20 recruitment
The tomorrow people
The question of where the
between Scotland’s research base in chemical ‘There is usually a good relationship between
sciences and its £3.5bn chemical industry. the trainee and the company offering the
next generation of scientists
Gary Colquhoun, CEO of Fibre Photonics, internship and the hope is that companies
and engineers is coming from
sees the programme as a strategic priority. will recruit good students directly from the
‘Such schemes ensure that the development of university.’
continues to concern some
human capital and knowledge transfer are at Photonics21 also runs a Student Innovation
the centre of collaborative funding,’ comments Award in order to promote research in
among photonics.
Colquhoun. ‘Companies must innovate to photonics, especially R&D with an industrial
Greg Blackman investigates
succeed and this can be done in partnership impact. The award is open to anyone under the
with academia.’ He goes on to point out that age of 35, with the winner receiving a €5,000
cross-disciplinary activity brings the products prize, presented at a ceremony during the
The health of the photonics sector relies closer to their application. World of Photonics Congress in Munich on 15
on a steady stream of graduates finding careers Photonics21, a European association of June 2009.
in the marketplace. However, a number of industries and other stakeholders in the field Internships are one way of bridging the gap
companies have expressed concerns over of photonics, is also establishing links between between industry and academia. David Foulks,
a potential lack of fresh talent moving into industry and universities through its industrial general manager of the UK branch of Trumpf,
the sector. During a Photonics21 workshop internship schemes for undergraduates based in Luton, Bedfordshire, feels that, in the
on education and training in June 2008, (bachelor’s or master’s degree) and PhD UK at least, photonics is fairly well represented
Augustin Siegel, head of R&D at optical students. Any European company interested by academia. ‘The research coming out of our
and optoelectronic company Carl Zeiss AG, in providing an internship can apply to the academic institutes is certainly leading edge
reported that in Germany 142,900 highly- Photonics21 secretariat, and workshops are and much of it sponsored by our blue chip
skilled employees will be needed in the held to gather experiences and establish companies,’ he says. However, Foulks feels that
photonics industry by 2015, which equates to curricula. UK OEMs tend to rely on buying in photonics
an additional 1,000 graduates per year being Markus Wilkens of the Photonics21 expertise and, as a result limited career
trained. secretariat says internships can be useful: opportunities exist for photonics graduates
Photonics has a strong grounding in
engineering and physics, and studying these
disciplines at university is the most common
route into the photonics market. However,
pure photonics Master of Science courses are
becoming available, and an MSc programme
has recently been set up in Germany, sponsored
by companies such as Philips, Carl Zeiss,
Osram, and Leica. The European Commission
has also established a two-year Erasmus
Mundus MSc programme in photonics, which
om
is a collaboration among five leading research
and educational institutions in Europe (Ghent
ooptics.c
University, Belgium; Free University of Brussels,
ectr
Belgium; St Andrews University, UK; Heriot Watt
.el
University, UK; Royal Institute of Technology,
www
Sweden).

The ties between industry and academia
are vital for the continued growth of the
ch 2009
industry. Fibre Photonics, based in Livingston,
Scotland, a provider of optical fibres and fibre
systems, has partnered with the University of
f
ebruary/mar
Strathclyde, Department of Pure and Applied

Chemistry, and the Institute of Photonics
in the SPIRIT studentship programme. The
Photonics21 runs industrial internship schemes for
o
optics
scheme has awarded 30 PhD projects thus
undergraduates and PhD students to establish links
ectr
between industry and universities.
el
far and is designed to increase collaboration
EOfeb09 pp20-21 Graduates.indd 20 17/2/09 16:49:27
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36