International Exchange

Doctoral students benefit strongly from early scientific and personal exchange to leading scientists world-wide. International research experiences are a way to acquire new methodological skills, will broaden the doctoral students’ scientific horizon and help them to make contacts which may be important for their future academic career. The IRTG will therefore strongly support short term research visits both financially and logistically. Beside the widespread network of extraordinary CeNS members and individual contacts between research groups that will foster research stays abroad, the IRTG students can take part in CeNS-based exchange activities like the “Junior Nanotech Network”. The members of the Research Training Group will also benefit from the newly established cooperation of the Center for NanoScience with the “Physics of the Living Systems Student Research Network” (http://pols.ucsd.edu). This network is funded as a pilot project of “Science Across Virtual Institutes (SAVI)”, an initiative that was launched by the NSF in October 2011 as an innovative concept to foster interaction among scientists, engineers and educators around the globe. The Research Training Group will be an ideal first platform for this exchange program. This will offer the doctoral students the unique chance for international lab visits and joint activities with some of the leading universities in nanoscience/biophysics worldwide. In the medium term, it is planned to further institutionalize and expand this cooperation by establishing an International Research Training Group with partner(s) from the “Physics of the Living Systems” Network