Drawing inspiration from attending international meetings

4 April 2024 – Towards the end of the PhD journey ‘the future’ looms on the horizon. Finalizing the PhD thesis is a monumental achievement that merits full attention, yet some should be spent on the inevitable question ‘What do you want to do after you graduate your PhD?’.  

While some PhD candidates might see a clear path into their future, others might deliberate all options carefully. I am the latter type of person. To this end, attending (international) symposia, lectures, workshops and conferences can be hugely beneficial – not only to learn about new exciting scientific achievements, but to meet people from different institutes, diverse fields and interests.  

One of these opportunities came to me by an invitation of EMBO to be nominated for the Global Young Scientists Summit (GYSS) in Singapore last January. After sending in my application and waiting for a few months, I was thrilled to learn that I was invited to participate in Asia’s largest summit. GYSS is a general scientific conference where prestigious speakers are invited to give lectures. Many of them are Nobel laureates, others have won Turing awards, the Fields medal or the Millennium Technology prize. This immensely knowledgeable set of speakers is mixed with young scientists from all over the world, from all sorts of scientific backgrounds. With approximately 350 participants, I did not meet anyone else working on a similar topic, nor technique as me. 

The meeting took place over five days, in which the first day was composed of site visits to local labs (I flew a drone!). The other four days were spent on lectures, young scientist flash presentations, and small group sessions, where you had the chance to ask questions to the speakers. Interesting discussions were buzzing in every corner and after each lecture participants would exchange views on the lectures, questions and answers.  

Perhaps the most impactful aspect of GYSS were the panel discussions on diverse topics like ‘communication’, ‘sustainability’ and ‘innovation and entrepreneurship’. The panel discussions partially addressed the moral side of science. Questions like ‘Should we be actively involved in scientific outreach or should we focus on the experiments?’ and ‘Should we be involved in creating a start-up from a great idea or does this pose a conflict of interest?’, were discussed elaborately. There were many good questions by the participants, which lead to very diverse and sometimes even directly contradicting answers. 

Through participating in the panels, lectures, and talking with so many eager and inspirational scientists from all over the world, I realize once again that I thrive in the scientific environment and community. The abundance of novel and surprising research concepts has fueled my curiosity, leaving me eager to keep learning new things. Using this as a guidance to contemplate ‘the future’, I imagine it to be full of new challenges, surprising discoveries and yet unexplored avenues. I am strapping in for a high-paced, exciting and dynamic journey. Future, here I come.