SwedNess graduate school, PhD students from 6 SwedNess Universities (Lund University, Linköping University, Chalmers University of Technology, Stockholm University, Uppsala University, and KTH Royal Institute of Technology), spent the last week of August in Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC) in Japan.
The program included a full-day-lecture by neutron experts from J-PARC, visiting the Hardon and the Neutrino facilities at J-PARC, meeting with instrument scientists and discussing future collaborations and possible extended stays or post-docs, PhD Networking Day, lectures and discussions on “the foundation of modern empirical methodology”, “Statistical analysis of repeated single particle experiments”, “uncertainties in measurements”, and so on, Leadership and communication day covering the topics on “How to communicate science”, “career discussion”, “life of a group leader/supervisor”, and group exercises about leadership and communication. The final day was the “Cultural Day” visiting Hitachi Seaside Park and Kiuchi Brewery.
“PhD Networking Day” (27 August 2024) started off with a traditional “conference” program containing oral talks, followed by a poster session. This was followed by a workshop and round table discussion where the students got the “assignment” to come up with ideas and plans for how to improve Sweden-Japan collaborations, as well as how to keep the network of participants that had been created from this day. The day was then finalized with a joint business dinner in the AQBRC.
Participants from SwedNess included 16 PhD students and from Japan 24 students joined. From Sweden, all 6 SwedNess Universities (Lund University, Linköping University, Chalmers University of Technology, Stockholm University, Uppsala University, and KTH Royal Institute of Technology) were represented. From Japan, the students joined from Ibaraki University, University of Tokyo (also ISSP), Tokyo Metropolitan University, and National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS). In total 40 students sharing their science, interacting, creating network, and exchanging culture with each other. We consider this day to be a very big success, and we hope we can keep building on the great foundation we created from this opening event, says Prof. Martin Månsson, director of studies at SwedNess Graduate School.
Group photo showing all 40 participants from Japan and Sweden
Some photos from both oral and poster sessions where high-level science was presented
The few senior staff that were present (SwedNess management, lecturers and representatives from Ibaraki University) were all very impressed by the very high-level of science that was presented, as well as the excellent quality of the presentations in themselves (both oral and posters). The students also showed a great level of leadership, taking responsibility for session chairing, questions, discussions as well as practical things like cleaning up after lunch, dinner and poster sessions. We really appreciate that the students really engaged in this day and took responsibility beyond our expectations, says Martin Månsson.
Some group photos from “Cultural Day” at Hitachi Seaside Park.