DZG Graduiertentreffen 2008
From EESwiki
Report on my trip to the 13th Annual Graduate Meeting of the Section Evolutionary Biology of the German Zoological Society (Deutsche Zoologische Gesellschaft, DZG) in Hamburg, February 22nd to February 24th 2008.
From February 22nd to February 24th, I went to Hamburg to take part in the 13th Annual Graduate Meeting of the Section Evolutionary Biology of the German Zoological Society (Deutsche Zoologische Gesellschaft, DZG). This meeting is especially for PhD students and students who will soon finish their diploma thesis. The focus of talks and posters lies on the field of evolutionary biology, but as well on neighbouring fields like behavioural ecology and chemical ecology. This year, there have been 43 participants from all over Germany, but also from Switzerland and Great Britain. The two invited talks were given by PD Dr. Gabriele Uhl from the University of Bonn and Dr. Klaus Reinhardt from the University of Sheffield.
Together with five other members of my laboratory, I took the plane from Munich to Hamburg on Friday morning. As the program didn’t start before 6 p.m., we had enough time to bring our baggage to the apartment we rented and to visit some parts of the city. We saw the City Hall and enjoyed the view over the city from the tower of St. Nikolai. Before we went to the University, we made a short detour to the Old Warehouse District next to the harbour and to one of Hamburg’s landmarks, the famous “Michel”, how they call the church of St. Michaelis. After registration, there was a social evening in a nearby bar with drinks and nachos where we had the possibility to meet old friends and make new ones.
The next morning, the meeting started with the invited talk of Dr. Klaus Reinhardt, followed by talks of the participants which were grouped into sessions of four talks each, alternating with coffee breaks in the Zoological Exhibition and a lunch break at 12:45 p.m. During lunch break, I met the organisation team to get useful tips, as I plan to take part in next year’s organisation team when the graduate meeting will take place in Munich. Then it was my turn to give a talk which was about behavioural and chemical changes in orphaned Temnothorax ant workers. It was my first talk on a conference, so it was nice to stand in front of such a friendly audience. At 3 p.m., there was a poster session during which you could learn more about the ongoing work in German research groups, and I talked to some people who provided me with interesting information on both their and my work.
Later that afternoon, the organisers arranged a visit at the “Hamburg Dungeon”. This is a kind of haunted house where the history of Hamburg is shown in different rooms with creepily dressed actors. To refresh from these thrills, there were some tables reserved in a nice bar where we got some Mexican finger food and cocktails. It was a very funny evening!
On Sunday, there were some more contributions following the invited talk of PD Dr. Gabriele Uhl. During one session, I was chosen to act as chairman, which means that I had to announce the speakers and moderate the discussion. At 3 p.m., the conference ended with the award of a book prize for the best talk. We then had some more time to spend before flying home, so we made a harbour round trip on a small boat. It was very impressive to see all these big ships in detail. In the evening, we got home, being tired, but happy about meeting some nice people, hearing interesting talks and being able to present our research. I really enjoyed this trip!
