CEM Summer School 2023
From July 6th to 7th, 2023, the annual summer school of the PhD program Cutting Edge Microscopy (CEM) took place at the Seehotel in Bönigen, Switzerland. Bönigen is a beautiful village on Lake Brienz. All students gave scientific presentations on their projects, with a focus on the microscopy applied and the results obtained. Since the students’ projects cover very different topics and a broad variety of microscopy, a new structure was tried: For each session, groups of 2 to 4 students were formed depending on the type of microscopy used or their scientific project. To introduce and explain the microscopy, the students were encouraged to make joint presentations. This format encouraged a more lively atmosphere and was greatly appreciated by all participants. The even livelier review of the scientific part of the summer school took the form of a quiz in which each student contributed to a question pool covering all presentations. Advice on how to implement microscopy in the projects was provided by the MIC microscopy specialists Fabian Blank and Yury Belyaev, the MIC bioimaging specialist Guillaume Witz and the CEM PhD program co-directors Benoît Zuber and Steven Proulx. Ruth Lyck, the CEM PhD program coordinator, was responsible for the quiz and hotel organization. In addition to the scientific program, a discussion on upcoming activities of the CEM PhD program took place. As the new CEM students’ representatives Adrian Madarasz and Marwa Mangattu Parambil were elected. During their term from August 2023 until July 2024, Adrian will join the MIC committee as the students’ representative. Another much appreciated activity was the visit of Leica Microsystems representatives Annette Rinck, CEO, and Michael Weuffen, Service manager. The beautiful landscape, the pleasant accommodation and free time to swim in Lake Brienz or go jogging contributed to a perfect learning atmosphere.