In an LDE Thesis Lab, academic coordinators — often PhD students or assistant professors — supervise a team of master's students from the universities of Leiden, Delft and Rotterdam who work on their graduation research within the Lab.
As a coordinator, you will develop a central research question together with partners from the field, facilitate collaboration between disciplines and support students in connecting academic research to a concrete social issue.
In an interview with the LDE Centre for Sustainability, former academic coordinators Shivant Jhagroe and Joran Lammers explain how versatile and instructive this role is. In Shivant's Thesis Lab, students investigated how The Hague can shape its climate transition in a just way. He emphasizes the flexibility of the position:
"The nice thing is that there is no blueprint for the Thesis Lab. You can give it a shape that suits your way of working." In addition, he sees the process as something you build together: "It has been a collective learning process, for the municipality, the students and for myself."
Read the full interview with Shivant Jhagroe
In Joran's Thesis Lab, students developed future scenarios for the Green Heart as part of their graduation research. Joran especially emphasizes the value of interdisciplinarity:
"You work together with master's students who each have their own research direction. This not only provides fresh insights, but also a much broader perspective on a theme that you find interesting yourself." He also got a lot of energy from bringing different parties together: "I really enjoy thinking about how you can connect social issues, business and scientific research."
Read the full interview with Joran Lammers
Are you interested in this role or have ideas for an LDE Thesis Lab? Let us know via lde_thesislabs@cml.leidenuniv.nl.
