The next step
Educating tomorrow’s academics is a key focus at KLU. In 2017, KLU was granted the right to award doctorates. Every year, we honor several new Ph.D.’s now starting their academic careers. Recently, several KLU Ph.D. graduates accepted positions at other prominent academic institutions. What led them to pursue an academic career? How did KLU help them along their way? Five alumni report.
“At KLU we believe that research should have long-term sustainable impacts on academia, industry and government,” says KLU’s Dean of Research, Prof. Maria Besiou. “Our goal is to shape the academic community by expanding the body of knowledge, creating new schools of thought, influencing the thinking of other academics, devising and refining analytical tools and providing students with new insights they will need in their future careers. What better way to achieve this than by our Ph.D. graduates working as academics at other universities?”
Several former Ph.D. candidates from KLU have already found positions at other universities and institutes around the world. Chuanwen Dong, Christina Imdahl, Susan Reh, Olga Senicheva and Laura Turrini are just a few recent examples, and share their stories.
Five former Ph.D. candidates report
"Many of today’s problems, such as sustainable development and globalization, are too big for us to solve alone. We need to educate future managers and rely on their wisdom and dedication. As a researcher and teacher, I feel very proud that my work is a long-term investment in humanity’s future. At KLU I met many smart and hardworking people who shared my enthusiasm to shape a better world."
Chuanwen Dong, Assistant Professor at ESCP Business School
"KLU, with its focus on scientific excellence, taught me how to conduct impactful research and helped me gradually grow into an academic. The work I did on challenging topics with other researchers, from KLU or its broad international network, is what ultimately inspired and motivated me to stay in academia."
Christina Imdahl, Assistant Professor at Eindhoven University of Technology (as of August 2021)
"Pursuing an academic career allows me to explore how and why people feel, act, and think the way they do in organizations. My time as a Ph.D. student at KLU helped me tremendously in terms of developing the skills and network that I needed on the academic job market."
Dr. Susan Reh, Senior Lecturer at University of Exeter
"An academic career offers you flexibility, independence, and the chance to collaborate with other researchers and share your knowledge with your students. Before I joined KLU in 2011, I didn’t think I would choose to stay in academia. However, the resources and opportunities provided by KLU helped me to make that choice. Working closely together with a young and ambitious faculty, taking courses with the best researchers, and being surrounded by other passionate students are the main things that I am grateful to KLU for."
Olga Senicheva (née Rusyaeva), Lecturer at the Purdue University Krannert School of Management
"Intellectual curiosity and a love for collaboration, personal growth, and independence are what drove me to pursue an academic career. KLU has provided me with some of the most important tools needed on this path: inspiration and support. The lively intellectual workplace inspired me to further develop myself and showed me that academic life can be fun and rewarding at the same time. Also, KLU helped me to attend the best academic conferences worldwide and create my own research network, which has helped me greatly in the years after my Ph.D. and in my current position."
Laura Turrini, Associate Professor at EBS Universität für Wirtschaft und Recht
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