The course archive lists courses organised by CEPLAS.
Courses are divided into the following categories:
Location: UoC, Institute for Genetics (day 1); UoC, Cologne Biocenter (day 2)
Time: 9:30 - 16:00 (day 1); 9:30 - 13:00 (day 2)
Max. number of participants: 20
Trainers:
Content:
Day 1: Status and Future of Plant Breeding
Day 2: Working at a globally leading agriscience company: Corteva AgriscienceTM
Registration is opened until June 17, 2018. To register for the course, please follow this link.
Instructors: Prof. Dr. Maria von Korff Schmising, Dr. Artem Pankin
Content:
Date: May 23 – 24 2017
Time: 9:00 – 16:00 (day 1), 9:00 – 13:00 (day 2)
Location: Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Carl-von-Linné-Weg 10, 50829 Cologne
Max. number of participants: 12
Instructors:
Content:
Day1: Status and Future of Plant Breeding
Day 2: Professional Perspectives for Plant Scientists in a Plant Breeding Company; meet current employees from NPZ Innovation GmbH
Time: 9:30 – 16:00 (day 1), 9:30 – 13:00 (day 2)
Location: University of Cologne, Institute for Genetics, Zülpicher Str. 47a, 50674 Cologne, 4th Floor, Lecture Hall
Max. number of participants: 15 – 20
This interdisciplinary workshop aims at bringing together a dievrse group of researchers working on non-photocheical quenching mechanisms in plants and marine organisms. It will provide a platform for a focussed discussion and and exchange of cross-disciplinary ideas and results. The topics of the workshop will include various aspects of NPQ, ranging from molecular mechanisms of quenching, over new measuring techniques to constructing theroetical descriptions of the process and mathematical modelling. Side of lectures conducted by worldwide experts in NPQ research, there will be a significant time devoted to gain hands-on experience in using mathematical models. The workshop is designed to bring together a group of around 20 participants in an early stage of their scientific career.
Content:
Day 1
Day 2
Instructors:
Dr. Günter Strittmatter (formerly Head of Research and Development at KWS SAAT AG), 2 employees from KWS SAAT AG (Florian Bruhns – Human Resources / Employer Branding and Talent Sourcing, Dr. Markus Nießen – Scientific Researcher)
Population genetics, quantitative genetics, QTL mapping, association mapping
The plant module is a theoretical course that presents on the one hand typical plant topics to the students and on the other hand trains in a workshop style in skills which a scientist needs. These skills are analysis and critical thinking, asking critical questions, critical reviewing of published articles, suggesting experimental approaches for scientific questions, suggesting grant applications in furtherance of known projects to mock juries, and more.
March 15-16, 9 am to 12:30 pm
online workshop via Zoom
To register please write an Email to Gradschool@ceplas.de
Description
So you are a PhD student now. The initial phase might be quite overwhelming with all new roles that you need to step into: sometimes becoming a writer, sometimes a technician, teacher or presenter. Additionally there are so many essential questions that have not been necessarily answered during your undergraduate studies. How to set a satisfactory literature search? Where to look for funding options? How to network (and even more urgent, where, since everything is locked down?) How to manage the references? Which tool is the best to keep track of my working time? Hence, the beginning is all about finding your feet as a researcher. And this workshop will help you to get a solid grounding and help to organise your work at the beginning of their PhD. In addition to short lectures, interaction between the participants is highly encouraged. Asside from group discussions, participants will have a chance to work in small groups in virtual breakout rooms. The workshop is divided into two half days, because we want you to stay fresh and focused.
Trainer
Dr. Anna Matuszyńska is a mathematician by training and a plant biology scientist, affiliated with Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf. She studied in three European countries observing, comparing and benefiting from three distinct educational systems. As a Marie Curie Fellow, she had a chance to pursue a multidisciplinary topic in an international team of scientists, and additionally went through an intensive training that enhanced her transferable skills portfolio. As a starting Group Leader, she is experimenting with what she wants to bring to the scientific community beside her research. This course is a result of one of such experiments in which she aims to support researchers at their earliest career stage, so they can be better prepared to pursue and enjoy their doctorate studies. Anna Matuszyńska was a member of the CEPLAS Graduate School from 2014 to 2016 and since 2020, she is a CEPLAS CI.
Location: Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf
Trainers:
The workshop focused on hands on exercises in RNAseq analysis, interspersed with explanatory talks.
Participants: 22
Day 1 – Monday Sept 17th, 9am to 6pm
Day 2 – Tuesday Sept 18th, 9am to 6pm
Day 3 – Wednesday Sept 19th, 9am to 4pm
Location: Haus der Universität, Schadowplatz 14, Düsseldorf
Time: 9 am to 4 pm
Max. number of participants: 45
Target group: Doctoral researchers and postdocs interested in the high-potential and efficient gene-editing technology CRISPR/Cas9; participants should be familiar with basic molecular biology
Presenters:
Course content
The course covers the discovery and theoretical background and presents
applications of CRISPR technology in plants. There will be room left for general
discussion and problem solving for participants.
Topics covered:
Instructor: Jonathan Fritzemeier, Computational Cell Biology (Prof. Martin Lercher), HHU Düsseldorf
Content:
Day 1: Introduction to R (as needed)
Day 2: plotting data with ggplot2
Day 3: hands on: creating figures with your own data (on demand)
Time: 9:30 - 16:00
Location: Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Room 25.02.01.25
Max. number of participants: 10
This course is divided into lecture and course:
Lecture: Introduction in the different mass spectrometric methods used in protein science (MALDI-MS and ESI-MS). Interpretation of mass spectra, de novo sequencing, data base search
Lab course: If available and desired analysis of own samples. Starting with protein digest (in gel or in solution) with following mass analysis and spectra interpretation.
Data mining in computer science is the computational process of uncovering pattern of interests in large data sets, which is termed “knowledge discovery in databases KDD” [1]. Microarrays in experimental molecular biology allows monitoring the expression levels of tens of thousands of genes simultaneously. This approach necessarily result is an enormous collection of data, whose evaluation makes the use of statistical tools indispensable. In this workshop we want to present the concept of data mining for molecular biology and to introduce some statistical method for analyzing microarray data.
Content:
Introduction to microarray data: Overview of image processing, transformation and normalization Analysis of gene expression data in R:
[1] Cabena, Peter; Hadjnian, Pablo; Stadler, Rolf; Verhees, Jaap; Zanasi, Alessandro (1997); Discovering Data Mining: From Concept to Implementation, Prentice Hall, ISBN 0-13-743980-6
Content:
Application of fluorescence methods for protein localisation and interaction studies in vivo; this course will include FLIM, FRET, FCS, FRAP and other advanced methods to investigate the dynamic behaviour of proteins in plant tissues. Basic knowledge of Excel required. Note: Participants are selected by the trainer team based on short motivation letter including an overview about your previous experience and the importance of this method regarding your project.
LaTeX is a markup language based on the typesetting system TeX. It is widely considered as the standard for professional and good looking text documents (theses, papers, reports...) in the scientific community. Based on the WYSIWYM concept (What You See Is What You Mean) in contraposition to the WYSIWYG approach (What You See Is What You Get) of Word and OpenOffice, LaTeX has many useful features that automatically take care of things like bibliography management, cross-text linking and referencing, figures and tables labelling etc. In these two days we will go through the basics of the LaTeX language (structuring a document, using bibliography, customize appearance, manage floating environments like tables and more), providing example templates of journal articles and PhD theses that the participants can use.
Basic commands and concepts; learn to access your data files and work on them to retrieve specific information. Learn about installing and executing software. Request: If you would like to participate in this course, please add to your registration a few sentences why you are interested to learn perl or linux and what specific problems you wish to solve. This information will help Ganga to get an overview about the specific requirements of the participants and will help to shape the content of the course.
The aim of the workshop is to bring macromolecular structure determination closer to the non-experts in the field. The workshop will introduce the participants to what structural information crystallography can provide, the basics of crystallographic techniques (protein crystallization, x-ray diffraction, data collection and data analysis), structure determination, model building and refinement, structure validation, analysis and interpretation.
The basic theory on X-ray crystallography will be provided in an introductory session followed by practical sessions on protein crystallization, data collection, data analysis, model building and model validation.
Projected topics of the seminar:
Analysis of primary metabolites (selected sugars, amino acids and organic acids) by GC-MS in a small pilot experiment (max. 12 samples): experimental design, metabolite extraction, hands-on GC-MS measurement, data analysis.
Application of fluorescence methods for protein localisation and interaction studies in vivo; this course will include FLIM, FRET, FCS, FRAP and other advanced methods to investigate the dynamic behaviour of proteins in plant tissues. Basic knowledge of Excel required. Note: Participants are selected by the trainer team based on short motivation letter including an overview about your previous experience and the importance of this method regarding your project.
Content:
Day 1: Descriptive Statistics + Experimental Design
Day 2: Inferential Statistics (tests)
Day 3: Exploratory Data Analysis (clustering, principle component analysis, ANOVA & multiple comparisons)
Instructor: Prof. Gerald Schönknecht (Oklahoma State University, currently on sabbatical leave at HHU)
Application of fluorescence methods for protein localisation and interaction studies in vivo; this course will include FLIM, FRET, FCS, FRAP and other advanced methods to investigate the dynamic behaviour of proteins in plant tissues. Basic knowledge of Excel required. Note: Participants are selected by the trainer team based on short motivation letter including an overview about your previous experience and the importance of this method regarding your project.
Successfully communicating your research – Journalistic writing and communicating to the media
Anna-Lynn Wegener, European Southern Observatory, organized in collaboration with CEPLAS
2 days workshop
Date: September 30 and October 1, 10 am to 5 pm
Topics:
Conducting a successful interview
Visualising science: images in science communication
Overview of career paths in science communication and journalism
Testimonial: Susanne Günther, former editor CRISPR Whisper
Location: Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf
Trainer: Richard Twyman
Content:
Peer-reviewed scientific publications are the most important way that scientists communicate with each other because published papers establish a permanent, publicly-accessible record of research. The ability to attract funding and thus make career progress is often tied to the quality and quantity of publications. Writing excellent scientific papers is therefore a necessary part of scientific training. Editors use strict quality criteria aided by the peer-review process to choose among submitted papers and there is strong competition for the highest-ranking publications. It therefore pays to have an edge when submitting manuscripts.
No matter how good your research may be, it will not be published if it is poorly communicated. Editors and reviewers will be put off by confusing, poorly constructed and badly written papers. The best scientific papers show perfect balance between brevity, clarity, organization and style, which make the writing efficient at conveying information and entertaining to read.
The aim of this course is to train scientists to communicate effectively by writing excellent and convincing manuscripts that deserve publication. The lingua franca of scientific communication is English and it is therefore imperative for scientists with English as a second or third language to learn how to write strongly, clearly and efficiently in English.
The course begins with an overview of the art of writing a scientific paper, starting from a blank page and a laboratory notebook. We will discuss strategies to organize data well and tell an interesting story. Scientific writing must be formal, but it need not be artless and dull. The best scientific papers convey excitement without hyperbole and digression. Having mastered data organization, we will then discuss the techniques required to write each part of a scientific manuscript in turn, starting with the most important part – the results. On each day of the course we will tackle a different section of the paper – the results, the title/abstract/introduction, the methods and the discussion. Finally, we will discuss how to fine tune a manuscript, obeying language conventions and ensuring the reader is delighted, rather than annoyed, by the text they are reading. The course will consist of a mixture of lectures, showing these writing techniques by example, followed by individual and group sessions to develop manuscripts into a finished product. There is an optional email-based follow up period to get the paper into a state ready for submission to your journal of choice..
Prerequisites:
Participants: 8
Registration has closed.
If you have any questions about the course, please contact juliane.schmid[at]hhu.de
Trainer: Monère Renoir Wanner, Monère Wanner Image Consultancy
Time: 10:00 - 17:00
Location: University of Cologne, Biocenter, Room 4.004
Workshop Content:
Know Your Worth:
Upgrade Your Body Language:
Manage First Impressions to Your Advantage:
Integrate & Harmonize Your Masculine and Feminine Energy:
Uplevel Your Listening Skills:
Amplify Your Winning Personality:
Connect with People:
Strengthen Your Discipline – Muscle:
Registration: Register here. Registration deadline is October 1, 2017.
Purpose: Enables Life Scientists to Write Grants and Fellowships That Get Their Research Funded
Participants Learn How To
Description:
This two-day workshop takes a practical approach to teaching researchers in the life sciences how to apply for third-party funding. Through examples and relevant exercises as well as class discussions, each participant learns how to develop their funding idea by matching it to the goals of a targeted funding program. As a starting point, the workshop uses participants’ written outlines of their own funding ideas. Group exercises help participants not only to structure proposals that comply with funding agency requirements but also to write proposals that reflect the reading behaviour of reviewers. The interactive nature of the workshop is designed to pool the experience, ideas and opinions of the instructors with those of the students in order to enhance the learning experience for all participants.
The basics of science communication and journalistic writing for scientists
Science plays an important role in our society and impacts on every aspect of our lives. News about science, technology, health and environment are some of the most exciting and important storied for the media and for the public. But it often is a challenge for scientists to convey the wonder of new findings and make complex research accessible to a lay audience.
One reason for this difficulty is that communication to a lay audience is very different from the peer -
to - peer communication that researchers normally engage in. It follows ist own principles, style and structure, designed to simultaneously entertain and inform. Luckily, science communications is a skill that can be learned and perfected with practice. This two-¬day seminar aims to provide an introduction to the basics of science ommunication, particularly focusing on science journalism and journalistic writing.
Workshop Rationale and Objectives
Researchers are increasingly faced with expectations to raise 3rd party funds if they want to pursue a successful research career. Yet, applying for 3rd party funds is not an end in itself and could even be detrimental to research careers, if disconnected from own scientific or life plans or scientific goals. This workshop, thus, aims to clarify which kinds of funding opportuni-ties are suitable for the participants’ respective purposes. In addition, it offers insights into the objectives and practices of research funding institutions.
On the second day, individual short coaching sessions or a peer review simulation will take place (to be determined by CEPLAS). The aim of the coaching sessions is to help the partici-pants pave their way towards successful applications in view of their needs and ambi-tions. During a peer review simulation, participants get a feeling for such an event by present-ing a proposal abstract in a nutshell and by receiving feedback both from colleagues and the trainer.
Social Networking – Sie kennen den Spruch “Kontakte schaden nur der, die keine hat” – fühlen sich aber selbst nicht zur großen Netzwerkerin berufen? Lernen Sie im Workshop die Grundlagen für professionelles Netzwerken kennen und finden Sie den Weg, der zu Ihnen passt. Dabei sprechen wir nicht nur über “Soziale Netzwerke” im Internet, sondern auch über die Möglichkeit bei Messen, Vorträgen etc. zu netzwerken. Und natürlich behandeln wir nicht nur den Aufbau, sondern auch die Pflege und Wartung Ihres Netzwerks – bis hin zu den Fragen “wie werde ich einen Kontakt wieder los” und “wie kann ich die Anfrage ablehnen, ohne zu verletzen”.
Reputationsmanagement – Sie erleben in der Tagespresse, wie schnell der Ruf einer Person ruiniert sein kann? Und was tun Sie, um Ihren Ruf bzw. Ihre Reputation – gerade im Zeitalter von Internet und Sozialen Netzwerken – zu schützen? Gemeinsam überprüfen wir die jetzigen Infos über Sie im Web und erarbeiten eine individuelle Strategie, Ihren – hoffentlich noch tadellosen Ruf – auch in Zukunft zu gewährleisten. Gar nicht im Internet präsent zu sein ist oftmals nicht die beste Lösung…
To register please write an Email to equality@ceplas.de
Overview:
Academia is an ultramarathon that we try to run as a sprint. This approach tends to leave us with little time or energy for life outside of work and very few resources to cope when we face challenges. But a healthier approach to research is possible and is essential if you want to build a sustainable career in academia (or anywhere else in this fast-paced, competitive world we live in).
Despite our increasing diversity, academics tend to harbour a common chorus of voices in our heads. Voices that demand perfection, or that tell us we aren’t good enough and we don’t belong here; voices that have driven us to excel, but that also charge a pretty high tax. A tax on our emotional, mental and physical health. Yes, the environment is a contributor to the unhealthy, counterproductive lifestyle many of us live.
However, we as individuals can address the way we approach academia to buffer us against stress and burnout, worry and fear, and the toxic competition we are often surrounded by.
Explore
- how your mindset and the mental models you hold shape your thoughts, your mood, and your choices, and your productivity;
- Address the critical inner voices that drive perfectionism, imposter syndrome, and self-doubt that sabotage your motivation and enjoyment for your work;
- Learn how to shift your mindset in order to create more mental space and energy to think, create, be present, and thrive.
Trainers’ Bio:
Desiree Dickerson PhD is a clinical psychologist who specialises in academic mental health and wellbeing.
A former researcher herself, Desiree is now based in Europe and works with leading academic
institutions, lab groups, and academics themselves in the pursuit of a healthier approach to research.
She has also contributed to the dialogue around mental health and well-being in academia through
recent pieces in Nature and Science on imposter syndrome, perfectionism, grad school mental health
and Mental health strategies during COVID.
To register please write an Email to equality@ceplas.de
Overview:
Academia is an ultramarathon that we try to run as a sprint. This approach tends to leave us with little time or energy for life outside of work and very few resources to cope when we face challenges. But a healthier approach to research is possible and is essential if you want to build a sustainable career in academia (or anywhere else in this fast-paced, competitive world we live in).
Despite our increasing diversity, academics tend to harbour a common chorus of voices in our heads. Voices that demand perfection, or that tell us we aren’t good enough and we don’t belong here; voices that have driven us to excel, but that also charge a pretty high tax. A tax on our emotional, mental and physical health. Yes, the environment is a contributor to the unhealthy, counterproductive lifestyle many of us live.
However, we as individuals can address the way we approach academia to buffer us against stress and burnout, worry and fear, and the toxic competition we are often surrounded by.
Explore
- how your mindset and the mental models you hold shape your thoughts, your mood, and your choices, and your productivity;
- Address the critical inner voices that drive perfectionism, imposter syndrome, and self-doubt that sabotage your motivation and enjoyment for your work;
- Learn how to shift your mindset in order to create more mental space and energy to think, create, be present, and thrive.
Trainers’ Bio:
Desiree Dickerson PhD is a clinical psychologist who specialises in academic mental health and wellbeing.
A former researcher herself, Desiree is now based in Europe and works with leading academic
institutions, lab groups, and academics themselves in the pursuit of a healthier approach to research.
She has also contributed to the dialogue around mental health and well-being in academia through
recent pieces in Nature and Science on imposter syndrome, perfectionism, grad school mental health
and Mental health strategies during COVID.
In collaboration with STARTPLATZ Düsseldorf CEPLAS organizes its first design thinking workshop on Sept 7, 2017 in Düsseldorf.
The workshops starts with a short introduction on start-up culture with different founders introducing their companies, followed by the design thinking part.
Originating in Silicon Valley, Design Thinking is a very creative, powerful technique to effectively structure team work and brain storming processes and develop innovative user-oriented solutions. During the one-day workshop, participants are guided through a complete Design Thinking process ending with a self-made prototype.
Registration is closed.
IPR Protection
PROvendis, Mülheim a. d. Ruhr, organized in collaboration with CEPLAS
1,5 day workshop (online)
Date: October 19-20, 2021
Topics Day 1 (9 am - 4 pm):
Topics Day 2 (9-12 am)
Presentation of Examples for Startup Foundations (Biology/Biotechnology)
Phenospex, Heerlen (NL)
online event
Registration and participation will take place via Zoom: The zoom link will be sent to all CEPLAS doctoral researchers and postdocs before the event
The start-up phase of the doctorate
Identifying opportunities and challenges – setting the compass
online workshop
Trainer: Dr. Simon Golin, Golin Wissenschaftsmanagement
A doctorate is a complex and long lasting project. If it is not usefully structured from the beginning it is easy to lose sight of the bigger picture and often also motivation in a maze of possibilities.
Developing a full understanding of your goals – for the doctorate as well as for the labour market entry which follows – is a prerequisite for an efficient working process. This will allow a strategic and reflexive approach starting with the selection of a suitable topic through to the realistic conceptualisation of the different phases of work.
In the workshop a small group of participants will each set personal objectives and then convert these into an individual outline plan for their doctoral thesis. The doctoral candidates will identify the central phases of their doctoral project as well as possible stumbling blocks and areas where further skills development is needed. Additionally, the framework requirements of doctoral research and the relationship with the supervisor will be discussed.
The following topics are at the core of this workshop:
Location: Forschungszentrum Jülich
For more information or registration please contact Juliane.
Instructor: Dr. Christian Dumpitak, iGRAD, HHU Düsseldorf
This seminar, which is organised by iGRAD for CEPLAS doctoral researchers and postdocs, is a fundamental introduction to the principles for safeguarding good scientific practice as proposed by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). It focuses on the perspectives of (post)doctoral researchers by introducing and discussing the following topics:
This seminar, which is organised by iGRAD for CEPLAS doctoral researchers and postdocs, is a fundamental introduction to the principles for safeguarding good scientific practice as proposed by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). It focuses on the perspectives of (post)doctoral researchers by introducing and discussing the following topics:
This seminar is a fundamental introduction to the principles for safeguarding good scientific practice as proposed by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). The following topics will be discussed: Potential areas of conflict in research, Dishonest scientific practice, behaviour and possible consequences, Data preparation and documentation, Publishing, publications and scientific collaboration, Supervision and organizational culture, Research with human beings/ Research with animals, Strategies to prevent and to deal with potential problems and conflicts.
