In this episode, Marcel speaks with Dr. Tim Schulte, a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute für Kohlenforschung in Mülheim, Germany. Tim is one of the founding members of BrightSync, a startup dedicated to bridging the gap between academia and industry. BrightSync aims to connect researchers with companies and support students as they take the next step in their careers. Marcel and Tim explore BrightSync’s mission, its unique approach, and how the Max Planck Society fosters entrepreneurship by empowering scientists to transform ideas into startups.

Feel free to approach the BrightSync team any time!

E-Mail: hello@brightsync.de

Linkedin: http://linkedin.com/company/bright-sync

Evaluation Form for BrightSync: https://erhebung.de/zu/QUXzkNho3b/BrightSync-Evaluation_for_Academics

Further resources:MAX!mize: https://www.maximize-incubator.com/

Max-Planck Innovation: https://www.max-planck-innovation.de/ausgr%C3%BCndung/maximize-startup-inkubationsprogramm-max-planck-forschende.html

Max-Planck Foundation: https://startupinitiative.maxplanckfoundation.org/



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See you soon!

#5-14 - BrightSync & the Max Planck Startup Support Ecosystem - ft. Dr. Tim Schulte

In this episode, Marcel speaks with Dr. Martina Preiner, who leads the Geochemical Protoenzymes group at the MPI for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg. In this episode, they discuss Dr. Preiner’s unique career journey - from studying chemistry to working in science journalism, before returning to academia to investigate the origins of life.



Learn more about Dr. Martina Preiner’s work at:

https://www.mpi-marburg.mpg.de/martina-preiner



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See you soon!

#5-13 - From Science Journalism to Origin of Life Research - ft. Dr. Martina Preiner

In this episode, Marcel interviews Dr. Marianna Cortese, a senior research scientist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in the US. Dr. Cortese is an expert in the epidemiology of the autoimmune disease Multiple Sclerosis (MS). In 2022, she co-first-authored a landmark study revealing that infection with Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) increases the risk of developing MS 32-fold — a breakthrough in understanding the disease’s causes. She discusses the key findings, their broader implications, and the dream of one day eradicating MS.



Learn more about Dr. Marianna Cortese’s work at:

https://hsph.harvard.edu/profile/marianna-cortese/





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See you soon!

#5-12 - Investigating the Cause of Multiple Sclerosis - ft. Dr. Marianna Cortese

In this episode Juli talks to Pauline Gagnon, a particle physicist who has done a lot of research on Mileva Marić and has made it her mission to make her story more known. Pauline presents evidence that shows that it is very likely that she significantly contributed to the scientific breakthroughs that Albert Einstein is credited for. Due to various tragic circumstances, she was denied the credit and renown that her husband got. Pauline and Juli also discuss the destinies of other female scientists who lived around the same time as Mileva Marić and question the image of „the lone genius“.



You can find more information on Mileva Marić on Pauline’s website:

https://paulinegagnon3.wixsite.com/boson-in-winter/mileva-maric-einstein





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See you soon!

#5-11 - The tragic story of Mileva Marić-Einstein -ft. Dr. Pauline Gagnon

In this episode, Marcel interviews Alessandro Coatti who works as a Senior Science Policy Officer in the UK. They speak about Alessandro’s career trajectory, his work within the Royal Society of Biology, and science policy more generally.



Feel free to contact Alessandro Coatti on LinkedIn:

www.linkedin.com/in/alessandro-coatti-mrsb [http://www.linkedin.com/in/alessandro-coatti-mrsb] 



Some intro readings on science policy

Top 20 things politicians need to know about science (Guardian [https://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/nov/20/top-20-things-politicians-need-to-know-about-science])

Top 20 things scientists need to know about policy-making (Guardian [https://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/dec/02/scientists-policy-governments-science])

Policy: Twenty tips for interpreting scientific claims (Nature [https://www.nature.com/articles/503335a])

Scientists and politics? (Science [https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aaz7996])

Why must scientists become more ethically sensitive than they used to be? (Science [https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.282.5395.1813])

The science–policy interface (Science [https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aai8837])

Policy: The art of science advice to government (Nature [https://www.nature.com/articles/507163a])

Give evidence to a select committee (UK Parliament [https://www.parliament.uk/get-involved/committees/how-do-i-submit-evidence/guidance-for-house-of-commons-select-committee-witnesses/])

Parliament for Researchers - how to write for a parliamentary audience (UK Parliamentary Office for Science [https://www.parliament.uk/globalassets/documents/post/uk-parl-for-researchers-writing-for-parliament-training-15thdec20-slides.pdf])

Making sense of science in policy and politics - Part 1: An introduction to The Honest Broker Framework [https://rogerpielkejr.substack.com/p/series-making-sense-of-science-in]

What makes an academic paper useful for health policy? By Professor Chris Whitty. Link [https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-015-0544-8]

Principle of evidence synthesis. Link [https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/projects/evidence-synthesis/]

Books: Ian Boyd, Science and Politics (Hatchards [https://www.hatchards.co.uk/book/science-and-politics/ian-boyd/9781509561582])

Short course: Wellcome Connecting Science - Science Policy: Improving the Uptake of Research into UK Policy [https://coursesandconferences.wellcomeconnectingscience.org/event/science-policy-improving-the-uptake-of-research-into-uk-policy-20230821/] (2023 edition, which I helped organise). The next course will take place in 2025.





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#5-10 - Science Policy - ft. Alessandro Coatti

In this episode, Marcel interviews Dr. Ashley Bourke and Teresa Spanò, who are Gender Equality / Equal Opportunity Officers at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt. They discuss their motivation for getting involved, the role Gender Equality Officers play in the Max Planck Society and how we can challenge systemic issues in science.

Learn more about Dr. Ashley Bourke and Teresa Spanò at:

https://www.ashleybourke.com/

X: @TheSomnolentSci & @TeresaS_13

Read: A European perspective on structural barriers to women’s career progression in neuroscience (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-023-01467-5)



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See you soon!

#5-09 - Gender Equality Officers - ft. Dr. Ashley Bourke and Teresa Spanò

What are (eu)social insects? What is it like to work with them? In this episode, Huizi talks with three researchers, Stephan, Mélanie, and Silu, from the University of Freiburg, to learn about their experiences. These researchers use social insects to study various topics, including evolution, chemical communication, and longevity. We will learn all about their projects, what it's like to be in the tropics collecting insects, and their own personal journey that brought them to this field. If you want to know more about their work, check out the link to their department and their lab:
https://www.bio1.uni-freiburg.de/oeko-en/evo-eco
Stephan Lohmar - Korb lab & Henshaw lab
Mélanie Bey - Nehring lab
Dr. Silu Lin - Korb lab

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#5-08 - The Fascinating Journey with Social Insects - ft. Dr. Silu Lin, Mélanie Bey & Stephan Lohmar 

Did you know that our sun undergoes an 11-year cycle and is at the maximum of its activity this year? Juli thought that was the perfect time to talk to an expert and discuss everything we know and would like to know about our Sun! So for this podcast she had a conversation with Sowmya Krishnamurthy from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Göttingen. They talk about what causes the solar cycle, how the Sun compares to other stars in the Galaxy and how we can study the sun. They also discuss the Sun’s influence on Earth, how Aurorae are formed and the effects of space weather. Enjoy this episode!



MPI for solar system research: https://www.mps.mpg.de/en



Information about effects of solar storm in May 2024:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_2024_solar_storms#Impact

https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Operations/Double_trouble_Gaia_hit_by_micrometeoroid_and_solar_storm

https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/12/24154779/solar-storms-farmer-gps-john-deer



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See you soon!

#5-07 Our Sun - ft. Dr. Sowmya Krishnamurthy

In this episode Juli talks to Eduardo Banados, a research group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg. The two of them follow up on our previous episode about the James Webb Space Telescope and dive deeper into the early universe. They talk about the first billion years of cosmic history, how the first stars and galaxies formed during that time and how the universe went from a dark and neutral place to a luminous and ionized environment during the so-called epoch of reionization. Eduardo explains the role that supermassive black holes play in these processes and how all of this lead to the universe in which we live today. And they discuss all of this in the context of the new data that the James Webb Space Telescope is providing us on this specific epoch of the universe’s evolution.
You are in for a fantastics episode!



Eduardo’s Personal Website: https://www2.mpia-hd.mpg.de/homes/banados/index.html



Review Paper on Quasars at Cosmic Dawn pre-JWST: https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2023ARA%26A..61..373F/abstract


Summary Review Paper on „The First billion years according to JWST“ based on the first 1.5 years of JWST data: https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2024arXiv240521054A/abstract



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See you soon!

#5-06 The Early Universe - ft. Dr. Eduardo Bañados

In this episode, Juli [https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliane-van-scherpenberg-9165941ba/] talks to NASA scientist Matt Greenhouse [https://webb.nasa.gov/content/meetTheTeam/people/greenhouse.html]about the James Webb Space Telescope. Matt explains what the JWST was built for, the tremendous technical developments that went into the telescope’s design and the challenges that had to be overcome in the process. They discuss the main scientific goals of the JWST and the most important results it has given us so far.



Images taken by the Webb: https://webbtelescope.org/images


The Webb’s science: https://webbtelescope.org/science


Animation of the Telescope Unfolding in Space: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzGLKQ7_KZQ



The Webb on Social Media:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nasawebb/


Twitter/X: https://x.com/NASAWebb


Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasawebbtelescope/albums/


YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@NASAWebbTelescope



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Intro - Outro music composed by Srinath Ramkumar: ⁠https://twitter.com/srinathramkumar⁠ [https://twitter.com/srinathramkumar]

Pre-Intro jingle composed by Gustavo Carrizo: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/carrizo.gus⁠ [https://www.instagram.com/carrizo.gus]

 

See you soon!

#5-05 The James Webb Space Telescope - ft. Dr. Matt Greenhouse

Host (@srinathramkumar) · Zencastr

Host (@srinathramkumar)

This podcast series is brought to you by the Science Communication and Magazine team of the Max Planck PhD network. We want to make the process of getting a doctorate more transparent and raise awareness about possible career opportunities for doctoral researchers inside and outside of science. We disseminate information to early career researchers. We also focus on problems in academia and discuss topics of Open Science and research assessment. Follow us on Twitter @MPPhdnetPodcast.

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