Nadine Gerlach

The Summer Course Glycosiences takes place every two years in either Wageningen or Groningen and combines general introductions in the field of carbohydrates and glycoproteins with in-depth parallel sessions. Therefore, it is not only of great interest for glycolscientist, but for all fields which are studying sugars in one way or the other. This year, > 70 international young scientist attended to learn from > 20 senior scientists. Both, junior and senior scientist, were mainly associated with academia but some were also from industry in order to diversify expertise and knowledge.

Even though plant-based carbohydrates and their applications in industry and health science accounted for the majority of the sessions, I do see this course as very valuable to learn from experts of the different research fields. I am sure that there will be session only for marine scientist in the near future since it is raising of more and more interest just as it was the case for basic and applied research some years ago.

Except for lectures and scientific talks, there was also the possibility to present a poster with one’s project on two evenings. For many PhD students it was their first time, which I suppose is a less stressful experience than on a conference. Questions and discussion varied from rather big pictures to detailed insights into the projects. Afterwards, the posters were ranked by the junior and senior scientist based on application, novelty, graphical layout and design as well how clear the objectives were stated. The poster of my PhD project won the 3rd prize of the poster presentation which made me very proud and happy.
Besides science, the organizer put a lot of effort in other activities and a nice atmosphere such as speed dating to get in touch with other people, a walking tour through Wageningen, several breaks to deepen discussions or ask questions which were not meant to be heard by the hole audience.

I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Jan-Hendrik Hehemann for giving me the opportunity to work on my project, GLOMAR for financial support and my PhD colleagues who suggested this summer school to me. I am very grateful for all the advices and the feedback for my project, the opportunity to enlarge my professional network and to learn more about the applications in industry.

Special thanks goes to the Graduate School VLAG as well as the Department of Food-Chemistry-Wageningen University, the GBB-Rijksuniversiteit Groningen and the CNRS-Université Joseph Furier, Grenoble, France for organizing such an amazing event.

I highly recommend the summer course for any Master or PhD student but also PostDoc who are studying carbohydrates or planning to so. You gonna enjoy it!