Last Friday, March 17th, the second edition of IDIBELL PhD day took place in the University Hospital of Bellvitge. This scientific simposium, organized by the predoctoral researchers of the Bellvitge Campus, aims to display the research carried out by this students and promote collaborations between the research groups of the Campus. This year, about 200 people attended the various presentations, conferences and round tables included in the program.
The opening speech was addressed by David Quirós, Councilor for Culture and Social Innovation of the Hospitalet de Llobregat City Council, Ángel Vidal, Deputy Director of ICO, Dr. Domènec Espriu, Vice Chancellor of Research of the University of Barcelona, Dr. Montserrat Figuerola, manager of the GTMS, and the director of IDIBELL, Dr. Gabriel Capellá. Through their interventions, the clear will of all Bellvitge Campus partners to support their younger researchers was highlighted.
Throughout the day, 16 oral presentations and 40 scientific posters were presented and evaluated by a jury specifically selected for the event. In the case of posters, this second edition also launched the popular poster award category, chosen by voting among all registered attendees.
Dr. Manolis Kogevinas, head of ISGlobal’s cancer program, gave the PhD day plenary lecture, “Sleep, light-at-night and cancer: why circadian Rhythms matter”, about the importance of vital rhythms and their potential relationship with several diseases. In the afternoon, two round tables were held on the various career choices – academic or professional – after getting the PhD.
At the end of the day, the IDIBELL PhD day awards, sponsored by L’Hospitalet Town Hall and FEBS journal, were given. The mayor of L’Hospitalet, Núria Marín, gave the awards for the best oral communication to Carlos Calatayud, second best communication to Mariona Bartrolí-Comellas and third to Karinna Rubio; Gabriel Capellá gave the two best poster awards to Giulia Carola and María Saigi; and the IDIBELL scientific director, José Manuel Menchón, awarded the prize for the best poster by popular vote to Olga Almacellas.
Mayor Núria Marín gave a closing speech of a day that she described as successful both in terms of participation and scientific quality of the works presented. Marín urged young people to keep on organizing and participating in initiatives such as this, hoping to make it possible for young researchers to have enough resources so that they do not have to leave the country to keep developing their talent.
In this second edition, the PhD day has also had an outreach side in collaboration with the City of l’Hospitalet de Llobregat. On Thursday 16th, Bellvitge’s library hosted the “Scientists for a Day” activity, including experiments and workshops for children aged 5 to 12 years, and the conference “10 tips to prevent cancer”, given by the coordinators of the blog mejorsincancer.org and IDIBELL-ICO researchers.