Category: Allgemein
-
The long and windy road to publishing
There’s a particular kind of exhaustion that (maybe not only?) we scientists know – the slow unraveling of time between the first spark of an idea and the moment it finally becomes public. What begins as curiosity and excitement often turns into a marathon of experiments, re-analyses, revisions, rejections, rethinking, and rewordings. Each step is…
-
Resilience, Degeneracy, and Discovery
Just returned from ten intense and inspiring days in Portugal, first at the Workshop On the Neurobiology of EPilepsy (WONOEP) in Cascais, then at the International Epilepsy Congress 2025 in Lisbon. At WONOEP, the big theme this year was the resilient brain and the idea of degeneracy, that means, how multiple pathways can serve similar…
-
Freedom to think
Since 2002, every summer in July (except for a short break during COVID), a small group of international students and tutors in the epilepsy field gather on San Servolo, a quiet green island just across the water from Venice. Removed from the noise of everyday clinical routines and research deadlines, this setting over 12 days…
-
Normalize changing your mind
If there’s one constant in the life of a researcher, it’s this: things rarely go exactly as planned. Experiments fail. Hypotheses break. Data surprise us in all the wrong or the most enlightening ways. But let’s face it, it’s not about always being right. It’s about being willing to learn when you’re wrong. Shifting hypotheses…
-
The joy of teaching – when curiosity meets context
Teaching has always been more than a task or responsibility for me. It’s a passion. Whether I’m discussing physics with my kids over breakfast, explaining molecular genetics and epigenetics to future epileptologists and diagnostic specialists (like last week in Barcelona), or introducing pathology and molecular biology to computer science students exploring biomedical applications, each experience…
-
Running the Distance
Do you you run or do another sport or extra activity? Many scientists do. On the surface, science and running may seem like two completely different worlds—one grounded in hypotheses and data, the other in motion and breath. But anyone who has trained for a half/marathon (or whatever distance is a challenge to you) while…
-
A wave of exciting news and momentum
At the recent Dreiländertagung in Salzburg (26.-29.3.2025), which is the joint meeting of the Austrian, German, and Swiss ILAE chapters, Katja Kobow was unanimously elected as the 2nd Chair of the German Society for Epileptology (DGfE) – a historic first for the society, as she is the first woman to take on this leadership role.…
-
Slowly closing 2024
The beginning of December marks clearly that this year is coming to an end. Christmas decorations everywhere, but lab vibes are dominated by the stress of the last paper, the last grant application, the last project report, the last review deadline. At the same time there is already a sense of all the things to…
-
Embracing New Beginnings: Fuel for Motivation Amidst the Storm
In science, new beginnings are as refreshing as the first spark of an experiment or the thrill of uncharted data. Whether it’s launching a new research project, securing a grant, publishing a paper, or welcoming a new team member, these moments light a path through even the cloudiest days. They’re the bright spots that remind…
-
Be niche, be unique, just be?
Building a career in science is challenging. and graduate students, post docs, young and even not so young PIs struggle. How and where to start? How to continue and progress? What to avoid? How to grow? How to survive? As often, there is no single right path to “Rome” a.k.a to achieve that goal and…
The Kobow Lab 