First Helmholtz Energy Women Career Workshop 2024

From May 27 to 28, 2024, 24 participants met in Bad Herrenalb for the first Helmholtz Energy Women Career Workshop on Communicating and Negotiating successfully in academia. The workshop was aimed at female scientists who are currently working on their doctoral thesis or postdoc. The aim of the workshop was to teach communication methods for difficult discussions and negotiations.

The workshop thrived on the great enthusiasm with which the participants engaged in the training. As a result, they created an inspiring and highly motivating atmosphere that invited them to exchange ideas with each other during the breaks. This exchange in particular was very valuable for all participants, as they often miss this exchange as the only woman in their respective working group.

The great success of the workshop is primarily due to the excellent training provided by Ms. Hubrath. With her great experience from over 20 years, she was able to impart many helpful methods to the participants and also respond to individual examples from the participants' everyday work with solutions.

A special highlight was the discussion in the evening. Dr. Magarete Hubrath was joined by Dr. Heike Boos, Head of the Helmholtz Energy Office, and Prof. Stefanie Dehnen, Managing Director of the Institute of Nanotechnology. As part of a panel discussion, they gave the participants insights into their different career paths. They answered questions about the challenges that women in particular often face in their careers. This discussion was extremely inspiring for the participants.

All in all, this was an extremely successful workshop. This was confirmed in the feedback round at the end of the workshop. We would like to thank everyone involved for the two wonderful days and look forward to the next round in November this year.