Together in one boat

Nikos Moraitakis holds a doctorate from TU and Tongji University

2017/06/20 by

Nikos Moraitakis is the first student to have completed his doctorate simultaneously at TU Darmstadt and Tongji University in Shanghai. For five years, the industrial engineer with a focus on mechanical engineering worked on his double doctorate, spending most of his time at the Chinese partner university.

You need a lot of stamina, says Nikos Moraitakis. “The Chinese university system is much more fragmented, there are many more courses and exams to pass than in Germany.” In addition, there is the completely different everyday life in the 30 million people city of Shanghai, cultural differences and the foreign language. “Most intense was the noise, the honking and the traffic, 24 hours a day. It's not easy to find some quiet and tranquility there,” says the 31-year-old. But it was the dynamism of China and the lively life in a large Chinese city that appealed to Nikos Moraitakis. “I knew what I was getting into,” he says. He had already been to the Chinese-German University College at Tongji University in Shanghai as a student of Prof. Hans-Christian Pfohl from the unit “Supply Chain and Network Management” in the Department of Law and Economics at the TU in 2009. Back then, he came for a student research project on logistics systems in China. “That was a super exciting experience,” says the native of Frankfurt, whose family runs a logistics company themselves.

TU Darmstadt is one of the few universities that maintains a strategic partnership with the university in Shanghai. “Tongji” is Mandarin and means “together in one boat” in German. That fits in well with the idea of German-Chinese cooperation, says Nikos Moraitakis. While still studying for his diploma in Darmstadt, he got to know two former doctoral students of TU, who also worked as research assistants at Tongji for a time. The idea of obtaining a doctorate himself both at TU and in China began to ripen. Moraitakis had already acquired some language skills in Mandarin in 2009, so he could navigate his everyday life abroad. The language of science during his studies was English.

Doctoral thesis on engineering plastics

In 2011, the economist completed his diploma studies and became an assistant to Professor Pfohl. In 2012 he moved to the BOSCH Chair of Global Supply Chain Management at the Chinese-German University College of Tongji as a research assistant. His doctoral thesis – in cooperation with the Bosch company – focused on engineering plastics in the automotive industry and purchasing strategies in global supply networks. Professor Pfohl and his Chinese colleague, Professor Jiazhen Huo, became his doctoral supervisors. Some courses he had taken during his time at the Technical University were recognized in Shanghai.

Generally, says Nikos Moraitakis, the doctoral period will take a little longer because one has to deal with two academic systems. “You need patience and also a certain tolerance for frustration,” he says with a smile. “But I have learned to keep at it and not give up.” In the end, Nikos Moraitakis concludes, “it was the good relationship between my two doctoral supervisors and my trust in them that made the successful alignment of both systems and the successful completion possible.” Moraitakis stayed in Shanghai for three and a half years. He only came back to Darmstadt to write his doctoral thesis – “I simply had more peace and quiet there,” says the 31-year-old. The defense of his doctorate took place in Darmstadt. The examination committee consisted of professors from the Faculty of Law and Economics at TU Darmstadt and professors from the School of Economics and Management (SEM) at Tongji. The Chinese professors were connected via video conference.

The economist is fascinated by China: “The dynamics are enormous. If anything is moving at the moment, it's in China. What changes there in a year doesn't change here in ten.” The market movements in the world's most populous country are simply much faster than elsewhere, according to Moraitakis. Despite his affinity for Asia, he now wants to stay in Germany for the time being and look for a job. However, he can give his successors in the German-Chinese double doctorate – Pascal Wolff and Weidi Wang – good advice.