PhD Advisory Committee (PAC) Home Page
Purpose of the PAC meetings:
The MPIA has established a "PhD Student advisory" committee (PAC), to
help monitor the progress of the PhD research and help the student and
advisor plan his/her project so as to assure that a succesful PhD will
result.
The PAC is there to help the student getting a succesful PhD!
The PAC will have at least two regular meetings with each student at
the MPIA, both at critical points in the course of the PhD thesis. This is
at the end of the first year and at the beginning of the third year. Both
meetings do not serve as an examination of the student, but as an
assessment of the working conditions for the student and whether the MPIA
is doing its part to help the student to finish the thesis project
successfully within three years.
The PAC wants to make sure:
- that the student gets the best possible support from his/her supervisor,
- that the thesis project is sufficiently well defined and manageable in the course of three years,
- that the project is reasonably well on schedule, and if not, to
discuss how to fix that,
- that the project management and planning are ok,
- that the student can access all necessary data, numerical and experimental equipment, etc.,
- that the student trains him/herself in the art of scientific presentation at
internal occasions as well as at international conferences,
- that the student obtains international visibility via papers, conference
participations and collaborations,
- and that the student, toward the end of the second year, is starting to
think of - and prepare for - his/her carreer after the PhD.
The PAC also serves as an independent outside view on the thesis
project, which can sometimes give valuable insight in occurring problems
as well as additional input to the thesis project.
In case of conflicts and/or communication-difficulties between the
student and his/her supervisor, the PAC is there to mediate! In such a
situation the PAC will help solve the situation and try to assure that the
student has the best chances of obtaining his/her PhD. The PAC urges PhD
students with problems of this kind to contact a PAC member (free choice
whom to contact) as soon as possible, even outside the usual PAC seasons
and even if the student already had a PAC meeting recently! These contacts
will be kept strictly confidential.
Note that PAC meetings should not be confused with the IMPRS Thesis
committee meetings. Both serve a different purpose and should take place
independently.
Two PAC meetings during the PhD time are obligatory for all PhD
students, independent of whether they are part of IMPRS, member of an
Emmy Noether or Junior Research group or have external or internal
funding. Typically one meeting must be scheduled after the first year and
one after the second year.
How to participate in the regular PAC meetings (after 1 and 2 years):
Regular PAC meetings are organized in PAC blocks: periods of a few
weeks length, twice a year, which will be announced by email. The scheduling
is organized via a doodle. This season's doodle is:
http://www.doodle.com/3nepentwxp9qkcxa
It is the
student's responsibility to arrange the scheduling of the PAC meetings!
So if you know that you are due (end of first or second year), please
follow the instructions in the announcement email of the PAC block to sign
up. Please try to find a date when also your immediate supervisor(s) can
join. If your supervisor(s) can't come on any of these dates, please
contact the PAC. As a last resort (if no common date or other solutions
can be found) we will have a PAC meeting without supervisor(s).
How to contact the PAC outside of regular PAC meetings:
In addition to regular PAC meetings, the PAC members can also be
approached at all times by the students, e.g. if they need an advice, see
their thesis project threatened by insurmountable obstacles or even are in
dispute with their direct thesis advisor (see above). The PAC will then be
happy to help finding an acceptable solution.
The PAC can equally well be approached by supervisors who see problems
and like to have a second opinion. Both these contacts, from students and
from supervisors, will be kept strictly confidential so that both can
talk freely.
PAC committee members are:
Name: | Field: | Email: | Room: |
----------------------- | ----------------- | -------------------- | ------------ |
Tom Herbst | Instrumentation | herbst@mpia.de | 227 |
Wolfgang Brandner | Instrumentation | brandner@mpia.de | 220 |
Joe Hennawi | Observations | joe@mpia.de | 130 |
Eva Schinnerer | Observations | schinner@mpia.de | 223 |
Hubert Klahr | Theory | klahr@mpia.de | 122 |
Kees Dullemond | Theory | dullemon@mpia.de | 121 |
The typical structure of a regular PAC meeting:
A PAC meeting typically lasts 1.5 hours. Here is how it works:
- BEFORE the meeting the student (!) should prepare a short (2 pages)
report which should be sent to the PAC, typically not later than a
week before the meeting. It should shortly summarize the topic of
the PhD, the progress that has been made, any problems that have come
up, complete publication list (not only of this PhD project, but really
all publications by the student so far please!), plus planned papers,
conferences that have been attended or will be attended and any internal
as well as external collaborations. A timeline for the remaining time of
the "PhD-student phase" has also shown to be very helpful. At the second
PAC meeting we also request an outline of the PhD thesis. To help you
with the report we prepared a short template:
PAC-example_eng.pdf,
PAC-example_eng.doc.dot.
- It starts with a short 20 minutes presentation by the student about
the work that has been done so far and its motivation and goals. This
presentation will be the basis for an open discussion about the students
work, which can last up to 1 hour. So please prepare slides (view
graphs, PDFs, powerpoint, keynote, whatever the preference) for 20
minutes non-stop, but be prepared that the talk can/will be regularly
interrupted for questions and discussions.
- NOTE: The advisor is kindly asked to let mainly the student
speak in this period.
- A discussion of the status and prospects with the student and
advisor follows.
- Then the PAC will talk in private with the student alone (supervisors
will leave the room).
- If requested by the advisor(s), the PAC may also have a private
conversation with the advisors.
- Finally a report will be written by the PAC members at the end of
the PAC meeting which is sent to the student, the advisor and the
directors. The content of the report is confidential and should not be
made available to third parties, unless all participants of the PAC
meeting agree to do so. Confidential information brought to the PAC by
the student is automatically excluded from the PAC-report.
More details about the PAC Meetings:
The WBK regulates the PAC activities. Two (!) PAC meetings must be scheduled during a PhD.
The purposes of these two meetings are slightly different:
- The first meeting has to be scheduled at the end of the first
year. Its purpose is to evaluate how the PhD student adjusted to the
working and social atmosphere at MPIA and in his/her group and whether
the original goals of the PhD thesis can still be achieved.
- At the begin of the third year another PAC meeting is due which
evaluates the progress and timely completion of the PhD. During this
meeting the future plans of the student, her/his international
visibility (e.g. through publications and talks/posters at workshops or
collaborations with other research groups) and her/his chances for a
career in astronomy should also be discussed. If the student so wishes,
the issue of a possible extension of the contract and a possible
recommendation by the PAC thereof can be discussed in this meeting. But
this is only upon request, and is deliberately not part of the standard
routine, so as to ensure that the PAC meeting will not become a
"judgement" but instead remains just a "help" for the student.
In order to organize these meetings more efficiently the PAC has defined the following rules:
- Although the PAC will send out reminders to students who are due, in
the end the students and their advisors have the final responsibility to
ensure that the regular PAC meetings are scheduled. How to schedule, see
section "How to participate in the regular PAC meetings (after 1 and 2
years)" above.
- Unless absolutely impossible, the direct day-to-day advisor should be
present. Other advisors are also welcome if that is useful. But again: if
no date can be found where the advisor(s) can be present, then as a last
resort we will have a PAC meeting with the student alone. Bottom line:
a regular PAC meeting must take place under any circumstances.
Miscellaneous:
II. PostDoc fellowship at the MPIA after finishing the PhD(klick here)
Please remember, it is the MPIA's sincere interest to
have happy and successful students, that will be able to start their
individual and independent career in science or elsewhere.
Maintained by Cornelis Dullemond
Last modified: March 29, 2010
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