A research couple from Japan on their experience in Germany

???aural:Bildanfang??????Großansicht des Bildes???Dual Careers in Germany: Professors Fumiko and Toshiki Tajima from Japan both work at Ludwig-Maximilians- Universität (LMU), Munich. © Fumiko and Toshiki Tajima???aural:Bildende???

Professor Fumiko Tajima from Japan has been professor at the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) in Munich since 2009. She is a well-known expert on seismology who completed her academic training and career in Japan and the USA. She moved to LMU from Hiroshima University.

Professor Toshiki Tajima is professor at the Faculty of Physics at Ludwig-Maximilians- Universität (LMU) in Munich and engaged in research at the Munich Centre for Advanced Photonics (MAP). The Japanese physicist is regarded as the founder of the laser acceleration of particles. Japan and the USA were important stages in his career. He came to Munich from the Japan Atomic Energy Agency in 2008.

What makes Germany so interesting for you, speaking from the perspective of a researcher couple from Japan?

Toshiki Tajima: Europe in general and Germany in particular are very committed and advanced in the field of science I am interested in. I feel I have been fortunate with my timing to join German and European laser research activities over the last few years. ???aural:Bildanfang??????Großansicht des Bildes???Physicist and expert on the laser acceleration of particles: Professor Toshiki Tajima. © Fumiko and Toshiki Tajima???aural:Bildende???The research developments I have got involved in turned out to be more than I anticipated. In fact, during my stay here the EU has launched a real first: the Extreme Light Infrastructure, by far the world’s highest-intensity laser project, in which I acted as chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee. Society in Germany respects academic vocation and activities. This is reflected by a generous academic environment. We find a kaleidoscope of people working together. Furthermore, the liaison between the universities and research institutions in Germany is exceptional. In Japan and the USA, academia and national research organisations are often rivals.
Fumiko Tajima: Germany is one of my favorite countries, as I love to read German literature. I also spent a year as a student on a DAAD scholarship at Frankfurt University nearly 40 years ago. It was my very first experience of living in a foreign country and I still have wonderful memories from that time.

Professor Toshiki Tajima, you worked in the USA and Japan for a long time. In 2008 you came to Germany to work at the Munich Center for Advanced Photonics (MAP). What made this position so attractive for you?

The most important incentive for us was that my position and my wife’s position at LMU were offered simultaneously via the Excellence Initiative. I believe this went beyond a typical LMU appointment and related to the excellence cluster programme of the MAP centre. I helped with the original MAP proposal when LMU submitted their proposal to the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), and by so doing I became a guest member of their research team. It was thus quite natural for me to collaborate with MAP while I was still working in Japan around 2005.

Professor Fumiko Tajima, you were a professor at Hiroshima University before you moved to Munich. What role did the LMU and the Excellence Initiative play for you to find the right position in Munich? 

???aural:Bildanfang??????Großansicht des Bildes???Fumiko Tajima is Professor of Seismology at the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. © Fumiko and Toshiki Tajima???aural:Bildende???

When we decided to move to Munich, I had several graduate students at Hiroshima University, and my primary obligation was to teach and supervise them so that they could complete their degree programmes. At a conference I spoke with some colleagues in geophysics at LMU. It turned out that there were mutual interests in the respective ongoing research projects, so that it made scientific sense for the two sides to consider some form of cooperation. In my research I use the seismic wave data produced by earthquakes using energy in a broad frequency band, and this is now accessible all over the world via the internet. Eventually I was given generous support by the Excellence Initiative programme and was able to continue supervising my students in Japan while developing collaborations with scientists here. I also occasionally brought along some of my students over from Japan, and they benefitted from interacting with students and young researchers at LMU.

Professor Toshiki Tajima, how did you and your wife become more familiar with academic work in Germany and with the country’s culture?

I already knew the LMU team members through professional meetings and their visits to my institute in Japan. I was also invited to visit several months in advance to give a colloquium, while I was considering LMU’s offer, which helped me understand the environment. When we moved, a secretary from the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics helped us to relocate. Thanks to these arrangements, we were given accommodation at a Max Planck guesthouse upon arrival. This worked perfectly.

What advice would you give a foreign research couple, if both want to follow a dual career in science and would like to work in Germany?

Toshiki Tajima: Consulting the Dual Career Service office can be a great help.
Fumiko Tajima: It is important that institutions like the Dual Career Service at LMU are able to respond to the individual private and career needs of researcher couples from abroad – and to coordinate contacts in the relevant departments to appraise the benefits of both the foreign researcher couple and the university.

Practical assistance for scientists

More and more German universities are creating professional structures for advising foreign researchers on administrative and practical matters. Many universities have set up Welcome Centres to serve as a point of contact for international guest scientists, helping them to find a place to stay or supporting them on issues like visa. The Humboldt Foundation runs a competition to support the development of Welcome Centres, and awarded prizes to 13 universities for their best-practice models. The Foundation also coordinates the web portal EURAXESS Germany, which informs researchers about the services offered by some 50 universities.

Planning dual careers is at the centre of a second service which is offered at more and more German universities: the Dual Career Service. “We offer newly appointed professors and young researchers assistance in searching for a job for their partner; we can also help with child care and administrative procedures,” says Susanne Seifermann from the Dual Career Service at Ludwig-Maximilians- Universität (LMU), Munich. At LMU the Service was founded in 2007 as part of the Excellence Initiative. The initiative promotes top-level university research in the three funding lines graduate schools, clusters of excellence and institutional strategies which include new structures like the Dual Career Service. LMU is one of about 30 member universities of the Dual Career Network Germany (DCND), which is committed to professionalising advisory services.

More information:
Euraxess

Dual Career Network Germany