Kick off meeting for PhD students in Physics and Materials Science

The Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) together with the University of Luxembourg officially launched the Doctoral Programme in Physics and Materials Science (DPPM) on 23 February 2018 at La Maison du Savoir in Belval (LU).

The doctoral school programme comprises scientific groups from LIST's Department of Materials Research and Technology (MRT) and from the Physics and Materials Science Research Unit (PHYMS) at the University of Luxembourg. The DPPM offers research training at an internationally competitive level in physics and materials science.

Gathering 65 PhD students and scientists from the two institutions around scientific and recreational activities, the objective of this annual event was to introduce all the designed activities of the programme during current academic year for students and academics from LIST and the University. General assembly, poster session and talks provided by programme directors and invited guests were the highlights of the meeting.

DPPM kick off at a glance

The kick-off event, moderated Dr Emmanuel Defay (LIST), started with a poster session. PhD students had the chance to share their research outline and results. To ensure the best judgment, a committee of specialists from the DPPM evaluated the posters.

For their outstanding work, three of them were awarded, namely: François Loyer for his poster on "Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Initiated CVD (AP-Pi CVD): Simple and Upscalable Route Toward Smart and Conformal Polymer Thin Films", Solofo Groenendijk for his poster on "Fundamental Limits to Helical Edge Conductivity due to Spin-Phonon Scattering" and Lawrence Honacker for his poster on "Microfluidics for Surface and Interfacial Tensiometry". We congratulate the winners on their excellent work.

During the afternoon, two separate general meetings took place: one for the students and one for the supervisors. Doctoral candidates elected their representatives for the Doctoral Candidate Council while supervisors exchanged about the programme and its challenges. Then, two guest speakers shared their viewpoints. Cornelia Denz, Professor at the Institute of Applied Physics at the University of Münster, gave a presentation on photonic lattices and described interesting effects in light-matter interaction.

Finally, Prof. Susanne Siebentritt presented the DDPM procedures and activities for PhD students, and Johannes Hendrik Fahner, President of LuxDoc (Luxembourg’s young researchers association), presented the organisation.

The kick-off event ended with the opening of a standing dinner, which was marked by fruitful discussions between the participants.

Photo credit © University of Luxembourg