Seminars

The DWG also organizes seminars, tailored to the specific needs and wishes of PhD students on campus and based on PhDs’ input during the annual doctoral breakfast. If you have suggestions on courses or seminars that you would like the DWG to organize, feel free to contact us!

Academic Career 101 (27 March 2019)

academic career 101

After two editions of the ‘From PhD to CEO’ seminars, DWG would like to invite you for a new seminar this year: Academic Career 101. 

WHAT |
In a moderated panel discussion, five PhD holders who are making their way in an academic career share their experiences. What trajectory did they follow after obtaining their PhD? How did they decide which path to follow and how did they prepare accordingly? What are the difficulties they encounter(ed) and what keeps them motivated? With a heterogeneous panel consisting of people from different scientific backgrounds and at different stages in their academic career, the discussion will undoubtedly be very interesting. There will be much room for questions from the audience, and afterwards the DWG offers a drink so you can talk with the panel members one-on-one.

WHO |

  • Wouter Druwé has been affiliated with the Division for Roman Law and Legal History at KU Leuven since 2013. He obtained his PhD in 2018 and was subsequently appointed as an assistant professor at the Faculty of Law.
  • David Dudal obtained his PhD in Physics at the UGent in 2005. After a post-doctoral positions in Ghent and at MIT (USA), he was appointed as an assistant professor in Physics at the Faculty of Science at Kulak.
  • Kim Martinod is an assistant professor in the Department of Cardiovascular Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, at KU Leuven.  She received her PhD degree in Immunology from Harvard Medical School. She has done her postdoctoral training at Boston Children’s Hospital and as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at KU Leuven Kulak.  She is now setting up her own research group at the Center for Molecular and Vascular Biology in Leuven.
  • Beatrijs Vanacker is a post-doctoral research fellow at the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) and KU Leuven. Her research focuses on 18th century (French, English, German and Italian) literature, discourse analysis, (pseudo-)translation and comparative literature.
  • Eline Vanassche obtained her PhD in Education at KU Leuven. After a position as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow at the University of East London (UK) and as an assistant professor at the University of Maastrecht, she started as an assistant professor at the Faculty of Psychology & Educational Sciences at Kulak in December 2018.

FOR WHOM |
All researchers from campus Kulak and Bruges are welcome.

WHEN & WHERE |
Wednesday 27 March 2019 at 6 PM
Room 00.21 in the IICK building

REGISTRATION |

Register here.

Seminar ‘From PhD to CEO?’ (7 May 2018)

WHAT | A panel talk with PhD holders who have made the transition from academia to industry.

  • The panel members will be asked to briefly introduce themselves.
  • Afterwards they will reply to several statements/questions from their own experience. These statements and questions will mainly focus on how they experienced this transition, but also on the importance of the ‘soft skills’ that they acquired during their doctoral program.
  • At the end, the audience will be given the opportunity to ask questions.
  • A small reception will be held to close off the evening.

WHO |

Steven Vandekerckhove defended his PhD in Physics on 30 September 2016 at Kulak with his dissertation on “Simulatie van golfvoortplantingsproblemen voor automatische identificatie van materiaalparameters en defecten”. He is now working as Big Data Analist at Renson Ventilation in Waregem.

Kelly Verheyen defended her PhD in Mathematics in 2009 at Kulak with her dissertation on “Anosov diffeomorphisms on infra-nilmanifolds modeled on a free nilpotent Lie group”. She is currently actuary in Non-Life Insurance & Domain Lead Product Pricing at Belfius Insurance.

An Schrijvers is a slavicist/polonist by training. After additional post graduate studies at home and abroad, she obtained a PhD in Political Sciences at Ghent University in 2007. In the following years she worked as a postdoctoral researcher and guest professor at the Centre for EU Studies of Ghent University. In 2011 she joined the secretariat of the Flemish Advisory Council on Science and Innovation. This used to be the strategic advisory body of the Flemish Government for science and innovation policy. At the beginning of 2017, the VRWI changed into VARIO and was given a broader agenda: in addition to science and innovation, entrepreneurship was also added. At the end of 2017, she left the advisory body to join the Programme for Innovative Public Procurement or PIP, where she supervises a portfolio of innovation projects that are running in various government organisations. She does this in close cooperation with the broader Flemish research and business world.  

Seminar series ‘From PhD to CEO: bridging the gap between academia and industry’ (2016-2017)

In 2016, we decided to organize a seminar series on the use of a PhD outside of academia. Writing a PhD is usually associated with scientific research within an academic environment. Yet, many PhD students are already thinking of the possible career opportunities outside of academia during their academic career. These opportunities have been given too little attention: what is the added value of a PhD outside academia? What can I expect when going on job interviews and what can I do during my PhD to increase my chances? Many of these questions arise through a lack of contact between the academic world and the larger job market. Especially PhD students have little to no direct contact with players outside academia. The goal of this series of seminars was to close the gap between PhD students and the general job market (industry, private sector, government, non-profit) by letting them enter into discussion with each other.

Session 1: Vicerector research (28 November 2016)

We kicked off our series by a lecture of our vicerector research Liliane Schoofs, which dealt with the wider perspective of PhDs and their careers and provided the facts: how long does it take before a PhD finds a job, what is the employment rate etc.

Session 2: Employers (22 March 2017)

In this session, we invited two speakers from industry. Central issue was the perspective of the employer and his/her view on the pros and cons of a PhD. What do they experience as great advantages (or disadvantages) of a PhD as opposed to a Master? What are potential obstacles to recruit a PhD? We welcomed Hans Ulrichts, Doctor in Biochemistry (KU Leuven Kulak) and Head Pharmacology at Ablynx (Zwijnaarde) and Stephanie Devisscher, Master in Economics (KU Leuven) and senior consultant at Wes research and strategy (Bruges), who shared their experiences with and opinions on a PhD in the general job market.

Session 3: PhDs in industry (22 May 2017)

In this final session, we invited five PhDs from the three research domains who are currently working in the general job market and who shared their experience in finding a job and working outside of academia. During this panel discussion, the five speakers first briefly introduced themselves, after which a number of statements and questions on PhDs in industry were asked. From their own experience they refuted or confirmed these statements. Central issue was how these PhDs experienced the transition from being a PhD student to working in the industry, but the importance of the ‘soft skills’ that they have mastered during their PhD program in their current job was tackled as well.