A Haven for Inquisitive Minds Akhtar has made significant contributions to the field of chromosome regulation, and her work has been recognized with both a European Life Science Organization Award and a coveted Feldberg Prize. In her new role as VP at Max Planck, one of her tasks is advising the society’s president. But laboratory work is still her first love. “You don’t know what the outcome is going to be, and that is fascinating for me,” she says. Like the outcome of her experiments, her success in the German research world wasn’t at all foreseeable. It gave Akhtar a career track record that she hadn’t expected when she arrived. She spent more than a decade at EMBL, then was named an investigator at Freiburg’s Max Planck Institute, where she still works. The investigator post is part of a program to draw young researchers to Max Planck institutes, a network of about 80 highly regarded research institutes hosting 15,000 scientists. Soon thereafter, she was promoted to director, a coveted, tenured position that offers scientists the freedom to choose their research topics. In her new role as vice president, Akhtar intends to focus, among other things, on increasing the demographic and cultural diversity of the researchers themselves. Akhtar, who has a son and a daughter, says pursuing a career as a parent in Germany can be challenging. “You have to sometimes make very difficult decisions to go forward,” she says. She wants to encourage young researchers to persevere and find a supportive environment. For her, a major pillar of support has been her family. “I think that Germany is very progressive,” she says, adding that she sees the local society developing positively in this respect each and every year. There is one thing, after all these years, that Akhtar still struggles with: the language. “I’m not perfect in German, and my kids are always joking that I cannot speak it properly,” she laughs, noting that she tends to gesticulate with hands and feet to get her point across. People, however, “are very accommodating,” she adds. The pleasure she takes in German reliability, which she experienced early on, has only grown over the years. She still appreciates the general culture of organization and orderliness, and she emphasizes that for scientists with a heavy workload, it greatly enhances quality of life. “I love the German tendency towards organization,” Akhtar says. “A lot of stress that you’d find in some other places is just taken away from you here.” 41
Imagine doing your research without the daily interruptions of academic life. In a serene environment in Germany’s Northwest where you can still enjoy intellectually stimulating encounters. Whether you research the oceans, the brain, renewable energies, or political change, Fellowships at HanseWissenschaftskolleg – Institute for Advanced Study (HWK) are available to excellent scientists from the natural and the social sciences as well as the humanities.* • Junior and Senior Fellowships of 3 to 10 months • Emphasis on excellence and crossdisciplinary exchange • Diverse opportunities for regional cooperation • Individual and family accommodation • Flexible funding schemes Learn more at:
www.h-w-k.de/apply
Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg Institute for Advanced Study
* Fellowships awarded based on competitive selection. Collaboration with regional research institutions required for experimental work.