2016 PhD Thesis Presentation Contest

The first PhD Thesis Presentation Contest (see the programme here) took place on 21 September in Berlin as part of the UkraineLab Forum’s event “German-Ukrainian polyphony of scientific innovations: Hearing young voices” organised in cooperation with the MitOst e.V. and supported by the Ukrainian Embassy in Germany. With this Contest we aimed to promote young scientists both from Germany and Ukraine and in doing so to contribute to raising the profile of the German-Ukrainian academic cooperation. Five finalists were Ukrainian PhD students carrying out their research at Freie Universität Berlin, Leuphana University, TU Darmstadt, University of Duisburg-Essen and the Wildau TU of Applied Sciences. The topics of fascinating and challenging five-minute talks ranged from atomic physics to political sciences, from law to biotechnology and material science. The jury, consisting of senior experts from different fields, awarded two first places to the best speakers representing natural sciences on one hand and social sciences and humanities on the other, and one second place:

• Olena Lenchuk (TU Darmstadt, Materials Science) for her presentation “How can we Design Advanced Engineering Materials?”, the first place;
• Oksana Huss (INEF, University of Duisburg-Essen, Political Science) for her presentation “Opening the Black Box of Systemic Corruption”, the first place;
• Mykhailo Dumchev (Leuphana University, Atomic Physics) for his presentation “Detecting Sub-atomic Particles: How we do this and why it is Important”, the second place.

Both winners received valuable book prizes from the German-Ukrainian Academic Society. In addition, the generous monetary part of the prizes, – EUR 1500 for each of the first places and EUR 500 for the second place, has been endowed by Nomad Bioscience GmbH. This highly innovative biotechnology company was founded and is directed by Professor Yury Gleba, an active member of the Society. At the award ceremony Oksana Huss shared her wish of not only studying, but actively supporting the anti-corruption activities in Ukraine, – specifically by donating her prize-money to the newly established Anti-Corruption Research and Education Centre in Kyiv, Ukraine.

In the news:

• Press-release, 6.10.2016 (in German)
• TU Darmstadt, Department of Material Sciences, Materials Modeling Division news
• Press-release of the University Duisburg-Essen, 12.10.2016 (in German): “Politikwissenschaftlerin ausgezeichnet. Die Black Box der Korruption öffnen”
• News feature of the Anti-corruption Research & Education Centre, 17.10.2016: “The Political Scientist, the Institute for Development and Peace, the University of Duisburg-Essen Donated to Anticorruption Research in Ukraine”
• News of Leuphana University Lueneburg, Institute of Product and Process Innovation “Mykhailo Dumchev beim PhD Thesis Presentation Contest der Deutsch Ukrainischen Gesellschaft ausgezeichnet”

Photos: courtesy of Vasyl Motuz