From the lab to the real world

Two PhDs and the company that gave them a new chapter

The bus ride wasn’t long, but enough for Lukas Wittenbecher to have a conversation that would change his career and life. A year into his postdoc after defending a PhD in laser optics and nanostructures, he ran into a former classmate. By the time they stepped off, Lukas had agreed to meet a company he hadn’t heard much about before: Prevas Test & Measurement (formerly DVel).

“I liked science, but the goals were so open-ended. I wanted to work towards something with a clear end and tangible results.”

That was 2022. Since then, he’s moved from designing test systems for electric car engines to helping operate the control system at MAX IV’s synchrotron – quite far from his PhD research, but exactly the variety he was looking for.

For Shraddha Rao, the path was longer – and more deliberate. After a PhD in photonics and applied optics in India, she took on two postdoctoral positions: one in her home country, one at Lund University. She arrived in Sweden partly for the university’s strong reputation, partly because she wanted to escape the slow-moving systems she had faced back home.

“In India, things could take so long. Ordering equipment, making decisions – everything was delayed. And there’s so much competition for academic jobs, thousands of people applying for each position. I knew for a while that I didn’t want to stay in academia forever.”

When Rao decided to look for industry roles, a LinkedIn post led her to Prevas Test & Measurement, where she now works on camera technology for a major tech client.

The leap from academia to industry

For both, the cultural shift was immediate.

“In academia, it’s all about your own project – always focusing on what I will get out of it” says Shraddha. “Here, it’s teamwork. Your manager actually asks, ‘How can I help you?’ and I just thought, oh my God!”

Lukas agrees. “In research, you can spend years wondering if your work will ever be used. Now I see results quickly. It’s still problem-solving, but the feedback loop is so much shorter.”

They’ve also found their academic skills surprisingly transferable: the ability to break down complex problems, to connect seemingly unrelated details, and to work independently when needed. But the industry setting adds something else – boundaries, structure, and the ability to celebrate progress more often.

A CEO’s experiment that paid off

When Riki Virc founded what is now Prevas Test & Measurement, hiring PhDs was part of the plan.

“Measurement technology requires depth. We realised early on that doctoral researchers could run projects from start to finish. They’re used to defining goals and working through unknowns. That’s exactly what we need,” he says.

Today, the company has 14 PhDs from 12 nationalities – and over a third are women. That is no coincidence. “Many say it’s hard to find women in tech – I don’t see the problem. If you’re open-minded in recruitment, you’ll find great people. For us, diversity has never been a hurdle, it’s a strength,” he adds.

‘We look for people who are smart, driven, and kind. If you have those three, the technical skills can always be applied somewhere.’

He also believes academia and industry could work together more effectively. ‘One thing I’ve noticed is that in academia, PhDs often have to start from scratch every time. But we could build so much more if we began from what’s already known – and if academia made more use of industry expertise.’

Lessons for the tech world

Prevas Test & Measurement’s approach isn’t just about filling roles – it’s about tapping into a talent pool that many companies overlook. Lukas and Shraddha’s stories show that PhDs aren’t bound to the narrow scope of their PhD research; they can adapt, learn fast, and thrive in new industries.

For Lukas, there’s also a myth worth dispelling: ‘Sometimes people think that the only really interesting projects are in academia – but that’s not true.’ His own work now spans electric vehicles, advanced research facilities, and commercial tech, a range he says would have been impossible to match if he had stayed in his PhD field.

Riki believes more companies could benefit if they looked beyond the immediate technical fit. “It’s not about whether someone’s research is in your exact field,” he says. “It’s about whether they know how to tackle a problem from scratch – and keep going until it’s solved.”

For Lukas and Shraddha, the decision to leave academia has already paid off. And for Prevas, it’s a reminder that sometimes the smartest hire is the one who’s spent years working at the edge of the unknown.

Cross-Border Talent Bridge

The vibrant Greater Copenhagen region is full of companies like Prevas, ready to welcome international talent and create opportunities beyond academia. Stories like Lukas’s and Shraddha’s show what can happen when industry and research connect and how skills can travel across disciplines.

To build more of these stories across the region, regional actors such as the City of Lund, Copenhagen Capacity, OpenTech, Medicon Valley Alliance and Ideon Science Park are now collaborating in the Cross-Border Talent Bridge project. The initiative looks at how Greater Copenhagen can attract international specialists and make it easier for them to thrive here, by addressing barriers and strengthening collaboration across sectors and borders.

→ Read more about the project here

Photo: OpenTech