Fellowship Holders' Meeting 2009
This Time, Everything Was a Bit Different
A new Alumni Association organizes future Fellowship Holders' Meetings and assists Fellowship Holders, Fellows, and the foundation.
"We found, therefore, we are!": Fellows and staff members of the foundation, infused with Descartes' spirit, smiled radiantly as if it were a competition. The former Fellowship Holders - the Fellows - and the staff members had together founded the association, "Alumni of the Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz Foundation". The first self-organized meeting, from September 18th - 19th 2009 in the "Franconian Academy" in the Schney Castle in Lichtenfels in Franconia, stood fully in the sense of these self-starting qualities.
Committed fellowship holders named as the motivation for continuing the well-established annual meetings on their own, and for organizing them as an alumni responsibility, the wish to give something back: of the advantages gained through the stay abroad supported by the foundation and through the subsequent relations to one another. The founding of the association, prepared months in advance, was the subject and the aim of around 20 Fellowship Holders, of Petra Jung and Dr. Joerg Klein from the foundation, and of the former President of the Executive Board, Professor Gisbert zu Putlitz.
Eight nationalities, thirteen disciplines, one goal: As different as the countries of their origin and their subject areas may be, a common vision of further bringing together young scientists across disciplines and nationalities in the future as well, united them all. And already in the first meeting, the participants upheld the foundation's tradition: a scientific program with technical reports by Fellowship Holders and contributions by Fellows, in order to sustain the personal and intellectual communication with one another.
Fellows' Lectures on Alumni Work and on Innovation Policy
The Fellow Dr. Anselm Hagedorn welcomed the participants in the familiar setting in Castle Schney, where the foundation has already held a number of meetings. He explained the initiative Alumni Association, drawn up in two local Fellowship Holders' Meetings in Munich and Berlin, and led up to the Fellows' lectures.
Alumni as a Support for Fellowship Holders, Fellows,
and the Foundation
Why do we need the association when we have to pay our travel expenses in the future ourselves? And how can we plan our alumni work? These and other questions were answered by Dr. Petra Roecken in her lecture, "Alumni as a Support for Fellowship Holders, Fellows, and the Foundation". As a fund-raiser, she described the attitude of a lifelong relationship to the institution which made further education and personal development possible for its alumni. Although it is widespread in the Anglo-Saxon countries, alumni work is, in Germany, in contrast, often a task for the future, "which we may already plan together now, for the Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz Foundation". As bridge-builders, alumni could work out offers for every reference group, Roecken explained: for Fellowship Holders as a whole, (interchange and annual meeting, further education) or individually (advice, mentoring, assistance in emergencies), for Fellows (professional discussions, new topics, collegial advice), and for the foundation (expert dialog, new impulses, ideational support as multipliers). Especially Fellows could communicate the foundation's work, act as ambassadors and as door-openers: "We can raise the foundation's awareness level and enhance its image, initiate dialogs as well as find interested parties and win supporters".
As factors of successful alumni work the speaker - originally a chemist - named six "C's", analogous to the carbon atoms in the benzene ring: Commitment (self-obligation), Coordination (design and strategy), Culture (common spirit), Communication (dialog and public relations), Cooperation (partnerships), and Controlling (feasibility and performance review). The association has to develop its own profile, and its members should keep themselves intellectually open for new ideas and partners in cooperation - "as we have all learned abroad". And to cultivate connections, "literally everyone" can become active in his or her own personal network.
You can download the presentation of the lecture as a *.pdf.
National and European Innovation-Political Instruments
As a second general topic, Dr. Martin Vogt, technology consultant of the Association of German Engineers' (VDI's) Technology Center Ltd., outlined national and EU-instruments of innovation policy.
Vogt first spoke on national measures, such as the German federal government's "Pact for Research and Innovation", the University Pact, the Excellence Initiative, and the High Tech-Strategy. He then described the European Union's Research Framework Program. A focal point here was the European Research Council, the sponsorship of which is seen in the scientific community as extremely prestigious, and is advantageous for a research career. Vogt recommended - because of the complicated procedure - to think over placing an application well, and to make use of existing opportunities for advice, for example, the (German) federal government's national contact points, from the beginning.
The Founding of the Alumni Association
Hagedorn moderated the 15-member group for founding the association, which, at the same time, convened the future members for the first time: Dr. Heike Schettler took the minutes. Discussion and the adoption of the association's name and of the charter, the election of the Executive Board, the nomination of the secretary, as well as discussion of an advisory body, and of the cooperation with the foundation stood on the agenda.
Dr. Anselm Hagedorn (second from left) moderated the work group.
The members elected Roecken to the office of chairwoman, Dr. Jochen Langer as vice-chairman, Hagedorn and Vogt to the Executive Board. Since all of the founding members had received a draft of the charter in advance, lengthier discussions were concentrated on only few points, such as the association's purpose, or the dues regulations. The convention succeeded in handling the - for many participants, new - subject of founding an "association" efficiently and effectively, and in finding common solutions.
| The Alumni Association
Date of Founding: September 19th 2009 in Lichtenfels (Franken-Akademie) Charter (to download)
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Petra Jung had been in charge of the fellowship program and will contribute her experience as the association's secretary. The foundation's CEO, Dr. Joerg Klein is a member of the Alumni Association's Executive Board and thus responsible for the link between the foundation and the association.
Hand in Hand: The Association and the Foundation Work Together
The foundation's Executive Board, Professor Eckard Minx and Professor Rainer Dietrich, had already months in advance promised the Fellowship Holders support for the association. For close cooperation, the founding members proposed electing a member of the foundation's Executive Board into that of the association.
Instead, Dietrich declared himself willing to collaborate in the advisory body, and recommended the foundation's CEO, Klein, as a candidate for the Executive Board. The alumni accepted the offer of locating the association's seat in the foundation, and of building on Petra Jung's experience and commitment with thanks. In the inaugural meeting, the members confirmed Klein by secret ballot as a member of the Executive Board, nominated the directress of the Fellowship Program to the office of secretary, and elected Dietrich as the first member of the advisory board.
In addition, the association wants to win a German and a foreign Fellowship Holder, a leading staff member of the Daimler Company, a speaker from the Bertha Benz lectures, and a member of the foundation's Scientific Advisory Board as board members.
The foundation's former President of the Executive Board, Professor Gisbert zu Putlitz, (third from right) is one of the association's founders and, further, its first honorary member.
Scientific Contributions - As Always
Parallel to the work group "Alumni Association", Fellowship Holders and Fellows followed the foundation's tradition already in their first "own" annual meeting, and had organized a short scientific program. The Fellow Frank Wiedmann moderated three Fellowship Holders' presentations with a focus on biology, and a Fellow's report from the field of physics.
Yvonne Hackmann spoke generally-understandably and enthrallingly on the secretion from the immune system's cytotoxic T-cells which can kill other, infected somatic cells specifically and efficiently. The postgraduate student at the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research in England compared the T-cells' functioning to that of an army with its own defense "grenades". In her dissertation, Hackmann investigates the mechanism for "throwing" these "grenades".
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| Yvonne Hackmann | Nay Min Min Thaw Saw | Su Hlaing Tint |
The biotechnologist Nay Min Min Thaw Saw from Burma spoke on a technology for the biomanufacturing of antioxidants from Guava plants and tissue cultures, and is at present a postgraduate student at the Institute for Food Technology and Food Chemistry at the Technical University Berlin.
The biologist Su Hlaing Tint, also from Burma, presented a characterization of RND type multidrug efflux systems in plants. She is doing research at the School of Engineering and Science at the Jacobs University in Bremen, and also reported on the pathogenic bacterium Pseudomonas syringae.
The Fellow Victor Morokhovskyi spoke in his lecture on "Energy from the Atomic Nucleus", and described how nuclear power plants work. Born in the Ukraine, he works for the Areva Company in reactor development, and has often reported on his work in Fellowship Holders' Meetings.
In the best of spirits: the lunchtime grill buffet.
Association Founded - The Next Fellowship Holders' Meeting is Set
After the common grill buffet by magnificent weather on the castle's terrace, the group of speakers relaxed with a stroll along the banks of the Main River, while the alumni group discussed the final details of the association's work. At 2h15 P.M., the charter and the minutes had been signed. Fifteen elated faces signalized, "We've founded us!".
The association's chair people: Dr. Petra Roecken and Dr. Jochen Langer.
In the last session of the Fellowship Holders' Meeting, Hagedorn reported on the founders' meeting and first general assembly of the alumni association and introduced the chair people. Roecken saw this "honorary office as an honor", and thanked Hagedorn and all of the participants for their good cooperation in the work of founding the association. Langer, who has regularly taken part in the meetings since 1994, named "giving the foundation something back and making the varied experiences at the meetings possible for other Fellowship Holders" as his motivation.
Zu Putlitz, who had had the idea for the Fellowship Program and has accompanied it for over 20 years, didn't want to miss taking part in the inaugural meeting. "The Fellowship Holders' readiness to organize the meetings on their own initiative shows how important this forum has become", he expressed his gratification. And at the same time, he sees "a confirmation of the successful recipe for the foundation's Fellowship Program".
See You Again in Lichtenfels - On the Weekend
of September 17th - 19th 2010!
Signatures, Signatures, Signatures
With 15 charter members, a huge number of signatures accumulate: the documentation of a process of habituation.
The Annual Meeting of Fellowship Holders and Fellows
of the Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz Foundation
from the 18th to the 19th of September 2009 in Lichtenfels
Program
Friday, September 18th 2009, 7 P.M.
Welcoming, introduction of the participants
Presentation of the Alumni Initiative
Fellows' Lectures and Discussion
Petra Roecken (Chemistry and Fund-Raising)
"Alumni as a Support for Fellowship Holders, Fellows, and the Foundation"
Martin Vogt (Physics)
"National and European Innovation-Political Instruments - The German Federal Government's High Tech-Strategy and the European Research Framework Program"
Saturday, September 19th 2009
Morning
Work group for planning and discussing the founding of the Alumni Association
parallel: Scientific Reports by Fellowship Holders
Yvonne Hackmann (Biochemistry)
"Secretion from cytotoxic T-cells"
Nay Min Min Thaw Saw (Biotechnology)
"Technology for Biomanufacturing of Antioxidants (Phenolic Derivates) from Guava (Psidium guajava) Plants and Tissue Culture"
Su Hlaing Tint (Biology)
"Characterization of RND type multidrug efflux systems in the plant-pathogenic bacterium Pseudomonas syringae"
Fellow's Lecture and Discussion
Victor Morokhovskyi (Physics)
"Energy from the Atomic Nucleus"
Noon
Stroll along the banks of the Main River
followed by a grill buffet on the terrace of the Franken-Akademie
Afternoon
Presentation of the results of the founding of the Alumni Association,
final discussion
The Picture Galleries and the List of Participants
A picture gallery with photos of the 2008 and 2009 Meetings is accessible on the pages "Restricted Area". Access to these pages is password protected. This is the same password that you already use to access the Fellowship Holders' database.
There, you can also find a list of the participants in the 2009 Meeting and other documents in connection with the new Alumni Association. Further, you can get information on the mailing list.
Find them here, please ...
