- Retreat 2005
The 5th postdoc retreat 'Making the Right Moves' was held from 5-7 October at hotel Zuiderduin in Egmond. On this page you find an impression of this exciting event. In addition, feel free to download the presentations of several of the speakers. The organizing committee hopes that the 2005 postdoc retreat helped its participants to think about the steps that are needed now to create future career options, and that this website inspires postdocs from other institutes to organize their own retreat. | Preface | Photo Gallery >>
- Welcome address
The 2005 postdoc retreat was opened by a welcome address by Peter Peters, dean of postdoc affairs at the Netherlands Cancer Institute. He started by giving a brief history of the annual postdoc retreat, what were the reasons to start a retreat and how it had developed during recent years (read more on past retreats here). Next, Peter tried to inspire everyone in the audience by sharing his own experiences, by pressing the confidentiality of the meeting, and by urging all participants to interact with eachother. To initiate the latter, before he continued everyone was asked to leave their comfortable zone with familiar postdocs and take seat at a table with only people that they had never met before. At the end of his welcome address, he wished all participants a pleasant, exciting, and inspiring stay at the 2005 postdoc retreat. | Introductory Presentation >>- Keynote lecture
María Blasco is a spanish scientist with a young but extremely successful career. She has been awarded multiple awards for her research devoted to telomeres and telomerases, among which the Swiss Bridge Award for Research in Cancer (2000), the European Life Scientist Organization (ELSO) Early Career Award (2002), the 2003 Josef Steiner Cancer Research Award, and the 2004 European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) Gold Medal. In her inspiring keynote lecture, María not only told about the successes leading to these awards, but also about the choices she had to make, where she got her funding from, and where she didn't get it from (because telomeres were still a too risky subject at the beginning of her postdoc career!).
- Science
- Together with María Blasco three other scientists presented which moves made them succesful in science. Chris Wylie talked not only about his work but also about 9 lessons he learned about mentorship. Bas van Steensel presented many helpful suggestions, tips and tricks on how to get your work funded. Kai Simons, director of the new Max Planck institute in Dresden, gave an inspiring talk about the importance of collaborations and self-motivation. Finally, despite being asked at the last moment, Titia Sixma gave a great presentation on how to combine being a scientist and mother of two young children at the same time. She also told about the experiences of her recent sabbatical period.
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- Click the icon to download the powerpoint presentation or watch a short movie.
- Career moves
- Next to people from within science itself, four other speakers gave us their view on what is important on making the right moves. Erik van Vooren, a Belgian marketing professor, presented in an energetic way how to unchain your brain. Tessa Bandouna talked about cultural differences between scientists from different countries and how to deal with them. That there are many alternatives for postdocs outside academia was shown by Ingeborg Scheurwater from NIBI, the Dutch institute for biology. Last but not least, Mark Patterson, head publishing at the Public Library of Science (PLoS), gave insight on how to publish your work, both from an editor's and author's point of view.
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- Click the icon to download the powerpoint presentation or watch a short movie.
- Workshops
As part of the session Mentoring and being mentored, project- and time-management, getting published the retreat participants had the opportunity to participate in two workshops in conjunction with professional trainers. One could choose from four different tracks and pick the most suitable ones for their current or future situation. In two hour sessions subjects like time management, project organization, and professional collaborations, were analyzed and discussed in detail. A more elaborate description of each workshop can be found in the abstract book. | Evaluation | Testimonials >>- Veni Pub
In former retreats all participants presented a poster of their research project in the poster pub. Although this stimulated the interaction between postdocs, the organizing committee choose a different concept for this year's retreat. Everyone was split up in small groups where each postdoc gave a very short (5 minutes!) outline of his/her present research project and what he/she will initiate to develop a career in science. All abstracts of the participants' work can be found in the abstract book. Discussion followed with critical questions from the other group members (as if they were a Veni committee member).- Enter- and edutainment
Of course after some serious and intensive work, there should be time for some relaxing and good entertainment. Wednesday night was kicked off by a swinging performance of the Postdoc band, which had come together specially for this occasion.
The program for thursday featured a free afternoon that everyone could fill in to his/her liking. One could choose to go for a hike through the dunes guided by forest rangers, or rent a bike to discover the surroundings of Egmond. Tessa Bandouna organized the Rafa Rafa game in which two groups experienced how it is to encounter and analyze cultural differences. Of course, one could also enjoy the beach or take a dive in the pool.
The program of thursday ended with Improvisation Theatre by TVA/Aagje, a co-operation of two theatre groups. Entering the stage completely unknown of what to come, they played scenes that came to life on the spot, guided and inspired by suggestions from the public. Sometimes funny, sometimes moving or exciting, but always unexpected.- Forum Discussion
The retreat was again concluded by a forum discussion in which experts were asked to comment on "Making the right moves". The panel consisted of Anton Berns, director of the NKI-AVL, Georg Kraal, professor Immunology at the Free University in Amsterdam, Titia Sixma (see above), Carl Figdor, director of the Nijmegen Centre for Molecular Life Sciences, and Kees Melief, professor Tumor Immunology at the University of Leiden. The postdoc committee had prepared 7 questions on which the forum members had to comment. The following discussions were guided in a charismatic way by Kai Simons, and raised many questions, important issues and numerous suggestions to improve the future prospects for postdocs. | Forum Questions >>- Concluding Remarks
At the end of the retreat Peter Peters again took stage to evaluate the retreat. He showed the results from the initial questionaire. Remarkably, 75% of the attending postdocs expect to be in science in 5 years from now. Peter also discussed the initial results from the evalution forms, which showed that the retreat was in general highly appreciated, especially the open atmosphere, the interaction with fellow postdocs, and the practical tips from top scientists. Some postdocs complained about the lack of talks about career options outside science. However, this subject was on purpose left out of the 2005 retreat which centered around "Staying INside science".- However, a career outside academia will be the focus of the next postdoc retreat in 2006. The organizing committee would like to thank everyone who participated for making this retreat to a big success, and we hope to see you back next year! Finally, we plan to organize a Which move did you make? for all who attended the 2005 retreat. You are all invited! | Evaluation | Report (NL) | Concluding Remarks >>
Photo Gallery
Enjoy the photos taken at the 2005 retreat in Hotel Zuiderduin in Egmond of the different speakers, the workshops, venipub, discussions, and much more...
Johnathan Yewdell discusses how to become a succesful scientist. He shares his experience and insight in the world of science.
Hans Clevers describes in an article in Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde and in his inaugural speech the current situation life science in The Netherlands.
