Graduation Day 2019
With the festive season drawing closer, the IGSN family gathered for its highlight of the year. On December 6th, 2019, researchers and staff, as well as friends and family came together on Graduation Day to honour this year's graduates, who had completed the IGSN programme and would finally receive their PhDs in Neuroscience.
Advisory Board Meeting
The day began with a meeting of the Advisory Board, a welcome occasion for all members to catch up and reflect on the past year and to plan for upcoming projects. The festivities were then begun by the warm welcome of the speaker of the IGSN Prof. Dr. Oliver T. Wolf. As is the tradition, current IGSN PhD researchers presented their current work to the audience. Their presentations illustrated the high standard of work being done at the IGSN and the diversity of topics tackled by young scientists. Thank you, Ruxandra Barzan, Thu-Huong Hoang and Robin Lienkämper for your excellent talks — great job!
IGSN Poster Prize
This year's IGSN poster prize for the best poster of a doctoral researcher went to Ms Hanna von Preetzmann from the Department of Neurophysiology for her poster "The role of glutamate receptors in piriform cortex synaptic plasticity". Congratulations, Hanna!
IGSN Publication Prize
This year the IGSN also awarded a publication prize for the best publication of a doctoral researcher. Doctoral researchers could apply with their first authorship publication that was accepted between August 2018 and 2019. A jury of Advisory Board members and the former speakers Prof. Ulf Eysel and Prof. Klaus-Peter Hoffmann reviewed five nominated publications. The first IGSN publication award went to Ms Laura Berg for her publication "Berg L, Eckardt J, Masseck OA (2019) Enhanced activity of pyramidal neurons in the infralimbic cortex drives anxiety behavior. PLoS ONE 14(1): e0210949. Congratulations, Laura!
Winners of IGSN school competition received prizes
At the beginning of the graduation ceremony, the winners of this year's IGSN and SFB 874 writing competition received their prizes. The 2019 contest was entitled "Hirn vs Herz — Wer macht hier eigentlich die Gefühle? (Brain vs Heart — Who is creating emotions?). Students from Bochum's high schools had submitted many excellent entries.
Then it was finally time for the graduates to take centre stage. Dressed in traditional IGSN mortar boards and gowns they received their well-earned PhD diplomas. Each graduate was honoured in personal, and oftentimes humourous speeches by their supervisors. Three graduates received their PhDs and one received his MD this year. The IGSN is so very proud of all of you — we wish you all the best for the future!
The new academic titles were then deservedly celebrated during the renowned IGSN Graduation Day dinner Thank you to everyone who made this day such a wonderful occasion!
Photos of the event
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