Where can your PhD take you? And how can you maximise your potential future?
A group of STEM PhDs and higher degree researchers heard about career options post-PhD at a forum last month, run by FLEET at Monash University.
The assembled panel of academics, entrepreneurs, business development and research managers shared their own diverse career journeys and top tips on how they had made the most of their science PhD training.
Monika Fekete, now a coffee scientist at Monash-based Australian Coffee Science Lab, discussed the importance of good communication.
“It’s not enough to do good science, you also have to tell people about it,” she said.
Both Ms Fekete and Angeline Achariya, CEO of the Food Innovation Centre, told the attendees that as far as career options are concerned, “pursuing something you love” works.
Other panellists included:
- Alison Funston, Capability Leader, ARC Centre of Excellence in Exciton Science (ACEx)
- Anton Tadich, Beam Scientist, Australian Synchrotron
- Nikhil Medhekar, Chief Investigator, ARC Centre of Excellence in Future Low-Energy Electronics (FLEET)
- Alexe Bojovschi, CEO, Academy of Innovative Business
- Tam Nguyen, Senior Executive of Research, St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne
- Yeshe Fenner, Chief Operating Officer, ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav)
- Richard Huysmans, Consultant, Raven Consulting
The 45 attendees, all young researchers in science, technology, engineering and maths, also took the opportunity to network, discuss research ideas and fine-tune their own presentation skills.
#YouRforum (Young Researchers Forum) is a program for PhD students and early career researchers, initiated by the Monash Centre for Atomically Thin Materials (MCATM) and picked up by the ARC Centre of Excellence in Future Low-Energy Electronics Technologies (FLEET).
The next #YouRforum session will instruct STEM PhDs on the potential of smartphone videos to communicate their science to a wider audience.
#YouRforum is open to all post-doctoral fellows, MSc and PhD students, from all institutions. If you know anyone that would benefit, please send them the #YouRforum link.