IMPRS-IS 2023 Boot Camp: Mental Health in Academia (Event)

All MPI-IS community members are encouraged to join us at the University of Stuttgart on Thursday, September 14, for discussions of mental health awareness in academia. 

The morning will begin with a special topic keynote by Dr. Desiree Dickerson.

Title: Where is the line? The battle to protect our mental health in academia

Talk Topics: 

1. What are we talking about (but not really talking about). The state of mental health in academia and what that means in everyday terms.
2. Where is the line – How do I know the difference between productivity and unhealthy life choices; the difference between good and bad stress; and how to find and maintain meaningful boundaries.
3. Tools for navigating stress, pressure and comparison.
4. The system and us – a great big interaction effect.

Biography: Desiree Dickerson PhD is a clinical psychologist who specializes in the mental health and well-being of researchers and the academic community. A former researcher in the neurosciences, Desiree works globally with universities, lab groups, and academics in the pursuit of a healthier, sustainable approach to research. 

Following the special talk of Dr. Desiree Dickerson, we will offer a panel discussion covering the topic of mental health in science. Event registrants had an opportunity to provide potential questions for our panelists when registering which will help shape this discussion. 

The panel will by moderated by IMPRS-IS scholars Nina Effenberger and Benedikt Höltgen. Dr. Desiree Dickerson, Dr. Nicole Ludwig, Dr. Bob Williamson, and IMPRS-IS scholar Aimée Sousa Calepso will serve as panelists.

Mental Health in Science Panelists

Dr. Desiree Dickerson
As a former postdoctoral researcher in the neurosciences and a clinical psychologist, Desiree has worked at both ends of the spectrum - from (lab) bench to bedside. After working in research in New Zealand, Australia, and Austria, she now lives in Spain and spends her time helping academic institutions and academics themselves pursuit a healthier approach to research. 

Dr. Nicole Ludwig
An IMPRS-IS faculty and executive board member, Nicole leads the Machine Learning in Sustainable Energy Systems group at the University of Tübingen. The group is part of the Machine Learning Cluster of Excellence and is primarily interested in developing new machine learning algorithms to build and maintain a future sustainable energy system. 

Dr. Bob Williamson
Bob is an IMPRS-IS faculty member and W3 professor at the University of Tübingen. His group the Foundations of Machine Learning Systems is interested in understanding and designing machine learning systems as a whole, pursuing theoretical questions regarding machine learning problems and how they relate to each other, including information theoretic limits of performance; the connections between information theory and societal challenges in machine learning (such as fairness). 

Aimée Sousa Calepso
A current IMPRS-IS doctoral researcher, Aimée works under the supervision of Dr. Michael Sedlmair at the University of Stuttgart. She studies visualization and virtual augmented reality. Her primary research project aims to explore different real-life situations where situated visualization can be applied to decision making on fabrication tasks and human-robot collaboration. 

Please see the IMPRS-IS website for the full boot camp schedule. 

With questions about this talk or general boot camp attendance, please contact imprs@is.mpg.de