Congratulations to Charly Zimmer and Dr. Josefine Umlauft for receiving the PreDoc award!

The kick-off event for this year’s cohort of PreDoc awardees took place at Leipzig University on 11 November. The event focussed on the exchange between all new PreDocs and, of course, with the PreDocs from previous years. Charly Zimmer and Dr. Josefine Umlauft from ScaDS.AI, who successfully applied in tandem for the program this summer, were also present.

What is the PreDoc Award and who can receive it?

The Pre-Doc Award offers postdocs and doctoral candidates with a very good degree the opportunity to jointly plan a research project. The aim is to promote young scientists at an early stage and to support qualified graduates in the rapid transition to a financially secure doctoral phase. In addition, the supervision of postdocs as well as interdisciplinary networks within the next generation of academics are to be strengthened.

In practice, this means that PreDocs can take up a half-time position as a research assistant for one year. They should use this time to work in tandem on their doctoral project and obtain funding for their intended doctorate. During this time, they can also take part in various workshops and networking events. Postdocs, on the other hand, strengthen their own competence and skills profile for their scientific careers by participating in the program. They can not only practise acquiring third-party funding and supervising doctoral students, but also gain new junior researchers for their research group.

From the application to the award

In the case of Charly Zimmer and Dr. Josefine Umlauft, the path to the PreDoc Award was as follows:
Charly Zimmer wrote his master’s thesis on the subject “Towards a deep learning approach for gap-filling in remote sensing data” at ScaDS.AI in the summer semester 2024. As he wanted to continue working and researching at the center after his master’s thesis, but there were no vacancies for PhD students at the time, Dr. Josefine Umlauft drew his attention to the PreDoc program. The tandem of Clemens Mosig and Dr. Martin Reinhardt of her working group had already received the award the previous year.

With the support of Dr. Josefine Umlauft and her team, Charly Zimmer submitted the application for the award, which, in addition to a project proposal, also contained the declaration of support from a senior scientist: Prof. Miguel Mahecha from the Institute of Earth System Science and Remote Sensing. They received confirmation that they had been accepted for the award just one month after submitting their application. At the kick-off event, the tandem had the opportunity to get to know all the other tandems and their doctoral projects. Beyond that, PreDocs from last year shared their experiences from their PreDoc time with the new cohort.

Plans for the PreDoc year

In his PreDoc year, Charly Zimmer wants to expand the systems he has developed and open up new application possibilities. As he comes from a computer science background, he is currently trying to familiarise himself with earth system science in order to be able to work as well as possible in the interdisciplinary setting at ScaDS. That is why he also attends lectures at the Institute of Earth System Sciences and Remote Sensing alongside his work at the center. Together with Dr. Josefine Umlauft he is now looking for funding opportunities and working on the concept for his PhD.

If you would like to know more about the award and the application, you can find more information on the website of the PreDoc award.