NPP Events

   Company visits

The NIOK PhD Platform has been organizing a range of activities for the last 3 years, including social activities (drinks after CAIA exam, pubquizes at the NCCC), but also professional activities, like company visits. This summer, the last version of activities was taken to the next level: in 5 days we visited 4 chemical companies, 3 of which in Germany.
It turned out that there was a lot of interest, and on Monday August 8th a group of 20 PhDs set out towards Ludwigshafen. Within the next days we had a packed schedule, with visits to BASF, Bayer, Evonik  (including a visit to a former coal-washing plant!) and Dow. We learned how the companies are structured, what kind of research is done, but most importantly: we got an idea what it was to start working at each company.
The group of PhDs was very enthusiastic, and although most people didn’t know each other at the start (as we represented 8 universities in total), there was much talk and laughter at dinners, during travel and any spare time. I believe that all of us will have new friends to catch up with at the next NCCC conference.

We would also like to thank NIOK and all the visited companies for giving us the opportunity to organize this trip, and of course to thank the participants for their enthusiasm.