Members of the 8th Doctoral Council

Maren Weissig, Spokesperson - External communication and marketing

I will also in future continue to represent the interests of the PhD students at TU Dresden. The compatibility of financing research, with family or care obligations, and the (mental)) health balance during the PhD work have been important to me since the beginning of the pandemic, but especially in the subsequent phase. I work in various committees to help shaping the TU Dresden for doctoral students and to make it attractive, especially with regard to career opportunities.

My topics:

Promotion of a lively PhD student network
Being a contact person for university committees

I've been working on my PhD thesis in the Faculty of Architecture since 2020
I am self-financed.

István Simon, Deputy spokesperson - Finance management

My name is István Simon, I am a cultural manager and an international ballet artist. I was the first performing artist to be accepted at the TU Business and Economics faculty as a doctoral student. My field is ArtScience, I am researching the impact of performing arts on management learning in the context of experimental teaching.
I define my work as interspace management, connecting remote areas of knowledge with the intention of facilitating innovation in science and business.
As a member of the Doctoral Council, my intention is to contribute to the development of interpersonal relationships and network

to foster collaborations and exchanges
to improve the visibility of the doctoral students and their work within, as well as outside of the university.
lobby for the development of such sustainable models and structures that can give various desirable perspectives for TU Doctoral Students to remain and continue their work in Dresden if they wish to do so.

Secretarial work/documentation

Majka Hausen

I am doing my PhD in linguistics (Slavic studies) and philosophy of language with Prof. Dr. Kuße (Dresden) and prof. PhDr. Vojtech Kolman (Prague). My concern for the PhD Council is to develop a concept for the integration of PhD students and also graduates into the teaching of the TUD, so that their expertise and ideas remain present and can become fruitful even after graduation or outside of a university position.

External communication and marketing

Hifsa Pervez

Hello all, as an international student in different countries (Canada, Denmark, UAE), I have realized that an important part of a fulfilling experience at the university relies on the student council.
I have been part of the first Fachschaftsrat of CMCB in Dresden where I was involved in the onboarding of new students and have been an active member of the Lise-Meitner-Gesellschaft in Dresden, Germany. There I helped organized meetups and local conferences to encourage open dialog and cultural exchange.
However, with the pandemic, a lot of things have changed and admittedly, a lot of us in such student clubs were not fully ready to face the new challenges that came with it. Moreover, with the recent crisis in Ukraine, the society is going through another wave of changes, and I believe a platform as the doctoral council helps foster an enriching space for all people equally in university.
Therefore, for our next Doctoral Council chapter, I would like to focus on some of the following questions and areas:

Increase awareness of existing platforms in Dresden for PhD that allow networking and make moving to a new city easier
Generally, I am very passionate about diversity in STEM fields and feel it should be discussed more
How can we tackle some of persistent issues with PhDs/Post-docs?
A mental health initiative: a safe, open & anonymous platform that deals with things like burn-out, common occurrence in academia

I personally find by sharing (experiences, food, ideas), we learn a lot about each other and develop tolerance and widen our perspective – key to a successful international study.

Isabell Lippert

I have been doing my PhD at the TU Dresden since 6/15/21 and I am still happy about this option today, as it is not a matter of course considering my family history.

Commitment, having a say and helping to shape things have always been close to my heart. During my apprenticeship at AUDI AG, I was elected as a youth and trainee representative. I continued my trade union commitment beyond my training and received a scholarship from the Hans Böckler Foundation for this during my studies. At the Hans Böckler Foundation in particular, the focus is on having a say, because it is the scholarship holders who decide who is accepted. I've also been through many different stages in my career: first training, then studying, project manager, parental leave, project manager again, and finally a doctorate. I try to teach my children that you have to take your luck into your own hands, and I also adopt this mentality in my teaching. For me, students are not followers, but I want to pull them along and inspire them, give them something to take with them, and be a role model for women who have also had to fight their way through, that you can make it if you set your own conditions and there is someone or other who believes in them. So I'm happy to continue my spirit of commitment in the doctoral council.

Eventmanagement

Jasmin Stein

I am a PhD student at the Faculty of Psychology, and I would like to work towards bringing all of us closer together, both professionally and personally, and to create opportunities for us to support each other on our PhD adventures. In addition to networking and academic exchange, topics such as reproducibility and transparency in research, equality, and mental health are of personal importance to me. I am looking forward to discussing your interests, opinions, and concerns, communicating them and making our PhD years as fun, interesting, and educational as possible.

Preetam Dacha

I am a PhD student at the Chair of Organic Devices in Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden(cfaed) and registered at Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, TU Dresden since 2020. I had the opportunity to get the best learning curve, considering the start of my PhD was during covid times. Doctoral studies, for any individual, is a roller-coaster ride and dDocs can be the padded bars that you can hold on to and get through the ride. As a mid-tenure post grad and a member of the Doctoral Council, I would be glad to help my colleagues in this course apart from networking, open discussions and unifying all PhDs in TU Dresden on a platform being the points of focus.

Shamini Ramkumar Thirumalasetty

Apart from working in a laboratory that is strives to make a real difference in bettering lives, networking within the scientific community is also a major key to success during your doctoral studies. During my time in the Doctoral council of TU Dresden, I would like to give back to the PhD community. This is a great opportunity for me to make a difference outside the laboratory by voicing the needs of my fellow doctoral students and building a network through which we can learn and imbibe best practices from universities across Germany.

Department: Universitätsklinikum Carl Gustav Carus Dresden- Children’s hospital, Department of Molecular Endocrinology.

Riyan Habeeb

I am a third-year doctoral candidate at Dresden Leibniz Graduate School registered at Faculty of Architecture, TU Dresden. Having started the PhD in 2020 with the onset of the pandemic the journey has been a mixed bag. I have certainly learned and unlearned a lot of things along the way, this could have never been possible without the help and support of the TU Dresden community. In the light of this, I am eager to further this support by giving back to the community based on my experiences as a student, resident, and researcher at TU Dresden. Some of my key agendas (but not limited to) for joining the council are as follows:

Extension of support for newly joining PhD students and their smooth induction into the TUD community.
Proactive creation of preventive mechanisms to deal with disruptions arising due to seen and unforeseen political, public or personal circumstances.
To connect professional institutions with doctoral candidates based on mutual interests.
To foster stronger involvement of PhD students through various channels, events and activities especially for those who started during the pandemic.
To help in outreach and engagement of DDocs with larger student sections enrolled in various institutes at TU Dresden.

Slava Markin

Hi, my name is Slava, I am PhD candidate at the Institute of construction materials. My field of research is concentrated on 3D printing of concrete. I am exploring possibilities and challenges of the digital construction and with my research, I want to contribute to the more sustainable and more favourable housing.
Due to my desire to extend my knowledge and broaden my horizon, I have been studying in total in four universities of three different countries. This experience gave me clear understanding how the university should support students and what are the main obstacles students face. I would like to use my knowledge and my ideas to the benefit of the PhD students at TU Dresden.
Main goals:

Advocate the interest of the PhD students.
Improve social networking and scientific exchange between PhD students: Organise seminars and workshops; create a space for more discussion and exchange.

Meeting organization

Nils Kretzschmar

I am Nils Kretzschmar, 26 years old and a 3rd year PhD student in chemistry at the TU Dresden. As part of my work, funded by the Graduate Academy with the Saxon Scholarship program, I am working on the hydrodeoxygenation of bio-oils to renewable carbon sources and fuels based on the motto:

"The future will be green, or not at all" - Jonathon Porrit.

Besides my hobbies like Muay Thai, wakeboarding and video games, I am also politically involved in JU Dresden and RCDS. In the latter, I am part of the doctoral advisory board and advocate for the interests of doctoral students there.

Talika Neuendorf

I am Talika Neuendorf, 26 years old, and a third-year PhD student in chemistry at the Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research in Dresden.
My research focuses on developing microscopic hydrogel building blocks and their assembly into complex, multifunctional materials using a novel additive manufacturing technique. In other words – LEGO® on the microscale. True to the motto "Chemistry is not everything, but everything is chemistry", what fascinates me most about my field is its interdisciplinarity, versatility, and the opportunity to be involved in the development of the materials of the future.
The start of my PhD overlapped with the pandemic’s beginning, so networking opportunities with other PhD students were very limited, and I initially felt slightly isolated. As I believe that research and the PhD live from the exchange of different disciplines, it is very important to me to promote and support trans- and interdisciplinary networking for young researchers and represent PhD students' interests.