It's been less than one week since the RUB has closed all its facilities to contain the pandemic caused by the virus COVID19. RESOLV has tried to quickly adapt to the current situation: All scientists and staff are working from home and the first group meetings have been held from remote already by the end of last week. Today, RESOLV scientists have successfully found a solution also for PhD discussions and were able to award the first PhD in solvation science from remote.
Using a platform for video conferencing, solvation scientists set up two virtual rooms. The PhD discussion took place in the first room, with the candidate (Italian Serena Alfarano from the group of Prof. Havenith, RESOLV’s speaker), three commission members, and three members of the Doctorate Board that were remotely present via video. Also the Italian family members of the candidate could assist to the discussion from currently lockdown Italy. At the end of the discussion, the commission virtually moved into a separate room to deliberate on the PhD discussion. Finally, they went back to the first room to announce the result.
„Everything went well, it was like being in our lecture room in ZEMOS, only the final toast was missing!!“, said Prof. Havenith. “But we will do a big party when we will reconvene at RUB”, she added.