Student-Led Activities
Our students play a pivotal role in shaping our community and creating a thriving environment. Let’s take a look at some of our student-led initiatives:
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Students aiming to broaden their project management and leadership skills have the opportunity to organise the student symposium <interact>. Founded in 2007, the event aims to provide a platform for young scientists to network and share scientific results with their peers and typically attracts up to 300 junior scientists from the Munich area. The members of the organising team initially participate in a two-day workshop to acquire skills in project management, leadership and fund raising. Following this, the team is fully in charge of planning and orgainising the entire event including fundraising, marketing, scientific content and logistics. Most organisers find this experience extremely rewarding since it not only fosters transferable skill development, but also is a genuine confidence builder and an asset when it comes to putting together a CV for a job application outside of academia.
InPharma Career Symposium
InPharma is a career event aimed at bringing together industry players and junior life scientists. The event was founded at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in 2015, and its goal is to introduce the wider landscape of career perspectives in pharma, biotech and beyond to young life scientists from the Munich area. The bi-annual symposium is planned and organised by life science doctoral candidates from different scientific institutions in Munich.
InPharma is a unique platform for young life scientists to connect and learn from speakers that moved on from academia to pursue fruitful careers in different industry branches. The goal is to introduce graduate students to exciting companies, enable them to have direct contact with the speakers and allow them to participate in career-oriented workshops.
MPIB Happy Hour
Organised by the PhD and Postdoc committee together with the MPIB research groups, the monthly MPIB Networking Event offers a relaxed atmosphere for networking, complete with snacks, music, and games. These events are designed to strengthen connections within our community.
IMPRS Blog
The IMPRS blog (formerly IMPRS newsletter) a collaborative effort between a dedicated team of students and the IMPRS-ML Coordination Office, providing essential updates on IMPRS news, events, and insightful interviews with community members (e.g., student spotlights and alumni stories).
Articles are writting by IMPRS students allowing them to pratice their writing and interviewing skills.
Book Club
The IMPRS book club is run by a group of PhD students and is open to anyone who likes to read, would like to start reading again or is interested in discovering new books that their peers enjoyed.
Every month, the club meets in a different location in Munich and goes around the list of attendees to each present a book related to the theme of the month or a book of their choice.
Attendees are not expected to give a full summary of the book (since some attendees might want to read it afterwards). Instead, just give a brief introduction of the book and talk about several aspects of the book such as: the type of narration, the themes presented in the book, why you decided to read it and why you liked/didn’t like it. We will then open for general discussion about the theme, specific books or other things.
Previous themes included:
- Nobel Laureates
- Science Books
- Detective Books
- Choose-your-own-adventure
Upcoming themes:
- 55th book club (July): Books with Cats
- 56th book club (August): Magical Realism
- 57th book club (September): Books with Ugly Covers
- 58th book club (October): One Word Titles
Stammtisch
The monthly “Stammtisch” is organised by our PhD representatives and usually takes place at a Bavarian restaurant in Großhadern. This gathering is open to all IMPRS students, and is a great opportunity to meet new people, catch up with fellow students, and enjoy a relaxed evening together.
The Stammtisch is also a casual opportunity to discuss questions, concerns or thoughts with peers and the PhD representatives.
QueerSoc
The QueerSoc is a space for queer people to connect, and generally for people to be able to talk about queerness in science. The society brings together students of the queer community for social events, but also for career initiatives such as inviting scientists that belong to the community for career talks or professional networking events. The members of QueerSoc aim to foster diversity within the IMPRS and MPI network, and adjacent graduate student and research communities.