Lectures and Conferences
Lectures, conferences, symposiums and other similar events can offer brief excursions into unfamiliar fields of physics and provide valuable networking opportunities. Some exist to increase your knowledge of a certain subject and some aim to bring people and ideas together. Of the events outlined below, the topical lectures are obligatory for PhD students (except for theorists) and the Soesterberg and Veldhoven conferences are highly recommended.
Topical Lectures
The topical lectures aim to educate PhD students about one specific field of physics, or topic, through a traditional combination of lectures and exercises. PhD students that are part of the Dutch Research School for Theoretical Physics only attend topical lectures according to agreements with their supervisor, but for the every PhD candidate at Nikhef that is part of OSAF, PhD candidates are required to complete a total of six Topical Lectures during their PhD. Of these, four must be Nikhef-organised Topical Lectures, ensuring broad exposure to the main research areas within Nikhef. The remaining up to two lectures may be replaced by other educational activities of comparable duration and level, subject to approval by your C3 member and promotor. It is not recommended to wait until the last years of your PhD project to fulfil this requirement. Since the topical lectures occur thrice per year, this means that PhD students will typically follow these lectures for the first two years of their employment. The topical lectures are mostly held at Nikhef and last three consecutive days, normally held around March, June and December. A list of the most recent and upcoming topical lectures series can be found on the Nikhef Topical Lectures Indico page or on the Nikhef Topical Lectures page.
Conferences
Conferences often times bring people together who would otherwise rarely meet and can still learn a great deal from each other. They are almost always specific to a certain topic and will be announced and advertised within their respective research groups through mailing lists and posters. It is likely that your supervisor will alert you of conferences that they think would be good for you to go to. On the other hand, you should keep an eye open to not miss opportunities that might be interesting for you!
Aside from topic-specific conferences, there are more general conferences that PhD candidates are recommended to go to:
- The Nikhef Annual Meeting / Jamboree is a yearly event that highlights the progress and outlook of Nikhef’s research groups. It takes place in May.
- The NNV Subatomic Physics Meeting is an event of the Nederlandse Natuurkundige Vereniging (Dutch Physics Association) that takes place in the autumn in Soesterberg.
- Fysica is the annual general conference of the NNV. It takes place in the spring and is hosted by a different city every year.
- NWO Physics takes place each year in January in Veldhoven. A wide range of topics is covered and young researchers are given the chance to present their work.
Other
Other, smaller events are held around Nikhef to inform people of current projects or broaden their physics knowledge. These are not specific to PhD students.
- An ECHO is held every three months to reflect upon the recent happenings within Nikhef. These are presented in Dutch by Nikhef’s director, which is currently Jorgen D’Hondt. New staff members are introduced, scientific and technical milestones are presented, and any other noteworthy topics are addressed. A Dutch (sandwich) lunch is provided afterwards.
- Nikhef colloquia are held a few times per month on a wide range of topics. They target students, postdocs and scientific staff of all departments and usually take place on Fridays 11:00-12:00.