HSC 2016 at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology

This year's Havel Spree Colloquium was organized by Anne Bremer, Kevin Schwahn and Corné Swart, who are PhD students at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology (MPI-MP) in Potsdam-Golm. Almost 50 PhD students from different plant science groups in Potsdam and Berlin followed their invitation and met at the MPI-MP on November 10^th.

The Havel Spree Colloquium aims to provide young scientists with the opportunity to present and discuss their research. This year, ten PhD students gave short talks about their work and others used the poster session to introduce their PhD projects. All participants used the symposium to gain insights into other fields of plant science, discuss results and methods as well as to get to know each other and network.

Keynote Speakers

The program was completed by two keynote speakers who had been invited by the organizing committee.

During the first keynote given by Dr. Sebastian Klie (CEO and Head of Bioinformatics at Targenomix) the audience got introduced to the research at the scientific start-up Targenomix. Talking about his personal transition from academia to industry, Dr. Klie mentioned the importance of interdisciplinarity and adviced the attendees to seize every opportunity to "go to meetings and ask questions".

Dr. Johannes Ganster (Division director of Biopolymers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research) spoke about the utilization of lignocellulose in the plastics industry. His keynote shifted the focus from basic research to applied science and provided an insight on research in the Fraunhofer Society and cooperations with industrial partners.

DCPS Prizes

For the second time, DCPS Prizes were awarded for best talks and posters. This has been made possible by a generous donation of Prof. Dr. Jürgen Schmitt, a former member of the DCPS.

Best Presentation Prizes

First Prize (includes 400 €):

• Mohamed Salem, PhD student at Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology

Second Prize (includes 200 €):

• Lovely Mae Lawas, PhD student at Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology

Best Poster Prizes

 (include 100 € each):

• Sarah Lederer, PhD student at Freie Universität Berlin
• Tanja Seibert, PhD student at Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology
• Fabio Moratti, PhD student at Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology