SFB Conference and Graduate School Meeting 2022 in Hohwacht
The 2022 SFB conference and graduate school meeting took place from 26.09.2022 – 28.09.2022. It was finally possible again to revitalize the tradition of meeting with all members of the SFB in Hohwacht, a long awaited change with regard to the past years.
The focus of this year’s meeting was to reconnect with the work groups and individual members of the SFB and invigorate the exchange of ideas within the SFB community and provide a forum for in-depth scientific discussions. Akin to the previous in-person workshops, the workshop was divided into three parts: highlight talks, a poster session of the PhD students and discussions which were organized in parallel sessions, following a tried and true method. A meeting of the graduate school was conducted during the third day of the conference.
The highlight talks were divided in two sessions, one on Monday and one on Tuesday. They provided a platform to present key publications in the last year and gave an overview of the successful work conducted in the SFB.
Kicking of this year’s meeting on the first evening, it was finally possible to have the traditional poster session again. PhD students presented their research to one another and fostered the environment of scientific discusssions that many had been looking forward to.
For the group discussions PhD students organized two parallel discussion sessions focusing on presenting their own research and topics of interest to the SFB and discussing their own personal experience within the SFB. This setup was once again well received among the SFB students and led to fruitful discussions. Especially working in small subgroups created an environment which allows students to ask questions and discuss openly and therefore led to a common understanding of each person’s research interests and how it fits into the overarching topics of the SFB. Furthermore, this allowed to present possible challenges and receive input from fellow PhD students. During the second parallel session on Tuesday afternoon, personal experiences within the SFB were exchanged, which inspired suggestions of how to further improve the life in the SFB.
These suggestions were translated into action steps during the following graduate school meeting. After the new students were informed about the ongoing work of the graduate school, possible future seminars and workshops organized by the SFB, PhD students could contribute ideas to improve the graduate schools’ work during the last months of the program. These were collected and discussed in order to offer the maximum support to the SFB PhDs.
In conclusion, the revitalization and discussions at the in-person conference were received well among its members and sparked interesting discussions and exchange of ideas. The meeting helped preparing the SFB for successful research work in the last remaining months.