the one hand and losing money on the other shading some doubt on the financial benefits of this idea.

However, my main concerns are not the finances of universities, but the result such a policy would have on the PhD trajectory. First, concerning personal development, PhDs will loose the opportunity to gain skills regarding how to pass on knowledge, to raise interest around a given topic, or to

deal with sometimes conflicting situations with or between students. Having done some education myself, I think these experiences will surely be valued when I want to continue my career, be it as an academic or in the private sector.

Moreover, being paid through a scholarship also implies that one will not be saving money for his/her pension during the entire PhD process. I am not sure which consequences this will have on retirement arrangements but this is surely an issue that needs to be addressed with transparency. This is particularly important when considering that not all PhDs are fresh graduate but that some of us have been working outside of university before making a career switch.

Finally, I think it raises important issues of recognition. I did not choose to do a PhD for making money; obviously I would have been much better off in the private sector. I chose to do a PhD because I saw it as an opportunity for personal development, because I enjoy doing research and also because I felt that in the Netherlands, research was valued. However, if doing research is considered as work that can be left to “students”, that says a lot about the decreasing recognition of the importance and potentials of academic research.

This is a rather cynical trend when, at the same time, the Dutch government claims wanting to become a knowledge economy.

Anne-Lorène Vernay (Bourg St Maurice, France) is treseaurer of Promood.

She is also a PhD candidate at the department of Technology Dynamics and Sustainable Development, TBM Faculty 9

Life post-Doc

and what then, after your phd?

You’re not a professor yet. So I’m not talking about how to pick a postdoctoral researcher. I’m talking about how to be one. What should you look for in a postdoctoral position, and what should you expect? Part of it is up to you- and that’s why it’s a dangerous, yet golden opportunity. In this article, I’ll share with you what myself and others have thought about and experienced the postdoc position.

You And Your Postdoc

Postdoctoral positions can be made available because of a specific research track envisioned by a principal investigor, or a more general deliverable that has been promised. In both cases, the person with the funding will be glad to have you around, because you can help write funding proposals, advise students, and generally represent your group. But your main function is to do primary research – either you’re solving a hard problem faster than a PhD student, because of your background and experience, or you’re defining some research in area that was recognized as important, but not articulated.

yourself too (I’m talking about a faculty position hiring committee). If you want an academic career, this is your chance to, in the words of one of my PhD advisors, “work like a dirty stinking dog” to eventually get the best job in the world.

That’s why you’re wanted. But what about your perspective? Consider those two situations above. You can learn a new field under an established leader, or you can try and be that leader. You can prove that you can adapt and relate enough to thrive on your own merits and vision in a new environement. That looks good to the next bizarre club of eccentrics you introduce

Barry Rawn B.G.Rawn@tudelft.nl

This is also an opportunity to waste your time. The person who hired you isn’t going to help manage you, because they expect you to be inde-

You can learn a new field under an established leader, or you can try and be that leader

pendent and experienced. If they’re not working very closely with you, and you’re instead helping out with a more general deliverable, then their requirements of you are not enough to add up to a substantial accomplishment.

What’s a substantial accomplishment?

You have to both decide this and, what is harder, hold yourself to it. You must discern and pursue concrete results (for example, a publication in this journal, an experiement with that person) that get you where you need to go.

Time matters in the academic world, even if it doesn’t seem to at first. I love the freedom I have here as a postdoc: I can visit people, follow research hunches, interact with colleagues, conduct research with students. I have the chance to act like a professor, but it’s a partly an illusion, a dream that lasts a short while. If you want to do a postdoc, look at many options and consider where they can take you. If you take a postdoc, act from the beginning like you’re applying for your next job this month. Be strategic. Because you’re not a professor yet.

Barry Rawn (Canada) is a post doctoral researcher in the Electrical Sustainable Energy department at the EWI faculty.

His research interests are sustainable energy infrastructure and nonlinear dynamics.

© Photo: Nelson Mota

10

het proefschrift

Life post-Doc

and what then, after your phd?

Asking a question like that seems a bit strange, especially in the context of the PhD community on the verge of graduation and PhD candidates who aim to be in that same position before long. At the same time it fits very well in one of the targets of this journal’s issue: career discussion.

The answer to the question is “yes” as well as “no”. I will elaborate.

Yes, at the onset of a professional career, a PhD is of value for all. Simply because it documents that the bearer has shown he or she can pose a relevant hypothesis, shown to be creative in carrying out the research to test it and present in a scientifically elaborated document the arguments that validate or falsify the hypothesis. All these aspects are of value in all jobs for highly educated professionals.

And yes, a PhD is relevant and even indispensable for those who seek a career in pure of applied science, wherein the métier of scientist implies the continued pursuit of scientific questions and research. This can only be carried out successfully when applying and developing further the know-how, research expertise and publishing capabilities trained during the PhD process. The most successful will reach the Walhalla of science: a professorate at a top-A university or research institute.

And now the “no”. A PhD is not a lasting asset for those who, during their

Does a PhD Carry Added Value in a Professional Career?

Nanneke J. de Fouw njdefouw@hccnet.nl

Pieter Stienstra info@stide.nl

The answer to the question is “yes” as well as “no” career, develop in a less scientific and perhaps more managerial way. Of course, the know-how of posing and dealing with a hypothesis is valid for scientists as well as managers. And at large firms many highly educated professionals enter the organizations because of their scientific knowledge.

Often however, their career diverges from content to a more managerial

setting. At the same time the scope and available time for considerations and decision making in managerial jobs are considerably more limited than those in a scientific setting. In commercial working environments the PhD graduate will need to switch from solely applying his or her scientific approaches to learning new non-scientific disciplines. He or she will need to do that through training and coaching on the job. For example; economics, organizational skills and last but not least social skills such as human behaviour, cooperation and human resources management. That means: learning mew skills and competencies adding to the PhD-foundation laid at university. And that challenge should not be underestimated: it may prove more challenging for many scientists than thought beforehand.

Nanneke J. de Fouw (Delft, The Netherlands) is PhD medical biology. She is now project manager, coach and IAF Certified® facilitator at De Fouw ConsultIn-Action, working for several multinational companies as well as TU Delft.

Pieter Stienstra (Delft, The Netherlands) is PhD geology. He is now senior consultant, project and interim manager at www.stide.nl, working for big and small profit and non-profit organizations.

© Photo: Nelson Mota

spring 2011

11

PhD Policy

PhD Policy at the TU Delft

TU Delft Graduate School In the past few years a lot has been done in the way of community building for PhD students: starting a LinkedIn group, organizing PhD events and a special Startup introductory course.

But a number of concerns regarding the PhD route still had to be addressed: a) The majority of PhDs at TU Delft come from outside the Netherlands and require specific support to obtain housing, visa etc. b) Some 25% of PhDs drop out or are dismissed, which is seen as a waste of talent and resources. c) Most PhDs who do obtain a doctorate will not take up a career in academia; but whether you want to continue your career in academia or in business, developing competencies other than research skills will benefit your career.

In 2008 the Executive Board decided that the best way to target these issues would be in an integral way – by setting up a Graduate School. Personal development of PhDs is one of the pillars of the Graduate school. By offering a wide range of educational modules and services PhDs are supported to stay on track and develop a wide range of skills. The Graduate School offers a coordinated education and makes sure students have access to all practical information and support. Other objectives of the Graduate School are that it should enhance TU Delft’s visibility as the perfect place for excellent scientists and that it should promote the PhD route as valuable to the job market.

Follow and follow-up To prevent drop-out of PhDs extra attention will be given to monitoring and steering student progress and a closer eye will be kept on the quality of supervision. The administrative process will be further improved and the resulting information will be used to monitor the overall effectiveness of the Graduate School. Where needed, extra measures can be taken, for example the offering 12

Charlotte de Kort C.G.W.deKort@tudelft.nl

Audrey Bink A.J.M.Bink@tudelft.nl

The Graduate School offers a coordinated education and makes sure students have access to all practical information and support of a special training for supervisors.

Coaching and support More coaching and support along the way should help PhDs stay the course.

Examples are: career advice and counselling for PhDs and guidance for students under mental pressure. Also each faculty will appoint a PhD mentor.

State of affairs Working groups are currently drawing up plans for the Graduate School which should go ahead in February 2012. The TU Delft Graduate School will be divided in Faculty Graduate Schools, each supported by a Faculty Graduate Office. The TU Delft Graduate Office and the Faculty Graduate Offices will operate within the Education and Student Affairs departments.

Introducing: the career counsellor The PhD career counsellor offers personal counselling and advice on different career related issues. Support can for example be given to PhDs who must decide on the next career step that best suits their individual strengths and capacities. As a PhD you may face questions such as: should I continue my career in science? Do I want to do this in or outside the Netherlands? Would it be possible to find a job in an international company? How can I best present my PhD education to have a better chance for a career in business? But you may also have questions along the way, for instance: how can I increase my motivation and/or reduce stress, or how can I combine my PhD with family life?

Skills and competencies A special doctoral education programme is being developed. This will entail three components. A generic part with subjects such as personal effectiveness, intercultural cooperation and career preparation. A scientific part including research and presentation skills. The third part involves the knowledge and skills surrounding the dissertation subject. This will be looked after by the graduate schools at faculty level. All in all, the programme should provide PhDs with a set of competencies that prepares them for both academic and non-academic career paths.

Note: For these and other career questions you are welcome to contact Monique Draijer by email (M.M.M.Draijer@tudelft.nl). You can also schedule an appointment by calling 015-2788004 or visit the drop-in hours every Tuesday and Thursday from 11.30-12.30 at the TU Delft Career Centre.

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Wysiwyg

an image and a thousand characters

Job Market in Steel Industry Shishir Sable is a principle researcher in Tata Steel (formarly Corus Steel) since August 2007. His expertise are Energy technology and Combustion. He did his PhD from TU Delft from 3mE faculty in 2007.

Š Photo: Tata Steel

spring 2011

Shishir Sable shishir18@yahoo.com

The European steel industry faces a strong squeeze in the profitability due to the rising raw material costs and the competition with low cost producers in the developing countries. In such a scenario, the European steel industry is redefining their strategic orientation towards value-creation and innovation. The recent financial crisis has given a setback to achieve the strategic vision. In these difficult times, the research in steel industry is prioritised with focus on key short and long term product and technology development projects. It means that that the job market is open but only to specific skills and expertise. As a PhD jobseeker, you need to highlight your own strengths and specific expertise to match suitable opportunities. Not to forget, your soft skills are equally important. But do not get depressed, there is light in the present dark tunnel as market is slowly picking up and as a result there could be more opportunities in the coming year.

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Heroes of everyday life

reflections about the life of a phd

Can you sell your scientific idea to the outside world? Do you know how to communicate your work?

Maybe you’ve been invited in a Dutch ‘circle-party’ one of those nightmare encounters of Dutch folklore. Someone celebrates his or her birthday, most likely a friend of a friend whom you vaguely know. But you have to attend, for politeness reasons, at least. Then, at a certain point one of the other guests is asking you about work or study. Well, here’s a real problem then. Everybody at the party is looking at you, and you don’t have an answer. Well, you have, but they won’t understand. Nor any other person in this world except a lean circle within the same field of work and/or study.

They are not to blame. By it’s true meaning scientific work is behold only to the few.

But not only in social forums you can have non-understanding encounter of the first kind. Selling your idea to companies, explaining on behalf of fundraising what’s your aim.

“We’re all mad here” A few years ago I was working on a play. A singer (soprano) and her pianist wanted to make a new kind of music theatre. “With new forms, and new ideas”, witch meant in a Tsjechovian way.

Well, I suggested to make “The quest for the holy note”, and used research

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Alice or Wonderland Maarten Vonk maartenvonk@planet.nl

from the field of overtone studies from the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen.

Unintentionally the researcher was very happy with the play. By inviting people he was able to explain about his passion and daily work to non-insiders, just by watching the singer and a graphic translation of her sound as centre of the appealing story.

As many unintended discoveries it proofed itself by accident. Now we structured it and present in Delft the Alice or Wonderland-project.

will overwhelm the public..

Never seen a grin without a cat The audience will experience and gets an introduction with the actuation of scientists and science.

The theatre-art form makes basic research accessible for the uninitiated one, the tax payer in the street, entrepreneurs and governments. By stepping out of the laboratories and going public science shows it is a living, active and vital part of society.

We, the artists and teachers of Sports & Culture use theatre-art as a devise to communicate scientific-art. How, were and when we will tell you at Unit Sport & Cultuur.

The Cheshire cat fades until it disappears entirely, leaving only its wide grin, suspended in the air, leading Alice to marvel and note that she has seen a cat without a grin, but never a grin without a cat.

Down the Rabbit Hole The ‘art spots’ where performances take place within the framework of Alice or Wonderland are traditional theatre- and concert halls, galleries, but also squares, parks, semi-public buildings and all that can be adjusted to receive an audience and give space to the individual projects. Sometimes the audience will be bigger than the art-form, other moments, the art-form

Maarten Vonk, (The Netherlands) theatre artist, studied in Amsterdam and Moscow (Gitis), teacher at Sports & Culture TU Delft. Works throughout the Netherlands and Belgium in and outside theatres, see: www.maartenvonk.nl

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spring 2011

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Š Photo: Sam Rentmeester / FMax

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Inside TU

faculties and research centers at TU Delft

Aerodynamics Department Faculty of Aerospace Engineering Nowadays, on a daily basis, we step into airplanes that take us around the world and back, we harness the energy from the wind using highly efficient wind turbines and we regulate air-conditioners to suit our needs for cold and warmth. All these activities, and many others, which are considered trivial today, require a substantial knowledge of many physical processes, namely the interaction of air with solid bodies, that is, of aerodynamics. A knowledge, like all the others, which was built up over the span of several centuries.

For instance flying. Although something that is part of humanity’s imaginary for centuries, with stories that date back to the Greek myth of Icarus and his father the master craftsman Daedalus. Only in the last century flight started to become part of everyday life and lost the mystic miracle aura that always adorned it, becoming tangible.

The development of the knowledge of aerodynamics is owed to the work of many great scientists such as Aristotle, Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo Galilei, Christiaan Huygens, Isaac Newton, Daniel Bernoulli, Leonhard Euler, George Stokes, and many others. The contributions of all these thinkers, mathematicians and scientists are part of the foundation of the science of aerodynamics, paving the way for the technological achievements we enjoy today.

In one way or another, all these great thinkers relied upon observation, sensing of the reality surrounding them. Be this sensing, in the primordial stages, merely done with their own senses such as the eyes, or be this sensing, today, done with highly sophisticated measuring apparatus that enable us to see, for instance, very small scales in both space and time that otherwise would be impossible to grasp with our bare senses.

Like in all other scientific fields, the spring 2011

The Open Jet Facility Artur Palha A.Palha@tudelft.nl

need for repeatability and for controlled conditions that could be tuned in order to find general governing laws, pushed forward the development of facilities specifically designed for performing aerodynamic experiments.

One of the modern attempts at this was the development, by Benjamin Robing, of a whirling arm apparatus that would rotate forcing an object attached to his extremity to flow through air at a prescribed velocity. Later on, with the objective of addressing many of the problems raised by the whirling arm, Francis Wenham invented and constructed the first enclosed wind tunnel in 1871. Since then, wind tunnels became a fundamental apparatus for studying aerodynamic phenomena, ranging in size and wind speeds, custom designed for specific flow conditions.

The Open Jet Facility (OJF), located at the Aerodynamics Laboratory, is the most recent and eye catching wind tunnel facility of the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering. Stepping inside the facility it is impossible not to be impressed by the 8 meters height and width and the 13 meters of length of the room where experiments are done. Gusting air through its 2.85x2.85 square meters duct at a maximum of 120 km/h requires a a big fan and a substantial amount of power. Hence, a 5 meter diameter fan is powered by a 500 kilowatt electric motor (more than the equivalent to 100 dwellings).

After the large fan, the flow passes a long diffusor and is guided by two rows of corner vanes such that it is

rotated by 180 degrees. The flow enters a second, short diffusor, in which a wire mesh prevents the flow separation. After this, the flow passes several dense wire meshes that reduce the velocity deviations and turbulence in the flow. Via a contraction a smooth flow is then blown into the open test section, where the object of study is placed and measurements are done. At the end of the test section, the flow is cooled by an enormous 350 kilowatt radiator system to compensate for the added heat in the flow. Finally, before re-entering the fan, the flow is redirected again 180 degrees by two rows of corner vanes.

This new wind tunnel offers more possibilities than ever before for teaching (laboratory courses involving model rotors) and research (parameter studies can be executed more quickly). It is vitally important to the Wind Energy Group, enabling the TUDelft to continue to contribute to the large scale European research project that is currently taking place, searching for new concepts for wind turbine blades, including smart rotors. Aviation is another important field to which the OJF is particularly useful. Also, due to the versatility of the design of the OJF, it is also possible, with minor accessories, to perform research into the aerodynamic effects that wind can have on buildings and ships as well as in the field of sports. Due to its versatility and broad range of applications, this facility is not only important to students and researchers at the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, but also to students and researchers from other faculties of the TUDelft, enabling to all the power of Aeolus at a press of a button.

Artur Palha (Lisboa, Portugal) is a PhD researcher in the Aerodynamics Department at the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering at TU Delft 17

From the other side

a view on research from another perpspective

Architecture and Research

dustry (architectural offices or other companies)? Become a professional researcher?

Frank van der Hoeven

F: We can’t manage expectations. Academic positions will be available for just 10% of the PhDs. Research positions are available in regional and national authorities and private firms. The design industry will be the most important employer.

interviewed by

Nelson Mota N.J.A. Mota@tudelft.nl

Nelson Mota (N): In Delft, the Faculty of Architecture (FA) is part of a technical University. Architecture (in the broad sense, including urbanism and building technology) deals with technical issues but also with issues related with the fields of social sciences and humanistics, to name a few.

Frank van der Hoeven (F): Architecture faces indeed a number of different challenges. Somehow we need to balance our publication culture (dominated by books and trade journal) and start publishing (more) peer-reveiwed journal articles. If we don’t we will continue to miss out on national research funding. But by doing this we should not lose touch with the practitioners in the field of Architecture and the Built Environment. Other challenges we do not face. Other faculties seem to struggle to find PhDs. We are bombarded by requests to start a PhD at Architecture from people that bring with them their own research funding.

N: Do you consider that the TU Delft’s Faculty of Architecture delivers a good example of research in architecture?

F: In the Netherlands we have a system of research evaluation in place. Our last assessment was in November 2010. The external peers from the UK, Germany, Portugal, Israel, Denmark and Belgium assessed our research as “very good”.

How can we disagree?

N: Can you give us some examples from other schools / research centers where you consider that “state of the art” architectural research is being developed? Are these good examples possible references for the FA 18

Other faculties seem to struggle to find PhDs. We are bombarded by requests to start a PhD at Architecture or should it pursue its own specific research approach?

F: Eindhoven, Bartlett, Sheffield, IUAV Venice, Cornell, UC Berkley, Tsinghua, NUS. That is where the competition is.

N: Concerning PhD research at the Faculty of Architecture. Which are your expectations regarding the implementation of the graduate school system? And related with the latter, do you think that the current system of salaried positions should be kept or that a bursary system should be implemented to finance the candidates?

F: The Graduate School has to make Doctoral Education a serious business, like the MSc. Salaried positions we remain as long as (Associate) Professors are successful in obtaining research funding. But the strong growth is currently in those PhD students that were able to obtain a grant or other resources.

N: In your opinion, which are the possible career expectations a PhD candidate at the FA should have? An academic position? A position in in-

N: Concerning the academic career and professorships: Do you think that a Phd is valorized in the FA or that it is overlooked in relation with a successful professional background? In your opinion, how can these two tracks be balanced in the FA staff?

F: A PhD has always been a requirement for FA staff. With an increasing populous staff that have a PhD we are increasingly able to enforce it.

N:. The research at the FA has been recently assessed by an external committee. Can you tell us the result of this evaluation, and which are the challenges for the future?

The final report is in, yes. Across the board: quality is very good, relevance is excellent, viability is very good with some concerns regarding the departments of Architecture and RMIT. Productivity is good and should be improved. The success rate and duration of PhDs should improve and staff need to publish more in international peer-reviewed scientific journals.

Frank van der Hoeven (The Netherlands) is the Director of Research at the Faculty of Architecture, Delft University of Technology. He is also Associate Professor of Urban Design at the Faculty of Architecture, Delft University of Technology

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His master’s voice

contribution from the professors

My career path may sound pretty dull at first sight: graduated in geodetic engineering in Delft, obtained my PhD in Delft, became a postdoc in Delft and then became an assistant professor in Delft (my current position). It’s not that I didn’t look around for another job.

However, so far I never found an opportunity offering the specific challenges and freedom that I experience in my current job. Of course, that’s a matter of personal taste: I won’t feel at home in a commercial environment (selling is not my strongest point); I like in-depth research; I like to teach and to develop new courses and teaching material.

And as a bonus: the frequent travels all over the world and a sabbatical leave to Australia in a few months time!

In summary, my job is a mixture of many different tasks: project management, acquisition, supervising Phd students, teaching, and of course research.

And even though the research can be very specific and long-term, there is always plenty of room to start working on new topics.

So let’s have a closer look at my career and why I made the choices I made.

Doing a PhD was a very logical choice for me: I think you will never find an opportunity to dive into one topic for such a long time, and that’s what attracted me the most. After my PhD I looked around for jobs, mainly at research institutions, but I could not find the position I was looking for. Moreover, I was offered a postdoc position in my group, which was very attractive. I had already contributed to two EU 6th framework project proposals during my PhD, and as they were both awarded I was responsible for the TU Delft contribution.

Those projects were both related to the development and applications of the

spring 2011

How Choices Matter Sandra Verhagen A.A.Verhagen@tudelft.nl

Doing a PhD was a very logical choice for me: I think you will never find an opportunity to dive into one topic for such a long time future European equivalent of GPS, called Galileo. We were one of the consortium members, which allowed me to broaden my international network and collaborate with companies and institutes from all over Europe.

In 2006, 1.5 years after obtaining my PhD, I submitted a VENI proposal (NWO-STW), to extend the work of my PhD thesis, which was awarded.

By that time I also got a position as an assistant professor and I became the responsible instructor of a course. In the meantime, I have been teaching several courses, ranging from 2nd year bachelor to Master courses, with student numbers ranging from 10 to 400.

As you can imagine, this requires dif-

ferent approaches and skills, but I must say I like the complete range.

Once you become an assistant professor, there is less time left to do the actual research yourself: writing new proposals, teaching and supervising take a lot of your time. What I do like very much, it the great amount of responsibility that you have as an assistant professor: you are in charge of your own agenda. Of course, there are tasks that you are told to do at a certain time (e.g. teaching a specific course). But in general, you are free to choose what to do and when to do it. Which, by the way, doesn’t mean that no one cares.

Of course your “output” (in the form of publications, course evaluations, progress of PhD students, accepted research proposals) are checked and evaluated.

For those that are considering an academic career after their PhD, I would like to finish with some hints (this is what helped me a lot): a) make sure you publish your work in peer-reviewed journals; b) try to establish a (international) network; c) join (international) committees / organizations related to your work; d) attend courses / workshops (e.g.

English, scientific writing, didactical skills, project management).

Don’t wait with this till after your PhD! Sandra Verhagen obtained her PhD degree at the Delft University of Technology in 2005. Currently, she is an assistant professor at DEOS-MGP. Research interests are ambiguity resolution and quality control for (real-time kinematic) GNSS applications.

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State of the art

bibliographical reviews and news from the scientific community

Scientific Reports on PhD Career The Rathenau Institute organized round table discussions (18th of March 2011) around four recently published reports dealing with the scientific career, three of them will be reviewed here (for Dutch language documents, google translator gives appropriate translations): 1. PhD Trajectories and labour market mobility (Ivlos). A research done under 1113 PhD candidates including the TU Delft: “86% of the Dutch doctoral recipients are in employment at the moment of defense”. And of the international Ph.D. candidates 37.4% indicates they want to remain in the Netherlands, 19.5% are undecided and 43.1% want to leave the Netherlands.

Lennart Rem L.G.Rem@tudelft.nl

motor, other scientist) that acted like a mentor, making respondents aware of specific topics such as conferences, networks, committee membership. So, if you want to stay, find that mentor!

For those really interested in going for full-professorship, read Marieke van den

Hence, 67% of the respondents were born in the Netherlands, so findings for a more international group of Ph.D. candidates might give different findings.

2. “Op het juiste moment op de juiste plaats” (Rathenau Institute) : 42 scientists were interviewed, 21 remained in the academia, 21 left the academical research. Remaining or leaving was strongly determined by “being at the right time in the right place”. A crucial factor for an academic career proved to be a key person (pro20

What could you do with the results of the reports, in order to clarify your next career steps; a suggestion: a) Get an idea of the general academical climate in the Netherlands, facts and figures, and in stimulating and demotivating factors in the scientific career. b) Assess your own qualities, wishes and preferable environment to work in, to which extent do they match/not match with the research findings. c) Define your “added” value as PhD employee, both in terms of scientific and non scientific expertise and competences. d) Actively search for labour market information on the industry and non academical settings outside of the university, for instance by joining career events or meeting with alumni.

63 per cent of the respondents are employed in academia either in the Netherlands or abroad (including affiliated medical centre’s).

“The Ph.D. programme, supervisors and institutes received decidedly low scores on providing labour market information, information about employement trajectories of previous Ph.D recipients and career advice”.

at TU Delft” at our website, to find out what the TU Delft can offer.

e) Find your mentor in order to better understand requirements for a career and to develop crucial networks (this counts both for industry and academia).

Brinks’ awarded “Behind the Scenes of Science: Gender practices in recruitment and selection for full professor” (Radboud University of Nijmegen).

Consider to review the web page of the Rathenau Institute: http://www.rathenau.nl/themas/project/loopbanen/loopbaanbeleid-kansen-en-knelpunten-1.html

3. Beleid en beleving (Radboud University of Nijmegen) This report is interesting as background material; it elaborates on concepts such as (top) talent, tenure track system and focuses on possible bottlenecks and inspiring factors in a scientific career. Always good to be aware of what stimulates you in making steps in your carrier, and what demotivates. And, have a look at “A career

Lennart Rem (The Netherlands) is an organizational psychologist/trainer/ coach/HR specialist, previously employed by the ABN AMRO Bank and European Commission. Currently, he is working for HR Talent (TU Delft), he facilitates the PhD Start Up and is Secretary of the Council of Professors.

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links

useful things to know about

The European Commission aims to invest 3% of the EU’s GDP in R&D by the year 2020 in order to recover from the financial crisis and establish a sustainable economy based on knowledge and innovation. Currently the number of researchers in Europe is relatively low compared to other countries like the US and Japan. Therefore Europe experiences a pressing need for highskilled staff to be able to keep in pace with global developments and avoid a dropping behind and at the same time to develop a competitive, sustainable and innovative economy in line with Europe 2020 goals. The European Commission is developing and implementing specific measures to create more than one million new research jobs in the upcoming years.

The EU actively invests in research careers of individual researchers in funding programs like People Marie Curie and IDEAS ERC grants. The scope of these programmes is to strengthen the European research and innovation capacity: to attract and train talented researchers in different stages of their research career and offer internationally competitive research career opportu-

spring 2011

Valorisation Centre Greet Vink M.H.Vink@tudelft.nl

Laura Pander L.S.Pander@tudelft.nl

nities in order to encourage researchers to stay in Europe. At the same time Europe wishes to attract the talented researchers from abroad to contribute to the European research.

The European Commission has developed a dedicated website, the EURAXESS website, to promote research careers in Europe. The website gives access to all kinds of information like job opportunities within and outside of the 7th Framework programme, country specific information regarding national taxes, legal issues, pension fees etc. http://ec.europa.eu/ euraxess/ As a PhD you should take the opportunity develop yourself as an attractive employee for both industry and

academia. It is advisable to experience different research environments (labs of universities abroad, research organisations, companies), to not only focus on research skills but also develop additional skills (like entrepeneurship, management, IPR, communication and societal outreach). Invest time in building op your own network in research collaborations (not depend solely on your supervisor and your group) and pay attention to your track record (publications, achievements) to have a flying start as a post-doctoral researcher.

Note: For more information on EU research grants and opportunities have a look at the Cordis website: http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/home_en.html or contact the staff at the Valorisation Centre of the TU Delft: http://valorisationcentre.tudelft.nl

Greet Vink is programma manager Government, EU and International Organisations at the Valorisation Centre.

Laura Pander is advisor for EU research funding at the Valorisation Centre of TU Delft.

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Upcoming Events

stay tuned with Promood

Promood Supervisor of the Year 2011

PromooD would like to introduce the second PromooD Supervisor of the Year Award. This competition enables PhD candidates of TU Delft to share experiences and to acknowledge good supervision practices at the university.

The purpose of this university-wide award is to acknowledge outstanding performances of a supervisor. We are interested in knowing what your supervisor has done over and above what has been expected of him/her.

During last year’s PhD Event held in October 2010, Prof. Homayoun Nikookar was awarded the PromooD Supervisor of the Year 2010. PhD candidate Madan Kumar Lakshmanan submitted his nomination to us, elaborating on

the inspirational mentorship of his supervisor. Prof. Nikookar proved to be a motivational supervisor and a good advisor to his PhD candidate.

to Promood criteria before the end of September 2011. The nomination form and the award criteria can be found on our website (www.promood.nl).

Every PhD candidate at TU Delft is entitled to provide a 300 word written submission of his or her supervisor to the PromooD selection committee.

Promood will evaluate entries based, among other things, your description of the nature and quality of the supervision you receive as well as the mentorship and coaching provided by your supervisor. Three main evaluation criteria are based on: 1‐ Guidance, 2‐ Knowledge and 3‐ Career.

If you think that your supervisor is over-the top and should be seen as a role model for other supervisors, this is your chance to nominate him or her for a recognition at the University level.

The award will be presented during the PhD Event at the end of this year.

Note: Promood board members are excluded from the competition.

PhD Candidates will nominate and submit their suggestion according

www.promood.tudelft.nl 22

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Meet the Board

members of PromooD board 2010/2011

President Sylvie Soudarissanane

(Orleans, France) is a PhD candidate at the Department of Mathematical Geodesy Positioning, AE Faculty

Secretary Qiaole Zhao

(Taiyuan, China) is a PhD candidate at the Department of Imaging Science and Technology, TNW faculty

Internal and Legal Affairs Theo van Ruijven

(Ede, the Netherlands) is a PhD candidate at Policy, Organization, Law and Gaming, TPM Faculty

Internal and Legal Affairs Hadi Asghari

(Iran) is a PhD in at the department of Policy, Organisation Law and Gaming, TPM Faculty

Webmaster Michele Buscema

PhD candidate at Molecular Electronics and Devices group, in the Quantum Nanoscience department of the TNW faculty

Career Development Nishant S. Lawand

(Bourg St Maurice, France) is a PhD candidate at the department of Technology Dynamics and Sustainable Development, TBM Faculty

Editor “Het Proefschrift” Nelson Mota

(Mesão-Frio, Portugal) is a PhD researcher at the Department of Architecture, BK Faculty

Editor “Het Proefschrift” Rodrigo Teixeira Pinto

(São Paulo, Brazil) is a PhD candidate at the Department of Electrical Sustainable Energy, EWI Faculty

Webmaster Julien van Campen

Julien van Campen (Nijmegen, the Netherlands), is a PhD candidate at the Aerospace Structures and Computational Mechanics group, AE faculty

Social Activities and PR Nasim Hooshyar

(Satara, India) is a PhD student in the Electronic Instrumentation Laboratory (EI Lab), EWI Faculty

Nasim Hooshyar ( Shiraz, Iran), is a PhD candidate in the department of Chemical Engineering, TNW faculty

Social Activities and PR Anna Peksa

Social Activities and PR Marcelo Gutierrez-Alcaraz

(Zakopane, Poland) is a PhD candidate at the Department of Geotechnology, CiTG Faculty

spring 2011

Treasurer Anne Lorene Vernay

(La Paz, Bolivia), is a PhD candidate at the Department of Electrical Sustainable Energy, EWI Faculty

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