Alexandra-Madelaine Tichy, a recipient of a 2017 EMBL Australia Partnership PhD Scholarship, receives additional career, research and monetary support during her PhD placement.
Alexandra was living in Austria when she applied for the scholarship in EMBL Australia’s Janovjak Laboratory. Once she passed the interview stage, she applied through Harald Janovjak’s host institute, Monash University, and moved to Australia to begin her PhD.
Her position as an EMBL Australia PhD Student, gives her the opportunity to network and collaborate with other EMBL Australia lab members, and also with other Group Leaders.
“Through the scholarship, I’ve developed great connections within EMBL Australia and the wider research community. This has been particularly helpful for me living and working in a new country,” said Alexandra.
EMBL Australia’s Partnership PhD Program attracts high-quality international students to EMBL Australia Groups and develops students into future scientific leaders. Scholarship placement students have access to exceptional scientific mentorship and the wider EMBL Australia research community. They also receive an additional $5,000 per year, have the opportunity to attend the PhD Symposium at EMBL Heidelberg and can apply for further travel grants to visit international EMBL workshops or conferences.
“In this placement, I feel a bigger part of the EMBL Australia platform. The programs I attend are great exposure for my research and for my career. The EMBL Heidelberg PhD symposium is very multidisciplinary, and it’s another way of making new connections and gaining new knowledge, also outside my research area,” she said.
Some attributes that Group Leaders have used to describe the students they are seeking include, independent, adventurous, self-motivated, persistent, high achieving and determined.
If these attributes describe you, and you are interested in a placement in an EMBL Australia laboratory, applications are now open for EMBL Australia Partnership PhD Scholarships. Apply online to EMBL Australia here.
Read more information about the program here. Download a printable flyer here.
About Alexandra-Madelaine Tichy
Alexandra works in the Synthetic Physiology Group of Dr Harald Janovjak. In her PhD project, she develops and applies new synthetic approaches to study diabetes. To better understand the regulation of glucose homeostasis, Alexandra engineers proteins so that they can be activated by light. In this way, she can control important signalling pathways in the pancreas with high spatio-temporal precision.