BACK TO THE FEATURE INDEX Australia is one of the most popular countries for "veetelers" (livestock growers)--as animal science MSc students at Wageningen University have come to be known--to do their placement. The true "veeteler city" is Palmerston North in New Zealand, but Brisbane, Adelaide, and Melbourne are also among the frequently visited places for a 6-month Australian experience. What i...
BACK TO THE FEATURE INDEX As a researcher in Europe you must have noticed that more scientific noses point to Brussels, instead of Paris, London, or Berlin, than did some years ago. This tendency becomes apparent not only in the increasing amount of research that is funded by the European Commission but also in the setup of bi- and multilateral collaborations, the stimulation of international exc...
Have you ever tried to look at your research with the eyes of a businessman? In this article, Science's Next Wave points you toward three Dutch initiatives which may help you to turn your scientific results into business. Your idea can be a business plan Get in touch with investors Marketing and management help According to the European Innovation Scoreboard 2004, published by the European Commis...
Being regarded as one of "tomorrow's bioleaders" is a welcome incentive for the participants in a program called BioVision.Nxt. Ninety-three PhD students, postdocs, and MBAs were selected for this "next generation" program, part of the international life sciences forum BioVision 2005. BioVision.Nxt seeks to enhance interactions between the rising stars in life science -- on both the technical and...
'Any career starts with a decision' was the best catchword I could come up with that day. I was not too chuffed about my stroke of inspiration, but as it turned out this statement would be the exact description of how my own career path would develop later on. I, along with 130 other participants, had been asked during the 2004 GeNeYouS symposium to express in a few words what it meant to us to b...
The public is anxious. Never has there been a greater need for scientists to step outside of their offices and laboratories and get public understanding and support for their research. The question is: How should they do that? Most scientists have no experience in discussing their research with nonscientists, except perhaps at family parties. "Scientists have to be trained in presenting their sub...
BACK TO THE FEATURE INDEX "Trend watching" in Paris certainly sounds like a glamorous occupation and is more likely to conjure up images of behind the scenes at the great fashion houses of Cacharel, Chanel, Dior, and Gaultier than the Netherlands Embassy. However, for Dutch national, Annemarie Nulle, who is currently working as the Netherlands' Technological and Scientific Councillor, "trend watc...
BACK TO THE FEATURE INDEX This is a translation of a Dutch article by Hanne Obbink "Top students." That's how the Netherlands' Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) is referring to the 40 students from ethnic minorities now competing for one of the so-called ?Mosaic' research grants. Certain ethnicities living in the Netherlands are largely underrepresented at every level of the scientific w...
BACK TO THE FEATURE INDEX You may love research and the academic environment, but this doesn?t necessarily mean that you long for a career at the bench. Opportunities to work with academic research yet out of a lab may not be common, but they surely are not impossible to find. Take the experience of Pieter Jasperse (pictured left), for example. After a PhD in Newcastle, UK, and a series of postdo...
Science is a part of society, and scientists have a responsibility to explain their activities to the public. So says David Bennett, a member of the advisory board of BIOPOP, and the other BIOPOP advisors. BIOPOP is an initiative of some young European biotechnology scientists that aims to meet what they consider the responsibility of scientists to increase public awareness of biotechnology and r...
Innumerable books, articles, and other resources are available on making a good first impression when applying for a job. Many offer views on the tone, order, and content of the perfect cover letter and curriculum vitae (CV) that are often contradictory. Does this mean that writing them is merely personal, and that no general rules apply? It is partly a question of preference, but many of the dif...
BACK TO THE FEATURE INDEX Diederik Hol is general manager and design engineer at Sportsline International, leader in the design and production of inline skates. This company was set up in 1999 in the Netherlands and has since been the official distributor of Mogema frames. Hol tells his story about how he got involved with skating, why he had to put his dream aside for a while, and how he's becom...
BACK TO THE FEATURE INDEX It is not uncommon for scientists to jump from academia to industry. It is far less common for a scientist to go from working with one of the most expensive materials, diamond, to what could be considered the most valuable material of all, DNA. Yet, Femke de Theije (pictured left) has done precisely that. She spoke to Next Wave from her wet lab at the Dutch company Phili...
"Are you satisfied with your career prospects?" was the first question Marijn van Ballegooijen, director of the PhD Network Netherlands (PNN), asked an audience of 25 representatives of local Ph.D. councils to consider. These had gathered in Amsterdam on 18 June to take part in a discussion about scientific career development. The event, entitled "A Career in Science," had been organised by the P...
Applying for a Ph.D. or postdoc is tricky business. If you do your homework, you can get a good impression of the research and reputation of the group you're applying to, but without an interview and a site visit--which usually come late in the game--you generally get little insight into the group's atmosphere and facilities. The Job Opportunity Market at the Nijmegen Centre for Molecular Life Sc...
Gadi Rothenberg likes doing things his way. Now an assistant professor at the van 't Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences at the University of Amsterdam, he's been taking opportunities as they came and creating them for himself when they were hard to come by. List of honour 'Distinguish yourself from others' has been the career motto of Rothenberg, who was born in Jerusalem. After 3 years of Isr...
BACK TO THE FEATURE INDEX For 30 years now Professor Martin Verstegen and his wife Mariet have made foreign PhD students feel at home in the Netherlands. While he watches over their scientific progress, she creates around them an ideal social environment. Now, you might wonder how a professor and his wife can give students such a great time. Sure enough, it's not your typical students' party, but...
Editor's note: This is one of four stories describing the experience of Dutch Ph.D. students working in both academia and industry. In the second instalment, Edwin Zondervan, nearly 1 year into his Ph.D., tells us about his STW-supported project. Technology Foundation STW is a semi-state-controlled organisation that stimulates technical-scientific research and practical implementation of the resu...
A s a scientist in training, it's difficult to do it all by yourself. You need people around you to supervise your research, to inspire your career, or simply to drink coffee with. And this is true at conferences as well--it is not easy to get up and talk to the right people. So the Genomics Network for Young Scientists (GeNeYouS) Young Researchers Program (YRP) has been put in place to help youn...
BACK TO THE FEATURE INDEX This is a translation of a Dutch article by Hanne Obbink "Top students." That's how the Netherlands' Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) is referring to the 40 students from ethnic minorities now competing for one of the so-called ?Mosaic' research grants. Certain ethnicities living in the Netherlands are largely underrepresented at every level of the scientific w...
