Since the other students decorate the hat together, this is a good bonding activity for the lab as a whole.
The decorations on the PhD hat relate specifically to the individual who is graduating. A lot of the decorations center around the four years spent in the lab during the PhD; for instance, three-dimensional chemicals will sometimes be included on the hat. The hats also relate to the person’s background and family; pictures of their families will be on the hats, as well as potentially their favorite activities or a flag from their country. Once the graduating student passes their dissertation, the other students in the lab present them with the hat. They later wear the hat to the official graduation ceremony, which includes kissing the Gänseliesel (“Goose Girl”) statue in the center of town.
