We are always looking much forward to welcoming new students in our research group. You can expect to get a lot of opportunities for doing real exciting research no matter whether you are a bachelor, master, or project student in our group.
In the Organic Surface Chemistry, you will be working in an ambitious research environment. We therefore do have some expectations for you as a coming student in our group.
Working In The Group
When doing a project with laboratory work in the Organic Surface Chemistry group, it is expected that you prioritize your project work and take responsibility. Together we will design a project for you, which will be your own project and thus also your own responsibility in the end. However, we are working as a group and you will never be “left alone”. PhD students, researchers, postdocs, and technicians are always there to help and guide you through use of new equipment, techniques, and analysis of complicated results etc.
When working in the group you are expected to:
- Familiarize yourself with safety procedures and any risks related to the compounds or equipment you are working with.
- Keep a thorough laboratory journal.
- Participate actively in the weekly group meetings.
- Prepare a report every second week that will form the basis for an informal project discussion with your supervisors.
- Be able to work both independently and in group settings.
Biweekly Reports
Every second Friday you will hand in a short report summarizing your latest experiments and results, how you interpret these and how you plan to progress in the coming two weeks. In the following week, you will have a meeting with your supervisors (approx. 30 minutes) where you discuss the results, any challenges you are facing in the lab, and how to progress. These meetings are a help to make sure that you will get the results needed to finish your project in a satisfying way.
Group Meetings
Every week we have a group meeting (~ 1.5 hours), where the intention is to discuss interesting chemistry that other research groups do and to present and discuss our own research for the rest of the group. You are expected to prepare for these meetings by reading the relevant literature and be ready to ask questions and participate in the discussions. A typical meeting will consist of 30 minutes of journal club in smaller groups, a 15 minute recap all together and 30 minutes project presentation with discussion. A plan for these meetings will be issued on a quarterly basis, and as a student in the group you are expected to present articles at the journal club and present your project to the rest of the group. Last but not least, an important point of the group meeting agenda is to have a joint breakfast…
Social Events
Being a large group, we have a good tradition of regular social events for everyone. This could for example be burgers and pool down town, our Christmas lunch and the cake competition, where we fight for the famous cake-trophy. On an everyday basis, we also do an effort to enjoy our time together, eat lunch together, make sure that we have lots of cake etc. Finally, we love to celebrate, and even small victories need to be noticed, which e.g. means drinks every last Friday of the month!