The Alumni of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI Alumni) in Braunschweig are a social and career network for former employees as well as for friends and sponsors of the HZI and the former German Research centre for Biotechnology (GBF).
The aims of the HZI Alumni network:
- to support long-lasting personal and professional relationships between present and former members of our centre
- to foster cross-cultural communication and world-wide networking among alumni of the HZI and the GBF
- to establish information and knowledge transfer between the HZI and other institutions within science, politics and society
- to communicate scientific news and recent developments at the HZI
- to promote career progression for HZI Alumni and HZI scientists
The alumni network is currently being reorganized and online registration is currently not possible. If you are interested in joining the alumni network, please contact us by email with a valid email address even after you have left the HZI.
Engagement
Alumni can get involved in various ways. Their expertise is very valuable for the centre and its scientists and their commitment is highly appreciated.
Be a mentor
You are alumna or alumnus of the HZI and the GBF, respectively, and wish to share your experience with PhD students at the HZI? To allow them first-hand insights into professional life and be a dialogue partner for directing questions? In that case we will be pleased if you make yourself available as a mentor in the HZI Graduate School’s mentoring programme. This is not only for the benefit of PhD candidates. Interesting aspects for you as a mentor could be that you can expand your advisory expertise, gain new insights through the mentee’s perspectives and questions, and last but not least, experience the joy of supporting young scientists on their career path.
For more information on the mentoring programme, please contact Dr. Sabine Kirchhoff.
Contact:
Dr. Sabine Kirchhoff
Tel.: 0531 6181-2150
E-Mail
Be a supporter or a sponsor
Furthermore, you have the possibility to contribute through your support to the promotion of committed researchers and the realization of scientific events and award ceremonies. These include, for example, annual awards such as the Inhoffen Medal and the Jürgen Wehland Prize as well as the PhD award, which honours excellent dissertations in life science. It is also possible to sponsor an event like the Inhoffen lecture, the “North Regio Day on Infection” (NoRDI) or the International Symposium of the Virtual Institute “Viral Strategies of Immune Evasion" (VISTRIE). Your contact in this case are the Friends of the HZI.
Contact:
Dr. Hansjörg Hauser
Tel.: 0531 6181-5000
E-Mail
Your engagement in research funding
There is also the possibility to support research projects or junior scientists at the HZI. Thus, you can further contribute to our research by supporting basic research for new diagnostic tools, new active agents and new therapies against infectious diseases. The coordinator for research funding will provide you with further information.
Contact:
Katrin MacLeod
Tel.: 0531 6181-1001
E-Mail
Alumni & Career Event 2023
On 15 September, alumni as well as current members of HZI met at HZI Science Campus for the Alumni & Career Event 2023. HZI’s administrative director, Christian Scherf, opened the event before Gérard Krause, HZI alumnus and former head of the department Epidemiology, joined the meeting virtually. He gave a lively overview of his career, from being a trained medical doctor to becoming head of the department “Surveillance Systems” at the WHO. Afterwards, nine invited alumni with very different career paths in e.g. academia, industry or as entrepreneurs shortly presented themselves and were available for individual conversations at the following Career Fair. Among them was also this years’ prizewinner of the Jürgen-Wehland Award, Stephanie Pfänder. Young scientists of HZI used the chance to ask them questions and become inspired for their own careers. The day was rounded off with a highlight talk by alumna Sandra Ciesek, now director at the Institute for Medical Virology at the Universitätsklinikum Frankfurt, who also shared her experiences in an entertaining way.
