We often complain about our political leaders, our supervisors, the institutions we work for, or countless other things. Today I would like to do the opposite and point out how the Department of Chemistry and its people at the Universität Zürich | University of Zurich are doing a great job. Three short stories:
I joined UZH two years ago in August 2022. As my wife would have the only break longer than two weeks in the fall of 2022, we wanted to go on a long trip in South America. I asked Roland Sigel, my PostDoc supervisor, during my application interview and he immediately told me that sure, I can have 7 weeks off right after I started. (Obviously only a small part of this was paid vacation, but still)
Students at the Biochemistry Department at UZH were organizing so-called Biochemistry Exchange Seminars in which Ph.D. students or PostDocs would present their recent work, focused on the challenges, to their peers. No PIs allowed. The atmosphere in these meetings was great, everybody was chipping in on how to solve some protein expression or on finding the best buffer. I wanted to copy this and do the same thing in the Chemistry Department. Every person along the way, from General Assistant Ramona Erni to the Graduate Research Campus who funded the project in the end was extremely helpful, open-minded, and motivated. We organized four events, the GRC grant paid for food and drinks for speakers and participants, it was a blast. The way Ph.D. and Master Students, PostDocs and interns of the Department, came together was amazing to see.
An evaluation of the Department revealed a small gap in the support infrastructure: Whereas there's great events, workshops, and networking in the graduate school CMSZH, no similar structure or organisation exists for PostDocs. So Dr. Philipp Heckmeier and me founded the PostDoc Association for the Departmet of Chemistry. Upon speaking with the department directorate and department assembly, we did not meet any resistance whatsover, quite the opposite: we received money for inviting speakers for Alumni events or seminars and were encouraged to organize events, always with the offer of help. Shortly after, we were approached by the CMSZH grad school manager Felix Zelder if we would do a joined event.
This is how you make people feel welcome. Sometimes, the grass is greener on this side of the fence.
