CINSaT Spring Colloquium 2021
CINSaT uses internal virtual retreat for thematic sharpening of scientific foci and internal exchange
On March 4 and 5, 2021, as every spring, CINSaT had invited to the internal closed meeting to shed light on current research foci, to further develop thematically and to plan joint projects. An important contribution to this is made by the PhD students of the individual disciplines, who fill the meeting with life through their contributions and thus help to create a wide-ranging discussion platform. Unlike usual, the event did not take place in the AHORN Berghotel in Friedrichroda, but virtually via ZOOM as a lecture platform, as well as Gather Town as a platform for the poster session.
After the warm welcome and opening by the CINSaT speaker, Prof. Dr. Johann Peter Reithmaier, Prof. Philipp Demekhin as the new focus speaker “Chiral Systems” gave an overview of the past and planned activities in the SFB ELCH. This was followed by the session on Nanostructures in Science, Engineering and Art”, where first Prof. Bernhard Middendorf and afterwards Prof. Thomas Niendorf gave overview of activities in the field of materials science. The session was rounded off by the contribution of Dr. Salah Uddin, who gave an entertaining talk on atomistic modeling in construction chemistry to reduce environmental pollution. After a short break, the focus on “Photonics” formed the last block of the lecture series for the first day. In addition to the overview lecture by Prof. Peter Lehmann, Tobias Pahl (AG Lehmann) and Julia Heupel (AG Popov) provided contributions from this focus.
This year, participants again had the opportunity to present their poster contributions in one-minute poster flash sessions before and after the lunch break, thus drawing attention to their research topic in advance. Due to circumstances during the last CINSaT Fall Colloquium no poster prizes were awarded, so this was made up for during the Spring Colloquium. The jury consisted of Prof. Thomas Fuhrmann-Lieker, PD. Susanne Neupert, Prof. Kilian Singer, and Prof. Thomas Kusserow.
The poster session, which was realized via Gather Town - a videoconferencing tool as a virtual world in the style of 2D video games of the 80s - was very well received by the participants and the choice of the platform offered numerous opportunities for discussion and exchange, so that conversations continued even after the official end of the event. The diverse research activities of CINSaT were presented in an impressive and creative way on a total of 39 posters and provided an excellent basis for further discussions.
The second day started with the session on “Quantum Technology”, about which its speaker, Prof. Kilian Singer, gave a good overview first, before Mirali Gheibi and Jayanta Ghosh (both AG Baumert) gave an exciting talk on “Observation of long-lived electronic coherence in lanthanide complexes at room temperature”. The session was followed by a talk from Prof. Hartmut Hillmer, who presented the activities in the focus area “3-dimensional nanostructures”, and a contribution by Lukas Wetterau (AG Witzigmann) on “Micromagnetic modeling of a low-noise GMR sensor”. The lecture block was concluded by Prof. Arno Müller with an overview of the activities in the focus “Multiscale Bioimaging”, which included the workshop together with the focus “Photonics”, as well as contributions by Mostafa Aakhte (AG Müller) and Jenny Plath (AG Stengl).
After lunch, the participants went into individual focus sessions, between which they could switch at will thanks to the virtual platform, to have the opportunity to perceive other topics and identify possible points of contact.
At the end of the event, the winners of the poster prizes were announced: First place went to Tianyu Fang (AG Singer, poster title: Examine molecular chirality with optical forces), second place to Meike Reginka (AG Ehresmann, poster title: Magnetic textures in 3D hollow hemispheres) and third place to Eric Kutscher (AG Demekhin, poster title: Photoelectron circular dichroism of fenchoone induced by broadband laser pulses).
The new formats and the implementation of the poster session were very well received by all participants. A convivial exchange is not so easy to realize virtually, but creative ideas (coffee break kits for the participants and hidden gimmicks in the Gather Town) have consoled well over the set circumstances. With 110 participants the colloquium was a great success. Nevertheless, we hope to be able to hold the next spring colloquium again in presence, because not only socializing activities and group photo are missing, but also the sociable face-to-face exchange, where still the best ideas arise.