Plant your future! is the motto of this year’s Plant Science Student Conference (PSSC), where PhD students of renowned research institutes of Central Germany meet for the ninth time in a row. From 28th to 31st of May, our institute will be once again a melting pot of plant research.
The meeting’s objective is to combine theory with practice and to create a platform for scientific discussions and the exchange of experiences between young researchers. The topics range from plant diseases and stress over secondary metabolism and natural products chemistry to bioinformatics.
The special characteristic of the conference is its exclusive organization and hosting by PhD students for PhD students. It takes place annually alternating at the IPB and the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) in Gatersleben. The IPB is now conference venue for the fifth time.
To organize a meeting with high scientific standards in addition to the daily time-consuming laboratory work requires good forward planning, organizational talent and endurance. Since November 2012 four PhD committees (scientific, web page, funding and social committee) are responsible for the preparations. Along with the coordination of the whole schedule from the registration to the last lecture, a PSSC web page were produced, logos, name tags and t-shirts were created, abstract books were printed and sponsorship funds of well-known pharmaceutical companies and laboratory equipment firms were raised.
Ninety-two participants from 7 different research institutes are registered. During the four-day meeting, all of them will present their latest research results in 48 posters and 27 lectures. Outstanding work will finally be awarded by an internal IPB jury.
Furthermore, the lectures of the invited guest speakers are awaited with tension. Prof. Jonathan Gershenzon (Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena), Prof. Rainer Breitling (University Manchester) and Dr. Cyril Zipfel (Sainsbury Laboratory, Norwich) will present highlights of research on three days of the meeting.
In order to ensure that fun and joyful get-together are not missed out, an attractive cultural supporting program is planned additionally. On Thursday (30th of May) the participants can either visit the more than 300-years old Botanical Garden of Halle or watch the Meckel collections that belong to the most extensive and unique anatomical collections in Germany.
The conference offers a lot of room for discussions and knowledge transfer for the PhD students outside their own laboratories. This can be helpful for expanding the view on their own research activity and finally promotes ideas for new projects.
Major PhD conference on plant research at the Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry
