Speed-dating for bright minds with homesickness

Here a nice discussion among fellow students; at the next stand, some quick advice about the Emmy-Noether Programme - Matthias Fischer strolls with great composure through the "Golden Gate A" hall of the "San Francisco Marriott Marquis" hotel. The 32-year-old has already achieved what most of the young German academics who have also travelled to the West Coast are still dreaming of: he will take up a position as junior professor on 1 December, when he will strengthen the economics faculty at the University of Münster. "I had always thought and hoped", said the computer scientist, "that a scholarship in the USA and my studies in Ilmenau would give me the momentum to discover a new area of interest and to come back to Germany. That worked. My nomadic life has for now fortunately come to an end." Academic speed-dating Had Matthias Fischer not already signed his contract at the University of Münster a few weeks ago, he could have served as a perfect example for the conference organizers. For that is precisely the idea of "GAIN", the German Academic International Network: to bring postdoctoral students, universities, businesses, advisory services, foundations and extramural research institutions together, and allow them to benefit from each other. Behind GAIN are the Humboldt Foundation, the German Academic Exchange Service, the German Research Foundation, and a number of associate members - once a year, the team under programme director Dr. Gerrit Rößler offers a kind of academic speed-dating service in the USA, one year on the West Coast, and the following year on the East Coast.