Helmholtz Zentrum München Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Gesundheit und Umwelt

The TUM Postdoc101 Talks continue!

On October 26th, the talk series continues with a session on how to start a Junior Research Group!

(c) TUM Talent Factory

The Postdoc101 talks are open for external researchers in the Munich area and co-hosted by the Munich Postdoc Network. The session are generally on Wednesdays between 4-6 pm. and you can sign up via the registration form on the TUM Talent Factory website.

This semester's talks include: 

  • 26 October 2022 | Junior Research Groups: Tips and Tricks on How to Start Your Own Group
  • 9 November 2022 | Professur an einer Hochschule für angewandte Wissenschaften als Karriereoption (in German)
  • 23 November 2022 | Making the most of the postdoc experience
  • 11 January 2023 | The Entrepreneurial Path for a Scientist
  • 25 January 2023 | Understanding and Resolving Conflicts at Universities
  • 8 February 2023 | Self marketing in a Nutshell

Find more details about the session on "Junior Research Groups: Tips and Tricks on How to Start Your Own Group" here - Michael Menden will also join to share his experience as a group leader! 

Description: Establishing one’s own Junior Research Group with third-party funding provides an important next step in the career of mid-career researchers. However, the application process is usually complex and competitive and, if successful, the new position comes along with its own challenges such as finding the right team and taking on a new role as a group leader.

In this talk, successful research group leaders will talk about their transition from being a postdoc to a research group leader, their respective groups, and funding programs. They will share their advice on what to keep in mind when you apply for research groups and how to get started as a research group leader. These first-hand insights will be useful for anyone taking the next steps on the career ladder.

Speakers (all Research Group Leaders at different stages and members of the Munich Postdoc Network (MPN)):

Prof. Dr. Nayla Fawzi is a professor at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and leads the Emmy Noether research group “Alienation between Population, Media and Politics? Media and Political Disenchantment from the Perspective of Public and Elites.” Her research focus on populism and media, media trust and adolescents’ digital media use.

Dr. Christina Holzapfel is TUM Junior Fellow and leads the BMBF Junior Research Group „Personalized Nutrition & eHealth“ at the Institute for Nutritional Medicine at TUM. Her background is in nutrition sciences and her research is focused on the prevention and treatment of overweight and obesity.

Dr. habil. Michael P. Menden is a Junior Group Leader at the Institute of Computational Biology (Helmholtz Munich) since 2019, and is heading the Menden Lab, and is Head of the DZD Computational Biology Unit. He was awarded an ERC Starting Grant in 2020, and the Rising Star in Drug Discovery Award from the University of Cardiff in 2022. Previously, Dr. Menden worked as Senior Scientist in Oncology Bioinformatics, AstraZeneca, UK. He was a PhD student and postdoctoral fellow at EMBL-EBI, UK. In 2016, his PhD was awarded in Computational Biology by the University of Cambridge, UK. In 2017, Dr. Menden was appointed an Honorary Lecturer position at the University of Sheffield, UK. Since 2019, Dr. Menden also became a lecturer in the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU). He finished his habilitation at LMU, Faculty of Biology in Human Biology and Bioinformatics in 2022.