Sunday 20 September 2009

the last day


hello there,

it is 6.13pm on my last day of roof-holiday. the time went by so quickly!

above is a picture of how i felt on several occasions during my holiday, and tomorrow i will have to open the door. that's fine though, because i had a great time. i am in a different place now, much more relaxed than before, full of ideas for the future and some satisfaction that i did most of the things i had planned.

i can only recommend it to anyone!!!

i will move to a new blog soon, called kanaland.
hope to see you there!

c.

Friday 18 September 2009

spetsai armata festival


the non-scientific highlight of the summer school was the armata festival, a celebration of the greek revolution against the ottoman empire, in which the island spetsai and its heroine bouboulina took an active role. in remembrance of the battle of spetsai, an enemy ship is sunk in the sea near the harbour, watched by spectators on the shores and on numerous surrounding yachts.

this spectacle is followed by massive fireworks, the most amazing I HAVE EVER SEEN. (and i don't even like fireworks.. ;-))

above is the picture of the burning ship by a fellow summer school participant rafal marszalek. below is a video of the final minutes of the fireworks, filmed by liz morris. watch out during the final seconds, it was like the explosion of the death star. (also take note of the classy dance music that is played along with it)

spetsai summer school 2009


spetsai summer school 2009

in order to have a smooth and relaxed transition back into working life, i decided to apply for the embo/febs summer school in spetsai, greece. this course has taken place since 1966, featuring legendary scientists from the very beginning (francis crick hosted the second summer school in 1969. for a complete history of the course, check this webpage). this year's school was about protein-protein interactions and protein networks and covered a broad range of topics from proteomics to biological structure.

the meeting was very well thought through and allowed much time for science, but also for meeting people and learning about local culture. the mornings consisted of longer sessions with talks and discussions, followed by tutorials in the afternoon, and a shorter evening session. each night, the speakers took out small groups of people for dinner in local tavernas.

as in previous years, the list of speakers was excellent, the research presentations very interesting, clear and comprehensive. the poster sessions and talks of the participants were also fascinating and of very high quality (the fact that i have taken over 50 A4 pages of notes during the meeting is the ultimate proof for these statements). the highlight of the week was a series of lectures by aaron ciechanover, who received the nobel prize in chemistry for the discovery of the ubiquitin proteasome system in 2004. another great feature of the meeting was a morning session discussing the challenges for women in science and young families in general.

all of this was set in the beautiful location of the island of spetses in a hotel right near the sea, with stunning views over the peloponnese. one day was spent on the main land to see the ruins of epidavros and mycenae, and the town of nafplion. another afternoon, we went on a boat trip to the other side of the island, to a beautiful beach with some interesting cave formations closeby.

all in all, this meeting was absolutely fantastic, and i can only recommend it to anyone. it is an excellent chance to get to know senior researchers in your field and network with young colleagues in a relaxed yet science-focussed setting. unfortunately, funding bodies nowadays prefer a schedule completely packed with science, but in my opinion it was the more relaxed atmosphere that inspired conversations about science in all social situations, even on the dancefloor at the farewell party ;)!