Life after ICFO: A PhD is Not Enough
Institut de Ciències Fotòniques (ICFO) Student Chapter
On June 2nd 2016, the ICONS student chapter hosted Prof.Giovanni Volpe (Assistant Professor, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey) a former ICFOnian as a part of OSA´s Ambassador and Traveling Lecturer Programs. The visit of Professor Volpe was beneficial in multiple ways. Being a former ICFOnian, Professor Volpe was able to gives us first-hand experience about life after a PhD in photonics from our institute. His talk titled: 'Life after ICFO: A PhD is Not Enough’ gave us a detailed account of his career after ICFO and how a career does not always have to be a perfectly predictable sequence and how sometimes changing fields can be fruitful. It was encouraging to know that his involvement in outreach and other student chapter activities has helped him in the long run.
Interestingly, the talk was highly interactive and stimulating, with topics ranging from nano-optics to the researcher´s pyramid of needs and impostor syndrome in researchers. Additionally, we also had a coffee session with Professor Volpe, so students could have more informal atmosphere to interact with him. With the numerous discussions that Professor Volpe had with the group leaders at ICFO, we also hope that the visit was also helpful to initiate scientific collaborations.
For the ICONS board members, it was motivating to talk to one of the founding members of the chapter and to know more about and learn from the challenges that the student chapter initially faced. He also gave the ICONS board more ideas for future activities.
