Getting started as a researcher and later building a research group by yourself as a junior faculty member is not easy, but it is also one of the most rewarding experiences. The best part about it is the degree of freedom academia brings. It is almost like living in a candy store: there are simply too many choices of topics to work on and things to do, that it is sometimes hard to stay focussed. In this talk, I will draw on my own experience of being a PhD student at ETH Zurich, doing a PostDoc at UC Berkeley, taking a first job at Brown University, and later my move to MIT. I will talk about lessons learned in regard to choosing the right research topic (for your PhD or as a junior faculty member), how to set up successful collaborations, dealing with rejections of papers and/or grants, and other random anecdotes about academic life.
Bio