In this week, I participated in SPICE Young Research Leaders Group Workshop, which was organized by Alex and Helena. It was held in Ingelheim, a charming village located not so far from Mainz and famous for many wineries in the neighborhood. As the workshop title says, only junior-level researchers could join the workshop, and the participants were mostly postdocs and junior/assistant professors. The workshop provided a unique opportunity not only to discuss recent progress in magnetism in depth, especially from the point of view of young researchers, but also to get to know each other and build a strong connection that goes beyond “collaborators”. During the workshop, we chatted on many different topics, from funny and pleasant things to more serious stuffs such as career/job and frustrating and challenging aspects in academia.

Sure, scientific contents of the workshop was undoubtly excellent, and many questions were raised in every talk. Also, listening to talks from other junior colleagues gave me nice stimulus and inspiration.

On my side, I presented the usual “orbitronics”, with emphasis on main general ideas, opportunities, impact on other fields, and future prospects. The slide that I presented can be downloaded from this link. I think my talk went pretty well although I slightly went overtime. Most questions raised were serious enough and important, for which I do not have clear answer either, but it was very good to openly discuss (instead of pretending to know…).

I hope I can participate in the nexst workshop too, if possible, but I think it’s fair for other young researchers to have a chance as well. In any case, I hope the workshop continues to occur every year.