Tschüss und Auf Wiedersehen ZUKOnnect and Herz Fellows of 2021/22

We say Goodbye and Farewell to our ZUKOnnect and Herz cohort of 2021/22, who finished their on-campus research stays at the University of Konstanz in the past months.

Between September 2021 and February 2022 the ZUKOnnect Fellows stayed at the Zukunftskolleg for three to four months, engaging in the scientific environment of the University of Konstanz and contributing to the interdisciplinary and intercultural exchange at the Zukunftskolleg. At the same time, they were able to use this opportunity for their professional and personal development:

Priyanshu Goel: “‘The Herz Fellowship’: A booster towards my career in research. Thanks to this opportunity, I got familiar with a new culture, and a new lifestyle. The city of Konstanz itself and its university provided me with an amazing work and life environment. During my entire stay, I gained a lot of new personal and professional skills. This Fellowship was not only the beginning of my journey into the world of fabrication of devices, but I was also able to build a research network with people coming from other countries. I am thankful to Prof. Lukas Schmidt-Mende and his group for their guidance during this research stay. Finally, I also want to thank the staff of the Zukunftskolleg and the Welcome Centre for providing me with all their help and support whenever I needed them.”

Mahsa Mozafari-Nia: “Thanks to the ZUKOnnect Fellowship, I got to meet many interesting people with other research backgrounds. This gave me the opportunity to not only broaden my knowledge in my own field of expertise, but also in other subjects! I enjoyed working under the supervision of a sophisticated professor and gained a lot of new theoretical knowledge on the application of theorems I am working on. Thanks to all extracurricular activities, I got familiar with different cultures, improved my communication skills with people from other countries, and made lots of friends.”

Neelma Ashraf: “I am a PhD scholar from Pakistan, working on the ‘Production of antimicrobial compunds from Streptomyces’. I joined the Department of Biology at the University of Konstanz in 2021, as a ZUKOnnect Fellow. This short-term fellowship with long-term benefits has gained an instrumental role in my career as it not only helped me to complete the final steps in my PhD project, but also provided me with the opportunity to meet and collaborate with other amazing and highly skilled PhD and Postdoc researchers.”

Gebrie Anteneh Gebrie: “I was a ZUKOnnect Fellow for 4-months at the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Konstanz. The Fellowship enabled me to build a scientific network and gain research experience in hierarchical optimisation.”

The on-campus research stays are now followed by a digital fellowship until September 2022. However, we want to thank Neelma Ashraf, David Ubua Etta, Norman Chivasa, Priyanshu Goel, Gabriel Cerqueira, Gebrie Anteneh Getachew, Mahsa Mozafari-Nia, and Ilesha Avasthi for the great cooperation and the enriching personal and scientific discussions!