Detail

What I offer

I would like to keep my mentoring course very informal and we can have very varies forms of sessions and cover quite diverse subjects, as required by you. Some specific topics we could offer include:

• Basics of biostatistics / inference statistics (t-test, ANOVA, regression, use of GraphPad Prism)
• Power analysis and planning of in vivo experiments
• Scientific writing style
• Writing grant applications
• Writing good abstracts
• Special lab techniques such as Incucyte live-cell cytometry, and TissueFaxs-based image cytometry
• Practicing poster and oral presentations
• Teaching
• Organized talks from experts regarding habilitation, career opportunities, etc.
• Personal discussions, challenges of a PhD, how to become a PI, …

Internships or experiments as collaborator with my group are of course also possible but will have to be discussed with your supervisor.

What I expect from the students

I would just ask for active participation and genuine interest and for you to enjoy discussing, creating a peer peer group, and a positive attitude :)

Note please that a mentoring group is there to offer you new perspectives and additional training and networking, but not conflict resolution or mediation.  

Time constraints for meetings

Frequency, duration, and time of our meetings can be adjusted flexibly according to the group's need, but we will aim to meet around once per month so we have ~ 12 meetings per year, with a duration of about 2 academic hours.

We will generally hold our meetings at the library of the Institute for Pathophysiology and Allergy Research (AKH 3Q/4Q) but may change the location flexibly. I would plan to do a group hike through the Vienna woods with food and drink (whole day activity, possibly on a weekend) at the end as the last session of the year.

What else I would like to say

My name is Martin Schepelmann, I am a 41 year old PI and PhD supervisor at the institute of Pathophysiology and Allergy Research of the Center for Pathophysiology, Infectiology and Immunology. My research interest focusses mostly on colitis, colorectal cancer and the calcium-sensing receptor. Teaching is very close to my heart – I teach in the Medical Curriculum (e.g. SSM1, Pathophysiology of the Kidney, Biochemistry) in N094/N790 PhD programs (e.g. the Creative and Critical Journal Club) and externally at the Karl Landsteiner University in Krems.

I was very excited when I heard about the new program for mentoring PhD students. Having completed my PhD at Cardiff University (UK) as a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow in 2014, I now coordinate my own Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Network “eRaDicate”, with 11 international PhD students all over Europe. I thus have quite a bit first-hand experience with challenges of doing an (international) PhD. I was very lucky to had great mentors all throughout my career and would be very happy if I can pass some of these good experiences on to you.