Last Thursday, the new term of the Maria Reiche Mentoring Program has officially been opened in a festive ceremony. The nine participants of the new, 18-month term program are postdocs and habilitation candidates at the Faculty of Psychology, the Faculty of Business and Economics, the Faculty of Linguistics, Literature and Cultural Studies, the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Science, the Department of Hydrosciences, and at the Center for Regenerative Therapies TU Dresden (CRTD).
At the opening ceremony, the new mentees were welcomed into the program by the program coordinator Johanna Wolter and the Head of the Staff Unit Diversity Management, Dr. Cornelia Hähne. Professor Dr.-Ing. Diana Göhringer, Chair of Adaptive Dynamic Systems at the Faculty of Computer Engineering, gave an inspiring keynote presentation in which she presented her academic career path up to being appointed as professor at TU Dresden in 2017, thus making her career path up to a professorship very palpable for the mentees. Also invited was Dr. Franziska Lissel, TU Dresden Young Investigator at Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden; she talked about her experience as a former mentee in the Maria Reiche Mentoring Program term 2017/18. The official part of the program was rounded off by music performed on the oud, an Arabic string instrument, by the Syrian musicologist and musician Obeid Alyousef.
The subsequent reception provided a perfect first networking opportunity in a more casual setting, initiating conversations among the mentees as well as with Professor Göhringer and Dr. Lissel as role models.
The Maria Reiche Mentoring Program for Female Habilitation Candidates and Postdocs at TU Dresden was launched in 2012 in order to provide long-term academic guidance by experienced professors in an organized setting for women who have opted for a career in science. Moreover, the program facilitates access to necessary networks for female scientists and offers various workshops tailored specifically to the program, on topics such as appointment negotiation, communication and leadership skills. The program is financed by funds of the Female Professors Program II of the Federal Government and State.