Young German Catalysis Society ‐ YounGeCatS

Abstract

Young, creative, connecting.1 As the youth organization of the GeCatS (German Catalysis Society), we are focusing on the field of catalysis, where we facilitate intensive exchange and discussion between our members and within the scientific community. That is why we offer a variety of platforms for a successful exchange: An important event are our annual network meetings, where we visit chemical companies in Germany such as Covestro, Clariant and many more. In addition, the network meetings also offer time and space to connect as well as to personally develop oneself in the frame of soft skill workshops, e.g., design of posters and talks along with their presentation. Every 2nd year, we also offer Summer Schools on exciting topics in catalysis such as “Shaping a green future” or “Dream reactions”. We partly organize them in cooperation with the young reaction engineers, the NaWuReTs to foster an interdisciplinary exchange among chemists and engineers. The participating PhD students and postdocs approach the topic by lectures and group sessions and have plenty of opportunity to socialize, for example while enjoying a dinner together. By contributing actively to the program, we also help to make the annual GeCatS meeting in Weimar a success. We work closely together with GeCatS and the Dechema e.V. to make this event a yearly highlight in the schedule of German catalysis researchers. Here we organize poster sessions, which give PhD students the opportunity to showcase their research in short presentations. The best contributions are honored with a poster award. Furthermore, we promote the collaboration of young scientists from industry and academia by organizing an informal social event in a local pub. At our career forum, there is also the opportunity to meet potential employers and find out about job opportunities. Young European Catalysis Society - YounGeCatS Founded: 2012 Organizationteam: Anna Katharina Beine, Rene Eckert, Tanja Franken, Pawel Naliwajko, Juliane Titus, Clara Watermann, Sebastian Weber Homepage: http://gecats.org/YounGeCatS.html Contact: [email protected] Twitter: @youngecats We have now presented our organization quite sufficiently and would prefer to give space to the opinions of our members: Unfortunately, I don′t remember any specific experience of the network meetings in particular, but I found the general format very nice and I remember it well overall. The combination of scientific lectures, personal development, visits and insights into exciting companies and get-togethers is, in my view, a very exciting format. Whether this took place in Hanau, Munich, Leipzig or Rosenheim - it was always a successful event. On the way to my current position, YounGeCatS helped me only indirectly through the collection of experience and insights into different areas and companies. However, the contacts I made in YounGeCatS still help me now to find the right contacts for various questions and thus to be able to solve scientific problems together. As a doctoral student, I participated in conferences alone, i.e., without other colleagues from my institute. It was always nice to know that many familiar faces were represented there, whom you got to know through the YounGeCatS network meetings. This way, a good scientific exchange could always take place. In addition, the contacts made in this way can also lead to good collaborations beyond the doctoral period. I have always enjoyed the selection, organization and implementation of the poster workshops in particular. I think that it is a great exercise for the presenters and that those present are more likely to dare to actively participate in the discussion in a small group. As I was one of the founding members of YounGeCatS, I have a lot of great memories of our activities of the first five years. Especially our planning meetings in advance to any events were very intense and quite rememberable. One of the greatest memories are associated actually with our first “official” meeting in a bar directly after the initial assembly of the first organization team. We exchanged first ideas and collected our mobile numbers on a beer coaster – I keep the copy till today. Take every networking meeting, exchange ideas and most of all: have fun. YounGeCatS is open to all interested young scientists in the field of catalysis. If you do not want to miss any update follow us on social media (LinkedIn & Twitter) or become part of our mailing list (just write an E-Mail to “[email protected]”)