The DAAD Alumni Spring School on Mechanisms of Cognition, Learning and Memory
The DAAD Alumni Spring School took place from the 5th to the 8th of April, 2011 at the Ruhr-University in Bochum. Besides being a resounding success, it also proved to be a fantastic reunion with IGSN alumni travelling from India, Ireland, Pakistan, the Netherlands, Serbia, Slovakia, the United Kingdom, the United States and from all over Germany to attend.
In addition to their alumni, the IGSN also had the priviledge of welcoming several international scientists, such as the renowned neuroscientists Lynn Nadel from Tucson and Raymond Kesner from Salt Lake City. They attended the conference where, split into five workgroups, Alumni and guest speakers presented their latest findings on learning and memory as well as cognitive research.
A special workgroup on the subject of scientific writing, which was held in cooperation with the RUB Research School, featured the senior editor of 'Nature' Dr. Noah Gray and the British science journalist Claire Ainsworth. The discussion was moderated by science journalist Holger Wormer from Dortmund and covered topics such as the advantages and disadvantages of blogging in science, as well as interesting information about the workings of 'Nature'.
The students also had the possibility to converse with the guest speakers and to present their own research at a poster presentation.
About 150 alumni, students and guests attended the lectures, which provided a fascinating and interesting insight into the current state of research in the respective areas of neuroscience.
The last day of the conference was reserved for our alumni, who reported on their research work as post docs.
It was a real pleasure for all current IGSN members to listen to the lectures of our “old students”.
The event was rounded off by a German “Stammtisch”, where alumni and former supervisors had the possibility to exchange memories and to swap new ideas for the future (some of which have meanwhile become very concrete).
We would like to thank all participants for once again helping to make this conference such a stimulating and interesting occasion.
Click here for some photos of the event (Best viewed with JavaScript enabled)