PostDoc Office Annual Event 2025

On April 16, 2025, from 4pm onwards, speakers and discussants will explore collegiality, good leadership, and kindness in academia. Excellent research builds on the work of a community, and is enabled by excellent leadership. Therefore, the 2025 Annual Event will highlight the benefits of good relationships with colleagues in academia - from team spirit to supervisory relationships to those between researchers and non-academic staff. As always, we expect the discussions to be both controversial and solution-focussed.  

• Please register here by April 11. (Food & drinks will be provided throughout.)

SCHEDULE:

• 4pm: Welcome Interview "What is good leadership in academia?" with Mireille van Poppel (Vice-Rector for Internationalization and Equal Opportunities) and Markus Fallenböck (Vice-Rector for Human Resources and Digitalisation), both University of Graz
• 4.15pm: Opening Talk on Academic Kindness by Anita Thaler (Interdisciplinary Research Centre for Technology, Work and Culture IFZ, Graz)
• 4.35: Opening Talk on Collegiality as a tool for excellent thesis supervision by Jelena Tadic and Johann Hlina (Supervisor Network, University of Graz)
• 4.55pm: Questions to the opening speakers
• 5.00pm: Round Table "How does good leadership work in practice?" with: Christof Gattringer (FWF Austrian Science Fund), Verena Kohler (Umeå University), Evelyn Walenta (Johnson & Johnson), Eugenia Stamboliev (Universität Wien).
• 6.15pm: PostDoc Peer Mentoring Certification Ceremony with Joachim Reidl (Vice-Rector for Research, University of Graz) & the members of the Peer Mentoring Team
• 6.30pm: End of event, networking over soup and dessert

Speaker biographies in alphabetical order:

• Markus Fallenböck has been working on the legal and economic implementation of digital transformation for more than 20 years. He is Vice-Rector for Human Resources and Digitalisation. He teaches as a professor at the Institute for Public Law and Political Science and headed the Department of Finance, Human Resources and Law at the University of Continuing Education Krems until September 2022.
• Christof Gattringer, President of the FWF Austrian Science Fund, is a particle physicist and has been a professor at the University of Graz since 2005. He was also Vice-Rector for Research and Early Career Researchers’ Promotion since 2019, and key to the establishment of the PostDoc Office. He has conducted research for example at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, and at the University of Washington in Seattle.
• Verena Kohler is Tenure-Track Assistant Professor in Molecular Biology at Umeå University in Sweden. Since October 2023, she has been leading the research group "Implications of ageing and disease on cellular protein quality control". As a new PI, she continually reflects on best practice in leadership and effective team dynamics. Kohler has worked as a postdoctoral researcher in Stockholm and Graz, and previously held an Erwin Schrödinger Fellowship from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). She did her PhD research at the Institute of Molecular Biosciences at the University of Graz. Her research focusses on cellular proteostasis, particularly during ageing, as well as the significance of membrane contact sites.
• Mireille van Poppel is a medical biologist and has been a professor at the Institute of Exercise Science, Sport and Health since 2015 at our university. Integrated in an international network, her focus areas include the role of exercise for prevention, intervention and public health. She is Vice-Rector for Internationalization and Equal Opportunities at the University of Graz and is the responsible rectorate member for the Doctoral Academy and PostDoc Office.
• Joachim Reidl has been a university professor of microbiology at the Institute of Molecular Biosciences at the University of Graz since 2007, where he has since become a specialist in bacterial infectiology and the modes of action of antibiotics. In doing so, he leads a research group that focuses on studying the interaction between bacteria and host. Since 2016, Reidl has been a co-referee at the Austrian Science Fund FWF. Since May 2021, Reidl has been Vice-Rector for Research at the University of Graz, and in that role been responsible for the Doctoral Academy and the PostDoc Office.
• Eugenia Stamboliev  is a postdoctoral media philosopher and critical technology scholar at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Vienna, and at the Prague University of Economics and Business. Her work explores transformations around so-called AI, like explainability of AI (XAI), post-critical AI literacy, and AI generated dis/trust in media and politics. She holds degrees in communication and media studies, law, and in philosophy of technology and media. Currently, she co-leads two projects; on LLM & democracy (GACR funded), and on Decentralised Trust in applications, like the EUDIW (WWTF funded).
• Supervisor Network: Built on the collegial consultation model, this network was established in May 2024 by participants of the workshop "Seminar on Master`s Thesis and PhD Supervision" with Gitte Wichmann-Hansen. Members of the group share critical situations from their supervision practice. This enables an exchange of experiences and a joint search for solutions to problems/challenges. The supervisor network spans career stages from senior postdoctoral researchers to tenured professors and is interdisciplinary. Current members are Christiane Berth (Institut für Geschichte), Katja Corcoran (Institut für Psychologie), Johann Hlina (Institut für Chemie), Martin Kalck (Institut für Mathematik und Wissenschaftliches Rechnen), Jörg Schrittwieser (Institut für Chemie), Jelena Tadic (Institut für Molekulare Biowissenschaften).
• Anita Thaler is a senior researcher at Interdisciplinary Research Centre for Technology, Work and Culture (IFZ) in Graz. Thaler heads the research area Gender, Science and Technology and the working group Queer STS, and is the Austrian representative of the Management Committee of the COST Action VOICES. Thaler's research analyses mutual interactions of science, technology and society, with a focus on transition and learning processes towards sustainability and social gender justice. Anita Thaler is a certified work psychologist and has also studied educational sciences and women’s and gender studies at the University of Graz and the Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt. Anita Thaler and Daniela Jauk-Ajamie have edited the Queer STS Forum #7 2022 titled "Towards Academic Kindness – A queer-feminist string figure on kinder working cultures in academia".
• Evelyn Walenta is Associate Director, Trial Delivery Leader at Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine. A graduate of the FWF-funded DK-MCD Metabolic and Cardiovascular Disease International PhD Programme (2013) at TU Graz, she worked at University of California, San Diego as a postdocotoral researcher (and Vice-Chair of Career Development Programs of the UCSD Postdoctoral Association, before joining IQVIA in 2016, where she was as a senior clinical research associate until 2020.