The Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft Winter School

Photo: Christine Hudetz

The LBG Winter School is a world-class program for training PhD students and postdocs in how to present their research, write more-effective peer-reviewed journal articles and funding proposals, and balance their work and personal lives. A week-long retreat in the hills just outside Vienna, the annual Winter School is one of the many programs that the LBG Career Center provides for early-career researchers, and it's one that I have gladly been a part of from its inception.

My Winter School program

Fireside Chat

During the 2024 Winter School Fireside Chat, I discussed with trainer Katie Caves and participants why I think writers should start by writing the Discussion section.

Katie Caves, me, and the Winter School 2024 participants (Photo: Christine Hudetz)

Realistic planning & goal-setting (Photo: Joanna Pianka)

Realistic planning & goal-setting

In this session, I show participants how to align their goals with concrete approaches, such as using templates, analyzing article structures, and identifying their article "genre type."

On the same page: Giving & receiving feedback effectively

Good peer reviewers become better writers, because they start to recognize effective and ineffective patterns in writing. In this session, I give participants specific advice on what to look for and how to help themselves and their peers and co-authors become better writers.

On the same page: Giving & receiving feedback effectively (Photo: Joanna Pianka)

1:1 Writing coaching (Photo: Joanna Pianka)

1:1 Writing coaching

I held 1:1 writing-coaching sessions with all 14 participants, to give them individual feedback on their abstracts and paper and proposal drafts. During these sessions, I helped participants develop and improve the structure of their writing, clarify their arguments, and articulate the contribution of their research to the field.

Below are photo galleries from past Winter Schools