The third annual meeting kicked off with a blast with career talks. We interacted with experts about their career trajectories, from a chemistry PhD to various roles in the chemical industry and some off-beat careers such as start-ups, patent law, publishing and consultancy! The day ended with a networking session during dinner and many lively conversations late into the night.

The four-day conference included talks on wide-ranging topics such as a single molecule in a nanopore to supramolecular machinery, form reactions and spectroscopy to simulations at interfaces. The two poster sessions were lively, and the exchange of ideas continued well into the conference dinner. The conference couldn´t be concluded without a hike to Löwenburg, coffee, and cake near the castle ruin!

The site visit kicked-off with a site tour of the vast Marl chemical park, visiting plants witnessing the history and future of the chemical industry in the Ruhr area. After lunch with the Evonik employers, we visited Evonik´s Strategic Innovation Unit, Creavis. Our time at Evonik included a talk on Employer Branding & HR and a colourful discussion of Research @ Creavis. This brought good byes and end of the third annual meeting of the research training group.