It is important that results of research conducted at TU/e are made accessible to a wider public, believes Frank Baaijens. To meet this need, a new online defense calendar, containing links to the lay summaries and the full-text versions, is now available. As of this month, PhD candidates are being approached with the request to write a lay summary. In cooperation with TU/e's science information officers, a provisional version will be edited into an accessible final text, the mail informs us.

Although the writing of a lay summary is not mandatory, Baaijens very much hopes that professors will encourage their PhD candidates to undertake this additional work. This is something Dean Philip de Goey has been doing for years; he is the driving force behind the lay summaries at Mechanical Engineering.

On average some twenty public defenses of theses are held every month at TU/e. The new site currently carries a few lay summaries. “The number will steadily increase; in six months' time it will be pretty much all of them. This is because about six months before their completion, PhD candidates receive information about what lies ahead for them,” says science information officer Ivo Jongsma, who secures external publicity for TU/e research. “In the meantime we'll be approaching PhD candidates who have already passed this point. And we'd like to take this opportunity to warmly invite PhD candidates to get in touch with us about producing a lay summary.”

Layperson's explanation

During every PhD conferral ceremony held at TU/e the PhD candidate gives a speech aimed at the lay audience. Family, friends and acquaintances can follow this explanation along with colleagues in the discipline. This is not customary at every university. PhD candidates at Utrecht University last month pressed their own Executive Board  Utrecht to introduce the layperson's explanation as a regular feature of the defense ceremony. Utrecht currently allocates no time for it, though PhD candidates who value the opportunity can hire a separate room for this purpose in advance of the proceedings.

Publishing written lay introductions is a customary activity, say Jongsma, at about half of the Dutch universities.  

Photo | Bart van Overbeeke