A guest seminar on Tools and Practices for young researchers

From June 3 to June 5, 2011 in the suburban boarding house “Sunny Meadow” a seminar on "Tools and practices for the development of young researchers" was held. 36 students from different faculties of bachelor and master programs of the HSE who are interested in academic career took part in the seminar. Among them was a researcher from our laboratory, Catherine Kuldina.

From June 3 to June 5, 2011 in the suburban boarding house “Sunny Meadow” a seminar on "Tools and practices for the development of young researchers" was held. 36 students from different faculties of bachelor and master programs of the HSE who are interested in academic career took part in the seminar. Among them was a researcher from our laboratory, Catherine Kuldina.

It was my first time at the workshop oriented not at the established scientific community but at those who only plan to join it. This is a kind of a global training with lectures-discussions designed to give answers to such questions as: Who is the researcher? Is it hard to become one? Whether it is necessary to bind one’s life to science and research? And, if so, how is it better to do? 

The answers to these questions were offered by the researchers and teachers of our university and by ourselves. Among the guest speakers, for example, were vice-chancellor S.U. Roshchin, who described the prospect of becoming a scientist in bleak colours, deputy Head of international activities, L.D. Taradina who highlighted the importance of skillful self-representation and making new acquaintances in her speech. Head of the Department of Postgraduate course E.N. Kobzar spoke about a new program of academic postgraduate program of the HSE. Deputy Director for Research and Development of the HSE I.A. Dolmatov and vice-rector M.M. Yudkevich also spoke at the seminar. The speech of the latter was the summing up of the three-day workshop.

 In addition to attending lectures all participants-students had a specific task: to prepare a kind of a manual, a personal answer, on one of the topics. In other words, it was a group work led by two young teachers from the HSE.

I worked in the group which we called "Careerists" for convenience. The chosen topic dealt with making an academic career in the HSE. Personal and professional development was in the focus of our topic. The leaders of our group were Sophia Kiselgof and Daniel Karabekyan, teachers from the department of Mathematics at the Faculty of Economics.

For me personally, the workshop was useful not so much for practical advice, which I had hoped to get when I decided to go there, as for the opportunity to learn what different people – from vice-chancellors to undergraduate students – think about scientific activities. As it turned out, I know a lot about the possibilities of academic development that exist in our university (it is very useful to work in the Laboratory:-)). But it was found that I don’t know well those people who study and work in the HSE, what exactly they do, what they think of their future, even if it is not associated with science. First of all I speak about the undergraduate and graduate students with whom I spent those few days. In this sense, the seminar was very helpful, as it gave me the opportunity to look at the HSE and myself from a different point of view.

If any questions about the academic environment of the HSE have left (or have appeared), you can refer to the presentation, developed by our group in this workshop.

by Catherine Kuldina