The PIER Doctoral Seminar is open to all full and associated members of the PIER Helmholtz Graduate School (PHGS) from the 2nd year of the doctorate. Please note: All full members of PHGS must attend the seminar once during their time as a doctoral researcher.

Deadline for registration for the PIER Doctoral Seminar March/April 2025: Sunday, 9 March 2025

What is the seminar about? What will you learn?

The PIER Doctoral Seminar is meant to help you get to know your peers, understand the research that's happening in other fields, and train to give better presentations about your own work to academics outside of your own specialization.

Communicating your scientific work to people outside your field is an extremely important skill these days. On the one hand, effective science communication is essential for securing societal understanding, trust and informed decision-making towards science. On the other hand, being able to describe your own research in an engaging and understandable way will help you find funding, career opportunities and will help you answer the question feared by many doctoral researchers: “What is your thesis about?”

Broadening the scientific horizons of its members is one of the most important goals of the PHGS. The PIER Doctoral Seminar offers a very good opportunity to familiarize yourself with the scientific content and methods of the various PIER research fields. Knowledge about the content and methods of other PIER research fields can provide impulses for the time after the doctorate (e.g. when looking for new research ideas and funding). Often, other perspectives on research questions can also help in solving questions during your own doctoral thesis.

In the newly designed PIER Doctoral Seminar, you will have both: you will learn how to communicate your research results quickly and clearly to a non-expert audience, and you will gain insights into the research work of other doctoral researchers in the PIER research fields.

The maximum number of participants per PIER Doctoral Seminar is 14.
The number of credit points (CP) is 2. They can be credited for category B in the PHGS Curriculum.

The PIER Doctoral Seminar consists of three modules:

Module 1 - Preparation Workshop | one day | onsite | mandatory

Michael Büker, communication trainer and physicist, trains you on how to answer the question "What is your thesis about?" quickly and clearly. His workshop will prepare you to answer the dreaded question, but also to go beyond it: In preparation for the PIER Doctoral Seminar, all participants will work on their presentation that they will give to their peers during the presentation days.

Module 2: Consultation Session | 3 hours | online | optional

A few days before the presentation days, Michael Büker offers all participants of the PIER Doctoral Seminar the opportunity to ask questions about their own presentation via Zoom in the group or in a one-on-one meeting and to get individual advice.

Module 3: Presentation Days | two days | onsite | mandatory

On two days, the participants will give a presentation in the group. Michael Büker will be on site to provide help and advice.

Schedule of the PIER Doctoral Seminar March/April 2025

25 March - Preparatory Workshop | 10:00 am – 5:00 pm | venue: tba
28 March - Consultation Session | online
2 April - PIER Doctoral Seminar Day 1 | 10:00 am – 3:00 pm | venue: tba
3 April - PIER Doctoral Seminar Day 2 | 10:00 am – 3:00 pm | venue: tba

If you want to participate, please register on the right side.

The next PIER Doctoral Seminar in 2025 will take place in July:

1 July - Preparatory Workshop | 10:00 am – 5:00 pm | venue: tba
4 July - Consultation Session | online
8 + 9 July - Presentation Days | 10:00 am – 3:00 pm | venue: tba
If you want to participate, please register here. Deadline for registration for the PIER Doctoral Seminar July 2025: Sunday, 15 June 2025

The next (and last) PIER Doctoral Seminar in 2025 will take place in November: 

4 November - Preparatory Workshop | 10:00 am – 5:00 pm | venue: tba
7 November - Consultation Session | online
11 + 12 November - Presentation Days | 10:00 am – 3:00 pm | venue: tba
If you want to participate, please register here. Deadline for registration for the PIER Doctoral Seminar September 2025: Sunday, 19 October 2025.

The dates of the PIER Doctoral Seminars in 2026 will be announced in November/December 2025 on the PIER website: https://pier-hamburg.de/education/pep/transferable_skills (Communicating Science)