Programme
Connecting, engaging and nurturing EMBLs global community of current and former scientists, technicians, communicators and administrators
Programme
The first EMBL alumni meeting in Denmark took place on Friday 11th September 2015 at the Faculty of Health & Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, following the faculties’ annual Symposium of the Core Facility for Integrated Microscopy (CFIM).
Speakers included EMBL staff as well as alumni from research institutes and industry in Denmark together with guests Poul Nissen, Head of DANDRITE, and Anne-Marie Engel, Research Director of the Lundbeck Foundation.
The meeting was initiated and organised by Laure Plantard, Applications Specialist at CFIM, and Jutta Bulkescher, Microscopy Platform Manager at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research, who explained: “We’ve been holding a CFIM symposium for the last 5 years to bring together our users, share knowledge and inspire one another.
It made sense to extend this to EMBL alumni in Denmark, since we ourselves form part of that network. We were keen to reach this community also for building a BioImaging network in Denmark. For alumni not in the field of microscopy, we offered an interdisciplinary programme to inspire new ideas and collaborations. We also wanted to involve EMBL speakers working in our field, to share the science and technologies at EMBL, as well as EMBL’s open access policies for visitors from other institutes.”
Yury Belyaev, Scientific Officer, and Rachel Mellwig, EM Facility Operations Manager, represented the EMBL Core Facilities. Poul Nissen, shared the opportunities available at EMBL’s Nordic partner institute, DANDRITE, and Anne-Marie Engel informed participants of the resources available to them: “the Lundbeck Foundation is an important player in Denmark when it comes to financing biomedical and health research. We are focused on funding the best researchers contributing to Danish based research. Therefore, it is logical for us to think of EMBL-alumni in Denmark as people, who would look to the Lundbeck Foundation for funding of their projects as they become embedded in the Danish research environments.”
The event ended by the fireplace at the faculty club with Guillermo Montoya, Rune Linding and Matthias Mann (shown in picture on right) pledging to host a larger event next year at a Novo Nordisk Foundation Centre.
Klaus Qvortrupp, Professor, University of Copenhagen:
“In the early 2000s, there was no microscope facility in Denmark – just some researchers who desperately needed access to such equipment, but couldn’t afford it. My idea was to collect all EM and LM machines in one facility and to hire qualified staff to offer opportunities for all researchers. It took seven years to convince people. In 2010, Copenhagen University opened the Core Facility for Integrated Microscopy (CFIM).”
Interview with Rune Linding
Now: Professor and group leader, Biotech Research and Innovation Center, University of Copenhagen
EMBL: Predoc, Gibson Team, Structural and Computational Biology, 2000-2004
Interview with Guillermo Montoya
Now: Professor, The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research, University of Copenhagen
EMBL: Postdoc, Sinning Group, Structural and Computational Biology, 1994-2001
