Young EPIZONE sessions successful

Young EPIZONE sessions report

The first session: workshop ‘how to manage the stress’ by François Maurin
About 30 young scientists took part in this session. François: ‘ When you really want to get something or to do something, you will have stress. For example, you will have stress before and during an oral presentation in public’. Is stress ‘good or not’ to be successful? In the success ‘stress’ zone, people will focus on preparing what they are going to do. Below this zone, people will totally relax and just do entertainment things, such as watching TV, without preparing. Up this zone, people will have too much stress, which affects people’s mood, physical condition and then affects preparing. Therefore, if we feel a little stress, the possibility of success is the highest’. In addition, he also told us how to face too much stress. For example, we can take some deep breathes before an oral presentation or job interview. At the end, he makes us believe, that a little stress is necessary for success. Therefore, when you feel stress, don’t be nervous.

The second session: workshop ‘how to do a job interview’ by François Maurin
About 60 young scientists participated in this session. Francois: ‘A job interview consists of a beginning, middle, ending and after ending part. A good beginning is to attract the examiner’s attention rather than just simply introduce yourself. The middle of an interview is quit important. A good middle of an interview will lead the examiner to your ‘journey’. A wonderful ending will make the examiner to image a lot of things. Some action in the after ending part is also quite important. For example, the examiner would like to see in your eyes that you really want to get that job’. François Maurin told us that interviews not just consist of verbal communication; it also includes non-verbal communication, actions, and slides. François showed us in a film why the action is quit important, because the action sometime can express what are you really thinking.

In the third session YE had invited four speakers
About 20 persons participated in this session.
The first speaker, Jose -Manuel Sanchez-Vizcaino, president of ESVV, gave some advice about: how to do to scientific research and keep passion and interest in science. Other interesting issues were: Why did you choose scientific research as a career and, during your research, what responsibility should you take?
The second speaker was Josie Golding, post-doc in King’s College, London. She gave us some advice about how to find a job after the PhD period. She didn’t find a job at once but she found a temporary position as an editor of a scientific magazine, which broaden her horizon and helps her to find the post-doc job. 
The third speaker, Pascal Hudelet, DVM, R&D Project Leader at Merial, focused on his career and his day to day’s job in the company. He gave us some examples about how it is to work in an international Company such as Merial.
The fourth speaker, Wim van der Poel, coordinator EPIZONE, gave a presentation about the opportunities for young scientists as a member of Young EPIZONE, for example:

• to interact and network with senior scientists in addition to other students and post-docs from partner institutes worldwide.
• to apply for extra funding for EPIZONE meetings and specific Young EPIZONE meetings, training courses and short term missions.

To remember for next year

-- We had a very successful meeting with well-organized sessions. However next year, we prefer to have the YE meeting scheduled without scientific parallel sessions at the same time. If there are parallel sessions, we noticed that most of young scientists are going to those sessions.

 -- Also, next year, it is better for YE to have also an election meeting scheduled. During this meeting, we can elect the new chairman of YE for the next Annual Meeting. This has to be a PhD from the organizing institute that will host the next AM. We can also ask YE members who want to be participate in the YE core group

Hope to see you all next year!

Haijin Liu, CIRAD, contact Young EPIZONE core group 9th AM EPIZONE