PhD / Postdoc Community
Currently, about 250 PhD students from all over the world are working at the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences in Göttingen. The PhD/Postdoc Community is a network of these students (founded 2003), which aims at promoting their interests. Our goal is to address the current issues affecting PhD students and to make their life at our campus a most pleasant experience. Since 2008 the network includes Postdocs and their interests as well.
We are part of the Max Planck Society-wide network of PhD students, the PhDnet, which serves as a platform for exchange among PhD students from all Max Planck Institutes.
What do we do?
Anything you as a PhD student or Postdoc would like us to do. First and foremost we represent your concerns and problems to the managing director and the administration. By having regular contact we establish a working relation with the administration allows us to raise problems in a constructive manner to achieve more as a group than we would be able to achieve on our own.
Our activities range from social getting-to-know each other events (like the Happy Hours, which is a great student-run initiative). Additionally we have the ability to host Career Seminars, Skill seminars, movie showing and sport events. Anything you can come up, we can do.
If you are new at the institute, do not hesitate to contact us with any questions. Our great colleagues at the Public Relations office have also prepared a lot of usefull information if you are first starting at the institute, check it out in the new web portal (or on the intranet).
Not only do we organize activities for PhD students and Postdocs, we also keep them informed about changes within the MPI-NAT/MPS concerning relevant administrative issues (such as insurance and funding issues). We offer assistance to all PhD students and Postdocs in settling in, and answer queries or help with problems in regard to the personal situation or the graduate program regulations (Informing). So do not hesitate to contact us no matter which problem you are facing at the moment!
For PhD students: Please contact us especially if you feel that the new guidelines for PhD students (Guidelines for Doctoral Training at Max Planck Institutes and PhDnet Best Practice Guide) are not respected by your supervisor.
Interested in joining us, or sharing an idea?
Please contact us any time via email or phone if you want to get involved.