The 2nd Retreat Meeting of the MNTF Graduate Center will take place during November 14-16, 2024 in Straubing. At this event the current generation of Ph.D. students and postdocs will get to know each other and further develop the MNTF Graduate Center via icebreaker talks, teambuilding activities, reports and world cafe rounds regarding past and future MNTF-GZ events (all in English). The call for definite registration is currently taking place.

(organized by Mich¨¦le Scholl und Julian Greif)

Organized by the Graduate Center of the university, a Welcome Event (see link) for all new Ph.D. students will take place (mostly in English) on Wednesday, November 20, 16:00, in room K-1003 (Wiwi lecture hall building, on the hill across from central library). There you will not only get to know many central services and organizations of the university (each introduced in a 3-minute talk), but also can get to know your colleagues in similar or other fields (snacks provided). There will also be a talk with the intriguing title "5 things I wish I had known before starting my doctorate" by two advanced Ph.D. students, Mich¨¦le Scholl (Processing of Complex Structured Materials for Demanding Environments, MRM) and Daksitha Withanage Don (Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, FAI).

The 1st Hacky Hour of the MNTF Graduate Center will take place on November 22, 12:15, in room J-1101 (WiWi building J, on the hill diagonally across from central library). Kirill Vasin will present his WLJS system, a "Dynamic Notebook Environment for Wolfram Language" that can be used together with the free Mathematica kernel. There are packages and demos on https://github.com/JerryI/wolfram-js-frontend (see link).

The Hacky Hour is a series on computing tools used in research and teaching at MNTF, with each event consisting of a presentation followed by an installation/tutorial session (bring your laptop). Possible topics could be basic as well as advanced use cases of Zotero, Joplin, Obsidian, Jupyter, Mathematica, Sharelatex, CFS, etc.

(organized by Marcus Kollar and Michele Pini, please contact us if you would like to contribute or co-organize; the series is inspired by other Hacky Hours, see https://hackyhour.github.io/ etc., also regarding possible topics)

The popular Graduate Get-Together, with short presentations and informal discussions on the graduate activities and research in MNTF, will again take place on the late Wednesday afternoons of November 27 (Jobtalk, together with the Career Service) and December 18, 2024. More information will follow soon.

(organized by Susanne Liese, Bhavesh Valecha, Nick Wittig)

A Workshop on Data-Driven Approaches: "Connecting Physics and Computer Science: A Workshop on Data-Driven Approaches" will take place on Thursday/Friday November 28-29, 2024 in building J (see link for rooms and program), aiming to bridge physics and data science, with quantum systems as a specific example. The goal is to explore new methods for managing and learning from large datasets. Topics will include quantum-inspired algorithms for data mining and machine learning techniques for analyzing complex data. While the focus is on
the intersection of physics and data science, the data-driven algorithms discussed will be relevant to researchers from various fields who deal with large-scale data analysis. The workshop will provide a platform for Ph.D. students and postdocs to share knowledge, discuss challenges, and foster collaborations at this exciting interface.

The workshop is organized jointly by researchers from MNTF (Laurin Brunner, Fabian Ballar, Marc Machaczek, Reyhaneh Khasseh) and FAI (Davide Bincoletto, Javier del Arco).

The next Graduate Get-Together will take place on Wednesday, October 30, 2024, 5 pm, in T-2002 (lecture hall building). The Graduate Get-Together provides an informal platform for Ph.D. students and postdocs from MNTF to meet and talk about their work. Dr. Bas Lodewijks (mathematics) will present himself and his academic career path in a short talk.

(organized by Susanne Liese, Bhavesh Valecha, Nick Wittig)

NOTE: The Graduate Get-Together is a great opportunity to meet among us and to find about the MNTF Graduate Center. Be there if you have any questions or ideas!

The next Graduate Get-Together will take place on 13th MNTF Graduate Get-Together, Thursday, July 11, 2024, 5:30 pm T-2001 (lecture hall building). The Graduate Get-Together provides an informal platform for Ph.D. students and postdocs from MNTF to meet and talk about their work. After a 45 minutes small talk round with snacks and beverages, Dr. Aisha Aqeel (physics) and Valentin W¨¹rz (MRM) will present their research and their group in short talks (~15 minutes each). There is plenty time to chat, ask questions, and share your thoughts. We are looking forward to interesting discussions.
(organized by Alina Erl, Susanne Liese, and Frederic Wagner)

NOTE: The Graduate Get-Together is a great opportunity to meet among us and to find about the MNTF Graduate Center. Be there if you have any questions or ideas!

From 8:00 to 15:00 on June 26-27, 2024, a two-day interactive workshop taught by Gottfried Hofmann will take place, which will give an introduction to the Blender software (blender.org) and its use for scientific illustrations.
(organized by Marcus Kollar)

The next Graduate Get-Together will take place on June 13th, 5:00 pm, in room W-1021 (MRM institute, opposite from Rewe). The Graduate Get-Together provides an informal platform for Ph.D. students and postdocs from MNTF to meet and talk about their work. This time we have a special event with the title 'Paths in Academia': Prof. Dr.-Ing. Christian Wei?enfels, Professorship of Data-driven Computational Materials Science and Engineering (MRM), talks about his academic career and how he became a professor. There is plenty time to chat, ask questions, and share your thoughts. We are looking forward to interesting discussions.
(organized by Alina Erl, Susanne Liese, and Frederic Wagner)

NOTE: The Graduate Get-Together is a great opportunity to meet among us and to find about the MNTF Graduate Center. Be there if you have any questions or ideas!

On July 4, 2024, the one-day on-site workshop "Machtspiele erkennen und ihnen begegnen - Next Generation Leadership meets Kommunikation auf Augenh?he" with coach Birgit Schweidler will take place (in English).
(organized by Ursula Wei?)

An online two-day-workshop on "Scientific Image Editing and Figure Creation", with images referring to micrographs, will be held on Monday, June 24 and Tuesday, June 25, 2024, each day from 9:00 to 15:00.
Registration is at the link below. The course capacity is 15 participants, and places are distributed on a 'first come, first served' basis. If the course capacity is reached, feel free to register anyway; a waiting list will be maintained in case of last-minute cancellations.
(organized by Hana Bunzen)

On Friday, November 24, 2023, 12:30, in J-1105 (WiWi building, diagonally across from central library) the "Workshop on Metadata & Repositories: Searching and Publishing Research Data" will take place, led by Dr Evamaria Krause (Teilbibliothek Medizin, U Augsburg), featuring the topics
1. FAIR Metadata for Research Data
2. Searching for Research Data
3. Publication and Licensing of Research Data

No registration is needed. It is recommended to bring your laptop or tablet.

The talk will be in three parts with two coffee/discussion breaks. There will be cake and coffee starting from 12:30.

(organized by Manuel Zahn, Christian Wiebeler, Marcus Kollar)

On Friday, November 10, 2023, 12:30, in J-1101 (WiWi building, diagonally across from central library) Dr Nikolay Garabedian (KIT Karlsruhe) will speak about "FAIR Data Collection in Experimental Sciences: Required Effort and Benefits". Abstract: "Digitalization in experimental sciences is a process that can be seen as a strategy for harnessing rich data sets with the aim of finding more efficient solutions for investigating scientific outputs. One road to achieving full digitalization in research and development goes through the adoption of the FAIR data principles. FAIR is an acronym that stands for Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable data. Serially-produced FAIR data could be the key ingredient to enabling research results for scalable machine-learning-based analyses, and thus, it can potentially solve society¡¯s greatest challenges. Rich, dynamic, and interoperable metadata are the foundation of any FAIR data infrastructure. However, there is hardly an established roadmap for the generation and curation of controlled vocabularies for scientific workflows. Therefore, for a few years now, our groups have been developing software solutions for the assembly of FAIR digital objects in research. In this presentation we will discuss available software, and explain why we had to develop our own. We will explore an end-to-end example of FAIR data collection, and finally discover some of the benefits of such an undertaking."

The talk will be in three parts with two coffee/discussion breaks. Bringing a laptop might be useful. There will be cake and coffee starting from 12:30.

(organized by Manuel Zahn, Christian Wiebeler, Marcus Kollar)

The first Retreat Meeting for PhD students and Postdocs of MNTF will take place at the ABG Tagungshotel in Beilngries from November 2 to 4, 2023. This is an excellent opportunity to interact and learn from each other! The program will include workshops and lectures, networking and other activities. We look forward to your active participation and hope that together we can have a rewarding and interesting meeting. Two professional workshops will be offered at the Retreat Meeting: "Pitch Perfect: Short Presentations for Science" by Dr. Markus Gottschling and "Visualizing Science Projects" by Elisabeth Werner. The entire program (see picture below) will be in English.

(organized by Thomas Bratzdrum, Kevin Postler, Mich¨¦le Scholl, Katrin Bock)

On Friday, October 27, 2023, 12:30, in J-1105 (WiWi building, diagonally across from central library) Dr Jonas Graetz (FAU Erlangen-N¨¹rnberg) will speak about "Bootstrapping FAIR Data Management Workflows". Afterwards we will discuss this topic as well as further activities in this MNTF-GZ Research Data seminar series. Bringing a laptop might be useful in case that we try out software. There will be cake and coffee starting from 12:30.

(organized by Manuel Zahn, Christian Wiebeler, Marcus Kollar)

This seminar series on Research Data Management is intended for PhD students and Postdocs of MNTF. External speakers as well as university speakers will give overviews and practical introductions:

Friday, October 27, 12:30, J-1105:
Dr Jonas Graetz (FAU)
Bootstrapping FAIR Data Management Workflows

Friday, November 10, 12:30, J-1101:
Dr Nikolay Garabedian (KIT)
FAIR Data Collection in Experimental Sciences: Required Effort and Benefits

Friday, November 24, 12:30, J-1105:
Dr Evamaria Krause (UA)
Workshop on Metadata & Repositories: Searching and Publishing Research Data

Note that all sessions will take place in building J (WiWi).

(organized by Manuel Zahn, Christian Wiebeler, Marcus Kollar)

Bridging the worlds of condensed matter physics and biophysics, this workshop gathers experts from both fields and their intersection. With a focus on machine learning and numerical methodologies, it aims to inspire collaborative advances. The workshop provides a platform for insightful talks and engaging discussions in the fields of condensed matter physics and biophysics. Your participation and ideas will be appreciated.
The workshop takes place at the University of Augsburg from Wednesday to Friday, September 13 to 15, 2023, see details under the link listed below. Application for in-person participation is limited to members of the University of Augsburg and their collaborators, but the talks at the workshop will be video broadcast.
Invited speakers: Ricard Alert (MPIPKS Dresden), Marin Bukov (MPIPKS Dresden), Marcello Dalmonte (ICTP Trieste), Christoph Dellago (Universit?t Wien), Fernando Iemini (UFF Niter¨®i Brazil), Zala Lenarcic (Jozef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana), Hartmut L?wen (HHU D¨¹sseldorf), Steffen Rulands (LMU M¨¹nchen), Francesco Piazza (MPIPKS Dresden), Suropriya Saha (MPIDS G?ttingen), Michael Schmiedeberg (FAU Erlangen-N¨¹rnberg), Abhinav Sharma (Universit?t Augsburg), Holger Stark (TU Berlin).
(organized by Reyhaneh Khasseh, Susanne Liese, Christian Wiebeler)

The talk and discussion panel on "Paths in Academia" with Prof. Xueping Zhao (U Nottingham, Ningbo, China) and Prof. Abhinav Sharma (U Augsburg) will focus on exploring diverse career trajectories within the academic world. The speakers shared their personal experiences and insights on their career paths. The audience is invited to ask questions and engage in a discussion about the ever-changing landscape of academia and the myriad career opportunities it presents.
(organized by Susanne Liese; supported by MNTF-GZ)

Title: Assembly of tight junction belts by surface condensation and actin elongation
Abstract: At the cell-cell contact site of the living cell membrane, Tight junctions form to seal tissues. Assembly of Tight junctions involves oligomerization of membrane receptors, surface binding, and phase separation of cytosolic scaffold proteins. Interestingly, this surface phase separation process occurs in the undersaturated cytosolic scaffold protein concentration. The underneath mechanism is not explored yet. Here we investigate why the surface phase separation happens at a concentration far below the saturation level and explore how the receptor controls the shape and spatial localization of tight junctions. We derive a thermodynamic theory for a three-dimensional cytosolic domain in the presence of a two-dimensional flat membrane. Protein molecules in the cytosolic domain can not only diffuse freely but also bind to the membrane, forming a membrane-bound layer. Combining the experiments and theory, we find that strong binding affinity facilitates the surface phase separation in the two-dimensional membrane at very low cytosolic concentration. Moreover, total receptor amount and oligomerization control the pattern of surface condensates in the membrane. Our work suggests that surface binding combined receptor oligomerization represents a versatile mechanism to control the formation of the protein-rich domain at intra-cellular surfaces.
(organized by Susanne Liese; supported by MNTF-GZ)

The eleventh MNTF Graduate Get-Together will take place on Thursday, July 6th, 5:30pm, in T-2004. This event provides an informal platform for PhD students and postdocs from MNTF to meet and talk about their work. After a 45 minutes small talk round with snacks and beverages, Xenia Kraus (physics) and Thomas Hirschm¨¹ller (mathematics) will present their research and their group in short talks (~15 minutes each). There will be plenty of time to chat and share your thoughts. We are looking forward to interesting discussions.
(organised by Susanne Liese and Frederic Wagner)

The tenth MNTF Graduate Get-Together will take place on Thursday, June 15th, 5:30pm, in T-2004. This event provides an informal platform for PhD students and postdocs from MNTF to meet and talk about their work. After a 45 minutes small talk round with snacks and beverages, Matthias Blaschke (Physik) and Samuel Griza (MRM) will present their research and their group in short talks (~15 minutes each). There will be plenty of time to chat and share your thoughts. We are looking forward to interesting discussions.
(organised by Susanne Liese and Frederic Wagner)

The ninth MNTF Graduate Get-Together will take place on Thursday, May 25th, 5:30pm, in T-2004. This event provides an informal platform for PhD students and postdocs from MNTF to meet and talk about their work. After a 45 minutes small talk round with snacks and beverages, Georg Frenck (mathematics) and Jo¨¦l Schukraft (MRM) will present their research and their group in short talks (~15 minutes each). There will be plenty of time to chat and share your thoughts. We are looking forward to interesting discussions.
(organised by Susanne Liese and Frederic Wagner)

The activities, structure, etc. of the university-wide Graduate Center can be found on its new homepage (see link below and follow up e.g. to "Weiterbildungsangebote", "Netzwerkveranstaltungen", "Newsletter", etc.).

The kickoff event of the Graduate Center takes place on Tuesday, June 13,2023, 18:00, building J, with talk and discussion on "Translational Medical Humanities: Connective and Transdisciplinary Scholarship for Global Challenges", followed by a get-together.

The bespoke workshop on "Leading when not a supervisor" by Michael Rudolph, starting on May 26, 2023 and continuing with 3 further online sessions, will take place with 10 registered participants, covering personal development, leadership, and conflict resolution.
(organized by Christina Kunzmann)

Visit the Day of Digital Teaching on May 23, 2023, in building D in order to learn about this year's topic ¡°Open Educational Resources and beyond: studying and teaching in the digital sphere". Registration is recommended!
(part of the interdisciplinary KodiLL project)

After the first successful year we are happy to announce the next installment of the 'Graduate Get-Together' for this semester. The eighth MNTF Graduate Get-Together will take place on Thursday, May 11, 2023, 17:30, in room T-2004. This event provides an informal platform for PhD students and postdocs from MNTF to meet and talk about their work. After a 45 minutes small talk round with snacks and beverages, Airi Takeuchi ('On Mechanical Billiard Systems'; mathematics) and Alexander Hofmann ('Organic Semiconductors: Why Molecular Orientation matters'; physics) will present their research and their group in short talks (~15 minutes each). There is plenty time to chat, ask questions, and share your thoughts. We are looking forward to interesting discussions. (organized by Susanne Liese and Frederic Wagner)

Further events are planned for May 25th, June 15th, July 6th, 2023.

A three-part soft-skills course series, May 9, May 10, May 11, 2023 will be held by Prof. Robert N. Lussier (cf. link below) on the topics "Publish don't perish", "Research Development", "Management Skills".
(organized by Florian Schmid)

The bespoke workshop on ¡±women* in science¡± by Dr. Juliane Handschuh, starting on March 17, 2023 and continuing with 3 further online sessions, will take place with 10 registered participants, covering career development, networking, diversity, and dealing with male-dominated environments.
(organized by Ursula Wei?)

The seventh MNTF Graduate Get-Together will take place on Thursday, January 26 2023, 17:30, in room 506, building R (north physics building). This event provides an informal platform for PhD students and postdocs from MNTF to meet and talk about their work. After a 45 minutes small talk round with snacks and beverages, Niklas Gotthardt (Mathematics) will give a short talk (~15 minutes) about "Statistical Modelling of Energy Markets" followed by a short talk (~15 minutes) given by Richard R??-Ohlenroth (Physics). There will be plenty of time to chat and share your thoughts. We are looking forward to interesting discussions.
(organised by Susanne Liese, Julius Natrup and Frederic Wagner)

The sixth MNTF Graduate Get-Together will take place on Thursday, December 08, 2022, 17:30, in room 506, building R (north physics building). This event provides an informal platform for PhD students and postdocs from MNTF to meet and talk about their work. After a 45 minutes small talk round with snacks and beverages, David Buchberger (mathematics) will present his research and his group in a short talk (~15 minutes). Also Julia Thurner-Irmler will present WiR (Wissenstransfer Region Augsburg) providing insights into research and outreach possibilities. There is plenty of time to chat and share your thoughts. We are looking forward to interesting discussions.
(organised by Susanne Liese, Julius Natrup and Frederic Wagner)

"In order to make it easier for young scientists to network and to get started in research, the Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences, and Materials Engineering features a Graduate Center which started this year as part of the university-wide two-stage system of graduate training and support. Already several activities have taken place, which are organized by the young scientists themselves. [...]"

(Presse release 102/22 of the University of Augsburg [in German], December 5, 2022, see link)

The fifth MNTF Graduate Get-Together will take place on Thursday, November 17, 2022, 17:30, in room 506, building R (north physics building). This event provides an informal platform for PhD students and postdocs from MNTF to meet and talk about their work. After a 45 minutes small talk round with snacks and beverages, Nicolas F?rber (physics) will present his research and his group in a short talk (~15 minutes). Also Lucia Plobner will present StartHub, the innovation and startup center of the university, providing insights into funding opportunities for academic spin-offs. There is plenty of time to chat and share your thoughts. We are looking forward to interesting discussions.
(organised by Susanne Liese, Julius Natrup and Frederic Wagner)

The fourth MNTF Graduate Get-Together will take place on Thursday, October 27, 2022, 17:30, in room 506, building R (north physics building). This event provides an informal platform for PhD students and postdocs from MNTF to meet and talk about their work. After a 45 minutes small talk round with snacks and beverages, Lukas Stoll (mathematics) and Meera Varma (physics) will present their research and their group in short talks (~15 minutes each). There is plenty of time to chat and share your thoughts. We are looking forward to interesting discussions.
(organised by Susanne Liese, Julius Natrup and Frederic Wagner)

The first Women's Regulars' Table for young scientists at the Institute of Mathematics will take place on October 26, 2022, 17:00, room 2309, building I(2). It will feature a jobtalk by Dr. Lisa Reischmann (Deutsches Zentrum f¨¹r Luft- und Raumfahrt). If you are interested please contact Ursula Wei? (ursula.weiss@math.uni-augsburg.de) or just drop by.

This soft-skills course will be held during one day at the University of Augsburg by Dipl.-P?d. Elisabeth Berchtold and Dipl.-Ing. J¨¹rgen Schuster. Participants will learn how to combine rhetoric methods with the strengths of their personality. Verbal and non-verbal methods will be discussed and trained. With feedback given by the course instructors and discussion among the participants, guidelines for behaviour, rhetorical know-how, and tricks for dealing with stage fright will be developed. The contents and participants were found in the MNTF-GZ Digicampus group.
(organized by Jo¨¦l Schukraft and Ji?¨ª Zeman)

The first two meetings were great success, so we are happy to announce the third 'Graduate Get-Together'. This event provides an informal platform for PhD students and postdocs from MNTF to meet and talk about their work. After a 30 minutes small talk round with snacks and beverages, Ji?¨ª Zeman (mathematics), Marijana Ugrina (physics), and Marco Korkisch (MRM) will present their research and their group in short talks (~15 minutes each). There is plenty of time to chat and share your thoughts. We are looking forward to interesting discussions.
(organised by Susanne Liese, Julius Natrup and Frederic Wagner)

This soft-skills course will be held during one day at the University of Augsburg by Prof. Dr. Matthias Menter (University of Jena). The contents and participants were found in the MNTF-GZ Digicampus group.
(organized by Jo¨¦l Schukraft and Ji?¨ª Zeman)

Visit the Day of Digital Teaching on June 24, 2022, either in building D or remotely, in order to discover how teaching and learning may take place at the University of Augsburg in the future. Registration is recommended!
(part of the interdisciplinary KodiLL project)

The 'Graduate Get-Together' provides an informal platform for PhD students and postdocs at MNTF to meet and talk about their research. The meeting will start with a 30-minute discussion round during which you have the chance to get to know each other. Afterwards Lukas Graf (Mathematik), Susanne Liese (Physik), and Jonas Riesner (MRM) will present 15-minute talks on the research topics in their respective groups. There is plenty time to chat and share your thoughts. We are looking forward to interesting discussions!
(organized by Susanne Liese, Julius Natrup and Frederic Wagner)

The Women's Regulars' Table for MNTF Postdocs will meet on Thursday, June 2, 2022 at 6 pm at Il Porcino. If you are interested please contact Christina Kunzmann (christina.kunzmann@mrm.uni-augsburg.de) or just drop by.

The 'Graduate Get-Together' provides an informal platform for PhD students and postdocs at MNTF to meet and talk about their research. With this meeting, we want to spark discussions and collaborations between the different departments and answers to the question 'What are other scientists at my university working on?'.
The meeting will start with a 30-minute discussion round during which you have the chance to get to know each other. Afterwards Kevin Ruck (mathematics), Reyhaneh Khasseh (physics), and Jonas Riesner (MRM) will present 15-minute talks on the research topics in their respective groups. There is plenty time to chat and share your thoughts. We are looking forward to interesting discussions!
(organized by Susanne Liese, Julius Natrup and Frederic Wagner)