FMUL News
Annual Meeting of PhD Students | 5 and 6 December 2013
Seven-year history of the Annual Meeting of PhD Students.
The Academic Medical Centre of Lisbon (CAML) PhD Students Annual Meeting celebrated seven years of existence in 2013. On 5 and 6 December 2013, the seventh edition was attended by students affiliated to several groups of the Institute of Molecular Medicine (IMM), Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon (FMUL) and Santa Maria Hospital (HSM). But this has not always been the case.
The history of this meeting goes back to 2007, when five bold PhD students from different IMM laboratories joined forces to bring to light the first edition of this symposium. Bruno Almeida, Bruno Cardoso, Carina Santos, Sílvia Portugal, and Susana Rocha thus helped lay the foundations of the Annual Meeting which, alongside the institutional seminars currently called Pizza Seminars, allow CAML PhD students to present and discuss their scientific work regularly and formally. In addition to these activities, the Retreat of PhD students takes place every year in the form of a weekend away from the CAML campus, where participants strengthen their professional and personal ties through team building activities.
Year after year, the group of students facilitating these activities has grown, first called IMM PhD Student Committee, and currently known as CAML PhD Student Committee. It is a dynamic structure based on volunteering in which participating students spend their time away from their laboratories on behalf of the entire CAML PhD student community. Due to shortage of space, we shall not mention the names of all those who, over time, have contributed to the success of the Doctoral Programme’s various activities, but we express our deepest gratitude to all of them! The assistance provided by the successive IMM/CAML Education and Advanced Training Executive Managers (Marta Agostinho, Inês Crisóstomo and, currently, Alexandra Manaia) and also by the Advanced Training Institute of FMUL has been no less important.
The PhD Students Annual Meeting has been attended by famous figures of science over the years, of whom Professors Craig Mello (2008) and Tim Hunt (2009), Nobel Prize Winners in Physiology/Medicine in 2006 and 2001, respectively, stand out. Still, many more renowned international guests have accepted the invitation of successive PhD Students Committees to attend the several editions of the meeting: Ruslan Medzhitov, Alfonso Matinez-Arias, Kai Simons, Martin Raff, as well as a former medical student of FMUL, Professor Carlos Caldas. This year, for the first time, the PhD Students Committee had the honour to welcome Irving Weissman, a prominent figure in immunology research, who gave a remarkable lecture sponsored by CAML.
In 2013, the Seventh CAML PhD Students Annual Meeting was attended by prestigious Professor Arthur Horwich (Picture 1), awarded the Lasker Prize in 2011, and by Professor Maria Leptin, Director of the European Molecular Biology Organization. This year, two important personalities of science conducted in Portugal also shared their knowledge with students: Sílvia Conde (CEDOC) and Rita Branquinho (CENIMAT/I3N). The Annual Meeting thus gains, and since 2012 with the presence of Helena Vieira (CEO of Bioalvo), a component of entrepreneurship and business and applied research.
It gives us great pleasure to note that the CAML PhD Students Annual Meeting has become an event of major importance for the CAML community. This is attested by the number of scientific presentations by students in past editions of this event (Chart 1). 2013 is about to end and the CAML PhD Students Committee is already preparing the activities for next year. We can only thank once again the participation of all those who contributed to the success of this event in past editions and wish the very best for future activities!
Annexes
(CAML PhD Students)
The Academic Medical Centre of Lisbon (CAML) PhD Students Annual Meeting celebrated seven years of existence in 2013. On 5 and 6 December 2013, the seventh edition was attended by students affiliated to several groups of the Institute of Molecular Medicine (IMM), Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon (FMUL) and Santa Maria Hospital (HSM). But this has not always been the case.
The history of this meeting goes back to 2007, when five bold PhD students from different IMM laboratories joined forces to bring to light the first edition of this symposium. Bruno Almeida, Bruno Cardoso, Carina Santos, Sílvia Portugal, and Susana Rocha thus helped lay the foundations of the Annual Meeting which, alongside the institutional seminars currently called Pizza Seminars, allow CAML PhD students to present and discuss their scientific work regularly and formally. In addition to these activities, the Retreat of PhD students takes place every year in the form of a weekend away from the CAML campus, where participants strengthen their professional and personal ties through team building activities.
Year after year, the group of students facilitating these activities has grown, first called IMM PhD Student Committee, and currently known as CAML PhD Student Committee. It is a dynamic structure based on volunteering in which participating students spend their time away from their laboratories on behalf of the entire CAML PhD student community. Due to shortage of space, we shall not mention the names of all those who, over time, have contributed to the success of the Doctoral Programme’s various activities, but we express our deepest gratitude to all of them! The assistance provided by the successive IMM/CAML Education and Advanced Training Executive Managers (Marta Agostinho, Inês Crisóstomo and, currently, Alexandra Manaia) and also by the Advanced Training Institute of FMUL has been no less important.
The PhD Students Annual Meeting has been attended by famous figures of science over the years, of whom Professors Craig Mello (2008) and Tim Hunt (2009), Nobel Prize Winners in Physiology/Medicine in 2006 and 2001, respectively, stand out. Still, many more renowned international guests have accepted the invitation of successive PhD Students Committees to attend the several editions of the meeting: Ruslan Medzhitov, Alfonso Matinez-Arias, Kai Simons, Martin Raff, as well as a former medical student of FMUL, Professor Carlos Caldas. This year, for the first time, the PhD Students Committee had the honour to welcome Irving Weissman, a prominent figure in immunology research, who gave a remarkable lecture sponsored by CAML.
In 2013, the Seventh CAML PhD Students Annual Meeting was attended by prestigious Professor Arthur Horwich (Picture 1), awarded the Lasker Prize in 2011, and by Professor Maria Leptin, Director of the European Molecular Biology Organization. This year, two important personalities of science conducted in Portugal also shared their knowledge with students: Sílvia Conde (CEDOC) and Rita Branquinho (CENIMAT/I3N). The Annual Meeting thus gains, and since 2012 with the presence of Helena Vieira (CEO of Bioalvo), a component of entrepreneurship and business and applied research.
It gives us great pleasure to note that the CAML PhD Students Annual Meeting has become an event of major importance for the CAML community. This is attested by the number of scientific presentations by students in past editions of this event (Chart 1). 2013 is about to end and the CAML PhD Students Committee is already preparing the activities for next year. We can only thank once again the participation of all those who contributed to the success of this event in past editions and wish the very best for future activities!
Annexes
Alice Melão e Jorge Santos
(CAML PhD Students)
