August 2005
Career prospects in Germany
Annual meeting and job fair for young German researchers
"Wissenschaft im Wettbewerb" (Competition in Science) is the slogan for this year's annual meeting of young German researchers, taking place from 9 to 11 September 2005 in San Diego. About 150 young researchers who are currently working in the western United States and in Canada will find out about the latest developments in German research policy and possible career openings in Germany. Having a job fair there will give those researchers abroad an opportunity to discuss individual career prospects with potential employers from Germany. Approximately 40 grant recipients from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation), many of whom are Emmy Noether fellows, will be among the participants.
The meeting is organised by the German Scholars Organization (GSO), the DFG, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (AvH) and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), in cooperation with other German research organisations.
In addition to the competition between Europe and the USA in science and technology, the meeting includes other key topics such as the performance of German universities and funding for top-level research. Leading figures from the research community, politics and industry will address these issues, among them Mary Kavanagh from the European Commission Delegation to the United States and Hans Coufal from IBM Research. The main focus of the talk by the President of the DFG, Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker, will be on competition between the best universities and public research funding. Peter Gaehtgens, President of the German Association of Universities and Higher Education Institutions, and Max Huber, Vice President of the DAAD, will also participate in discussions with the young researchers. The focus of this year's guest lecture is a hot topic in the international research community: Lawrence Goldstein from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute will speak on the current state of stem cell research and the situation of scientists in the field.
German researchers working in the United States play a pivotal role in establishing transatlantic networks and exchanging information between Europe and the US. The San Diego meeting marks the fourth conference held by the German funding organisations to provide support to and facilitate networking between German researchers working in the United States. Previous meetings were held in Berkeley (September 2002), Palo Alto (October 2003) and Boston (September 2004).
This year's meeting schedule and contact details can be found at www.dfg-usa.org.