The 2023 MARVEL junior retreat: bridges between academia and industry

This was published on September 19, 2023

The junior members of the consortium gathered in Davos from 11 to 15 September, to present their work and discuss how to improve the interaction between  the research world and the industrial one.

by Nicola Nosengo, NCCR MARVEL

Four years after the last edition, the junior scientists in the MARVEL consortium got back together for the NCCR MARVEL Junior Retreat that took place in Davos from 11 to 15 September. The meeting gathered almost 60 PhD students and postdocs from the MARVEL-affiliated laboratories across all partner institutions. 

The theme of this edition was “Building Bridges”: between different research lines, but most of all between industry and academia. By bringing together ideas and people from the two worlds, the workshop aimed to facilitate discussions, enabling participants to explore the practical applications of research and forge partnerships that bridge theory with real-world impact.

“Many MARVEL members are thinking about their future after their PhD or postdoc, and they consider the possibility of a career in the industry. But many start thinking about it too late. You can’t turn to the industry because you can’t find a place in academia, you must prepare for it before” says Virginie de Mestral, doctoral student at ETH Zurich and one of the four organisers of the retreat, together with Stefano Barison, Gabriel Pescia and Gian Gentinetta from EPFL.

Pictures: Virginie de Mestral, NCCR MARVEL. 

The program featured three guest speakers: Leopold Talirz, a former MARVEL member at EPFL who is now working for Microsoft Quantum; Erich Wimmer, co-founder, Chief Scientific Officer and Chairman of the Board of Materials Design, a company developing software and providing services for materials research; Maximilian Amsler, formerly at Cornell University and now a research scientist at Bosch Corporate Research and Advance Engineering.

“We wanted to hear different experiences,” says de Mestral. “The speakers explained their backgrounds and shared what tricks they would have liked to know before going into industry. The participants were particularly interested in knowing how recruitment criteria change from academia to industry. Another common question was whether the topics of research that are popular in academia match the research interest of the industry".

The rest of the speakers were junior MARVEL members presenting their current research. The program also included a poster section with 17  presentations, which was won by Divya Suman from the Michele Ceriotti's lab group, who was assisted by her groups' colleagues in delivering a 2-minutes  pitch about her research and why it is relevant to the industry.

Of course there was time for a hike to Filisur, after which the participants took the historical train back to Davos.

Stay in touch with the MARVEL project

Low-volume newsletters, targeted to the scientific and industrial communities.

Subscribe to our newsletter