PhD Day 2026

On March 25, we held our second PhD Day in the Graduate Center of Saarland University.

After a brief welcome, we started the day with the first two exciting talks on “Balancing Attention to Different Goals based on Expected Reward” by Jesko Schmidt and “Too Good to Be True? Testing the Validity of Dual-Systems Models” by Nóra Spengler.

Refreshed by the coffee break, the poster session allowed everyone to delve deeper into certain topics.

After the lunch break, Julia Meßmer shared her experience with the Small Grant Scheme, inspiring the PhD students to apply for this grant with an overseable collaborative project.

Two more talks on “Early Childhood Experiences, Physical Balance, and Mental Health” and “Goal Balance” by Charmaine Utzig nicely rounded out the day. Finally, the newly introduced Social Hour for (Arranged) Exchange continued the waffle tradition from last year’s PhD Day.