Rewarding talks, Swedish fika and peer support at ScientiFika
On Friday afternoons, students from undergraduate and postgraduate programs gather at Nordita for Swedish fika and open lectures. The concept is called ScientiFika and the event is not only about broadening one's knowledge, but also about meeting across different subject areas to exchange ideas and experiences.
For the first talk of the autumn semester, the ScientiFika team invited Casper Farret Jentink, a Ph.D. student from the University of Geneva, who does research on exoplanets. Exoplanet research is linked to one of humanity's largest questions: is there life elsewhere in space? Scientist have not yet been able to discover another solar system similar to ours, but in the mid 1990s, researchers could confirm that there are other planets rotating around a star, known as exoplanets.
About fifty people showed up at Nordita, where Casper enthusiastically described how researchers use advanced instruments and complex calculations to map exoplanets. He himself is a project manager for the construction of a spectrograph, which will be used to deepen our knowledge of exoplanets atmospheres.
Casper's presentation is linked to ScientiFika's roots in cosmology and astrophysics, but recently, the ScientiFika team has begun inviting speakers to present a broader range of topics. Earlier this year, one talk focused on research on Alzheimer's disease, and next week's talk centres on the concept of peace during the Middle Ages.
The ScientiFika team consists of a dedicated group of seven members, including Nikki Arendse, a post-doc, and Pavel Štěch, a master's student, at Stockholm University. According to them, the opportunity to listen to exciting and inspiring talks is only one part of ScientiFika's purpose. The event is as much about supporting your own studies or research, and about fostering interesting exchanges between people as it is about the talk itself. The event offers a friendly setting to practice, in case you need to present to an audience.
– At a typical university research seminar, you might delve into a specific area that might be difficult to understand and familiarize yourself with, if you aren't part of that field of study. At ScientiFika, the talks are fun and accessible, so that everyone can understand the content and ask questions. This is a warm and welcoming environment, and we encourage anyone who wants to give a presentation to sign up, Nikki says.
Pavel emphasizes that you don't have to be a researcher with a Ph.D. to present at ScientiFika. Bachelor's and Master's students are also welcome to sign up and give a talk. And if you feel that 45 minutes is too long to speak on your own, you can bring a friend and share the time. The only requirement is that the presentation must be in English, as Stockholm University has many international students and researchers.
– The idea of ScientiFika is to bring people from different disciplines and locations together, to create a community. We meet on Friday afternoons, as a nice way to end the week, Pavel says.
The target group for ScientiFika is primarily junior researchers, post-docs and undergraduate and graduate students. Professors are occasionally invited, either to attend a talk or to participate in special events to share their academic career experiences.
– We call those occasions "Ask a Professor anything", and you can ask whatever you want, like what it was like for that person in terms of studies, choice of research topic, and academic job applications. We also have sessions where we ask each other questions, called "Ask each other anything". The idea is to support one another in what it means to be a student or a junior researcher, Nikki says.
Sometimes, the talks centre on alternative career paths upon completing your studies. For example, one of the speakers last year talked about how he uses machine learning and data science for his job at a company that rents out electric scooters. Again, the idea of ScientiFika is to work as a sounding board for ideas and inspiration to take off, and Pavel himself is an example of how it works:
– Actually, I came here and listened to a talk about Holographic Principle, given by Ronnie Rodgers. Afterwards, I reached out to him and eventually we agreed on a topic for my Master's thesis, which I am working on now, also connected to holography.
ScientiFika continues throughout the year, and you can find the program here. For Halloween, the team promises extra spooky fika and talks that are sure to give you a scare.
ScientiFika's webpage
Register your interest to present at ScientiFika
Follow ScientiFika on Instagram
ScientiFika is hosted by The Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics (Nordita) and the Oskar Klein Centre at Stockholm University.
Last updated: October 24, 2024
Source: Office of Science