live training

How to pursue an academic career

Target Audience:

VIB PhD student

VIB postdoc

VIB staff scientist

Location:

Leuven, Park Inn Hotel

General context

Are you confused about your academic career? There is a solution.

Are you struggling to get reliable and honest advice on how to pursue a successful academic career?
Do you want to become part of the small group of scientists who know how to succeed in academia?
Do you want to know the unspoken rules of a successful academic career?
Do you want to know how to dramatically increase your chances to become a professor?
Do you want to know how a selection committee screens for good candidates?
Are you unsure whether you want to pay the price (a lot of effort, time and money) to become a professor?

During this training session, we want to give you pragmatic advice on how to become a professor in science.

Learn the open secrets of academia that nobody tells you!

Learning outcomes

Common questions young scientists ask are:

What should I do after my PhD or Postdoc research?
How do I get funding?
How do I get published in high impact journals?
Do I have to do research abroad? If so where should I go?
How can I balance a career in science with a healthy and fulfilling family life?

During this training we will share the answers to these and many other questions that young scientists face as they make their first few career decisions.

Approach

After an interactive session with Prof. Sven Hendrix, young professors in the field of life sciences will share their experiences in their journey to become a professor.

Event intended for

PhD students, postdocs and staff scientists - especially in the life sciences and similar domains such as biology, biomedical sciences and medicine - who want to get the best advice on how to become a professor and how to pursue a scientific career with success.

Extra information

This training is only open for VIB participants and is free.
Note that upon no show without valid justification a fee of € 100 will be charged and you will be blacklisted for the VIB training program for 1 year. Click here for more information.

Trainers

Sven Hendrix

Medical School Hamburg, DE

Prof. Sven Hendrix is a Full Professor of Neuroanatomy and Chairman of the Organoid Expertise Center at Medical School Hamburg, Germany. Previously, he worked for more than a decade as a Full Professor of Neuroanatomy and as Director of the Doctoral School for Medicine & Life Sciences at Hasselt University in Belgium. Together with colleagues and partner universities, he organized more than 100 local and international events, and for over ten years he has published his blog smartsciencecareer.com to support young scientists in their careers.

His research focuses on neuroimmunology and translational models of tissue injury. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers (including in Brain and Journal of Clinical Investigation), has an h-index of 50 with over 10,000 citations, and has raised more than €5 million in competitive funding from European and national agencies.

Like many scientists, his career has not been a straight path but an emotional roller coaster, with many moves between jobs and countries. He studied medicine in Berlin and spent time abroad, including studies in Parma (Italy, Erasmus), short research stays in Hamamatsu (Japan) and Harvard (USA), and a longer research project in London (UK). After six years at the Department of Anatomy of the Charité Hospital in Berlin, he became a Full Professor at Hasselt University (Belgium).

Navigating his scientific career has been a long and sometimes difficult journey. Today, he is eager to share his experience and to make the path easier for young scientists.

ORCID