Siegfried Reich

Europakloster Aich

… a truly inspiring experience: I happened to be invited to visit a “monastery on Europe”, the Europakloster in Aich. See http://www.europakloster.com/. Pater Johannes Pausch introduced us to the idea and background of this Benedictine Monastery (and also some of the monastery’s products including cordial spirits ). Also, the monastery is providing mediation services concerning ethics, rules, etc. with respect to Europe.

Add comment April 7th, 2008

Three Years European Charter for Researchers

On March 11, 2005, the European Charter for Researchers has been signed. Three years later, doktorat.at has asked some people about their experiences and/if something has changed.

See http://doktorat.at/Neuigkeiten/3_Jahre_Charta_fuer_Forscher_-_Die_Bilanz.html

• The science fund, for instance, changed its age limits from biological limits to academic limits, i.e., instead of “not older than 35″ to “PhD plus 10 years of experience”
• Another important point is a clear structure for (efficient) support of PhD students. I think the ReMeSe Seminar fits into this category.
• Finally, the commission thinks about a “label” for the Charter. An excellent idea!

Add comment March 18th, 2008

Kaust – King Abdullah University of Science and Technology

On the homepage it says that KAUST will offer “uncommon freedom for pursuit of scholarship” to lecturers.

Add comment November 19th, 2007

Polytehnica Timisoara

A visit to the No. 1 technical university of Romania: UPT, the “Politehnica”, i.e., technical university of Timisoara (in Western Romania). Some 14000 students (with some 30%+ female students!!!), excellent staff and apparently 35% external funding (I have been told by Rector Prof. Robu). Very impressive figures, indeed.

Add comment October 28th, 2007

PhD and Polythechnic Universities …

… are an “evergreen” type of discussion. Universities do not want to give away the right of awarding PhDs. On the other hand, there is a significant number of excellent master students at the level of the “polytechnic universities” (Fachhochschulen) that would well qualify for a PhD programme.

In Sweden, they created a work around with the so-called “Licenciate” (according to wikipedia, there are several other countries with such a mechanism). The licentiate is somewhat between master and PhD, so to say on the way towards the PhD.

In a XING user-group I came across a group that provides links to related sites, e.g. promotion-fh.de or thesis.de.

Add comment September 18th, 2007

Benchmarking of Austrian Universities

…. “Hochschulvergleich.at” offers various criteria and benchmarks for Austrian Universities. Quite interesting to see that Klagenfurt is doing pretty well in computer science and Linz is apparently only “medium”.

Add comment July 11th, 2007

ALNURI – Summer School 2007

ALNURI = Academic Learning for non-university researchers, an initiative between FH Salzburg/Salzburg Research and University of Timisoara to promote so-called industrial PhDs. It is supported by Forschung Austria. These days, the 1st summer school is taking place in Salzburg.

Add comment July 11th, 2007

Successful viva on the “graphic novel”

… by Andreas Strasser. “Going Graphic – History of the American Graphic Novel from a Cultural History Perspective”, a great piece of work. Congratulations, Andreas! Well done.

See also the entry on Wikipedia on graphic novels. Or, ask Andreas for a copy of his thesis.

Add comment June 15th, 2007

High-Tech needs High Potentials – Unternehmenschance Frauen

An event organised within the FEMTECH initiative to discuss about women in technological domains/businesses.

• Opening by Landeshauptfrau Gabriele Burgstaller and Forschungsstaatssekretärin Christa Kranzl
• Best Practices Dialogue: Siegfried Reich, Salzburg Research; Silvia Buchinger, Hewlett-Packard
• Vocational training as chance: Alexandra Kreuzeder, Projektleiterin ditact_women´s IT summer studies, ICT&S Center
• Best Practices Dialogue: Dorly Holzer-Harringer, Skidata AG; Sophie Poppenreiter, Liebherr;
• Recruiting of experts: Irma Brazda, IVENTA

moderated by Anita Zieher, Theatre Works

Some key findings:

• Flexibility in working hours is key to success
• During maternity/paternity leave you should try and aim to stay connected with your employer
• Role models are important (especially for the younger ones when choosing their career paths)
• There was a good argument by HP for diversity: creativity is important as it helps fostering new ideas. If there is diversity in people (women/men, different cultures, etc.) this creates creativity and therefore supports innovation which helps staying competetive (says at least HP but I would personally by into this argument).

Add comment June 1st, 2007

Opening of GIScience at Salzburg

Salzburg has (again) an institute of the academy of sciences: the GIScience research lab has been officially opened on May 30, 2007. Congratulations to Josef Strobl!

It is good to see that not only applied research is funded but that also basic research can florish. Geoinformatics in Salzburg is getting (much) stronger!

Add comment May 30th, 2007