“I'm really happy with what I'm doing,” says Thomas Stolz, summarizing his career path from MPQ to his current position as Lead Performance Engineer at Airbus. The physicist is one of three speakers presenting their career paths at the Munich Quantum Alumni Summer Networking event. At MPQ, he learned, like many of the young scientists present, to solve problems for which there are no patent solutions. This often comes in handy in his current job. The second speaker of the afternoon is Vincent Steffan, who apologizes right at the start for talking so much about mathematics. As a mathematician with a PhD working at IQM as a quantum error correction engineer, however, this is just part of his daily routine. Fabian Schmidt, who is “searching for new physics” as a postdoc at ETH Zurich, as the title of his presentation suggests, described what the path after a PhD can look like if you decide to stay in academia.
The three presentations provided a good insight into the various career options available to the quantum community. They also served as a starting point for numerous questions, both technical and related to career prospects, application processes, and company culture at the respective institutions. The subsequent speed networking in smaller groups also provided plenty of opportunity for exchange, giving young scientists in particular the chance to talk to alumni who are further along in their careers and get tips and inspiration from them. The Summer Networking Meet-up ended on a social note with a barbecue.
The alumni network is aimed at all current and former members of Munich Quantum Valley (MQV), the Munich Center for Quantum Science and Technology (MCQST), and the International Max Planck Research School for Quantum Science and Technology (IMPRS-QST).
Further information and updates on the alumni network can be found on the alumni website.