Nadine Gerlach
Report of GLOMAR PhD student Nadine Gerlach about her participitation in the MIMAS II symposium – Microbial Interactions in Marine Systems in Greifswald, Germany from 20 to 22 August 2018
MIMAS (Microbial Interactions in Marine Systems) was the second symposium in Greifswald focussing in on trophic interactions and marine symbioses. This year’s objectives were (i) microbial-mediated ecosystem functions and adaptation strategies of marine bacteria, (ii) the physiology of uncultivable marine symbionts, (iii), ecophysiological interdependencies of bacteria within marine microbial assemblages and (iv) molecular mechanisms of bacterial degradation of marine polysaccharides.
I was very excited to present my PhD project for the first time in a professional atmosphere outside of my home institute. The poster session was schedule for the first evening. However, due to the infrastructure of the building and the arrange of the poster itself there was an ongoing discussion in every break which I liked a lot. Thereby it was not necessary to stand next by the poster all the time and wait to get in touch with people walking by, but rather starting a conversion and having the opportunity to show and highlight results by just quickly walking to the poster.
Besides the scientific program, this symposium was a great opportunity for networking. I have met with my thesis committee member Dr. Mrjam Czjzek in person for the first time and we were discussing progress since my last thesis committee meeting. Additionally, I was also meeting my colleges from Greifswald as well as my former Master thesis supervisor Dr. Matthias Wietz who introduced me into glycan utilization by marine bacteria in the first place.
I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Jan-Hendrik Hehemann for giving me the opportunity to work on my project and my colleagues and collaborators of my PhD project. Special thanks go to the MIMAS II scientific committee for organization. I highly recommend this conference for any PhD or postdoc studying microbial ecology and / or glycan utilization.
