Descriptions of sessions

Descriptions of sessions

Main Scientific Sessions
Subgroup meetings
Keynote and Prize Lectures
Plenary Sessions
Minisymposia
Poster Sessions

Special Sessions
Career Events at ELSO 2008
        Career Mentoring Lunch
        Careers Outside Academia
        Open Floor Debate
        Meet-a-Mentor
        Career Workshop
EMBO Science and Society session
EMBO Media Workshop
Technical workshops

MAIN SCIENTIFIC SESSIONS

Subgroup Meetings

The Subgroup Meetings are scheduled for Saturday, 30 August (15.30–18.00), before the start of the main meeting. They allow five or six researchers to present and discuss their work in detail with a very focused group of like-minded colleagues. The topics for the subgroups are selected from proposals submitted by potential chairpersons before March. The programme committee selects the most interesting and appropriate proposals. Registration fees for the speakers and chairperson(s) of the subgroups are waived; however, no funds are available to cover their travel or accommodation costs. Chairperson(s) may, of course, raise external sponsorship for their sessions in return for listing as sponsors on the ELSO web site and in the conference programme.
Full programme

Keynote and Prize Lectures
The two Keynote Lectures take place from 19:00–20:00 after the Social Get-together at the start of the meeting on Saturday 30 August. The speakers are this year’s winners of the Louis Jeantet Prize, Pascale Cossart and Jurg Tschopp. In addition, the ELSO Early Career Award Lecture takes place on Monday, 1 September (12:00–12:30) after presentation of the award to this year’s selected outstanding young researcher. Also, the EMBO Award for Communication in the Life Sciences follows the EMBO Science and Society session (Monday, 1 September, 15:00-15:30). This prize is presented annually to a practicing scientist for outstanding communication with the public. The winner will receive the award and give a presentation on her/his engagement in public science communication.
Full programme

Plenary Sessions
Mornings at the ELSO meeting get off to a high-powered start with the Plenary Session lectures by internationally pre-eminent scientists. Six half-hour lectures each morning, with a pause for coffee at 10:30.
Full programme

Minisymposia
Seven Minisymposia run concurrently on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday afternoons from 15:30–17:30. The 21 Minisymposia cover a wide range of topics from endocytosis (MS1) to computational biology (MS21). There are usually five presentations in each Minisymposium, including one or two speakers selected by the Minisymposium Chairperson(s) on the basis of their interesting poster abstracts.
Full programme

Poster Sessions
The Poster Sessions provide the great buzz of ELSO meetings. They are a great opportunity to present work in progress and to make new contacts with other scientists. The Poster Session are from 13:00 to 16:00, Sunday–Tuesday in the middle of the Exhibitors Hall. To accommodate the 600-or-more posters, they change every day and the topics are co-ordinated with those of the Minisymposia **correct?** that follow on that same afternoon. To present a poster, you should submit your abstract before 15 July.
Full programme

SPECIAL SESSIONS

Career events at ELSO 2008
ELSO’s Career Development Committee is organizing several events at its meeting in Nice this year to help promote young researchers’ careers. These events provide a rare opportunity to learn about sources of funding, jobs outside the academic sector, to get face-to-face advice on career issues from experienced mentors, as well as to discuss some of the wider issues related to your career as a life scientist in Europe.

Career Mentoring Lunch
The Career Mentoring Lunch, organized by ELSO’s Career Development Committee, has become a regular and very popular feature of the ELSO meetings. The idea is to benefit from the experience and advice of the mentors on one of the ten 'round-table' topics while you take your lunch break. The mentors are all volunteers from the speakers, chairpersons and other senior participants at the meeting. The sandwich lunch is provided to all participants free of charge thanks to generous sponsorship by Science Careers. The Career Mentoring Lunch, which takes place on Monday after the Plenary Sessions (12:30–14:00; room Clio), is restricted to 100 participants to give everyone a good chance to ask questions and get advice on their chosen topic, so book your place early through the on-line registration. There is no fee to pay.

Careers Outside Academia
Do you want to take a side step out of academic research and do something different with your skills, knowledge and training? Your academic advisor might not be able to help you much. Maybe you dare not ask for help? In this session, you will hear about the many different branches you can take on the career tree when you have a PhD in life sciences. Four speakers will give you first-hand insights into the varied and interesting jobs they have moved into after their careers in academic research, as well as explaining why they made their choices and how they went about making the move. There will be plenty of time to ask questions at this session on Sunday from 14:00–15:30. The session is free. You do not have to register in advance to participate. Just turn up! (Note: this session runs concurrently with the start of the Poster Session.)

Open Floor Debate
This year’s Open Floor Debate (Sunday evening 19:00–20:30) follows upon last year’s session on ELSO academic career structures in Europe to take a look at the European job market for academic researchers and mobility – how to find jobs in Europe or find funding to work in another European country – as well as the challenges facing two-career couples and, in particular, women scientists who move country. This information-and-discussion session will begin with three short presentations by Guntram Bauer (HFSP), Gerlind Wallon (EMBO) and Carl-Henrik Heldin (ERC) and will end with a long discussion led by a panel of eminent scientists participating at the meeting. ELSO aims to represent its members’ interests in Europe in debates about science funding and policy. It is a grass-roots organization, so we need to hear the views of the grassroots! Here is an opportunity to bring to our attention the major issues you feel are barriers to mobility and a truly European job market for academic researchers in Europe. Tell us about them, so we can tell the policy makers!

Meet-a-Mentor
Our scientific heroes – those who have founded a new field, won a Nobel prize or made a great discovery – we admire them from afar, we imagine that their careers have progressed without a hiccough, the smallest wrong turn or toss of the dice. Not like our own careers … How wrong we can be! Come along to the Meet-a-Mentor session on Tuesday (14:00–15:00) and talk to one of those heroes. Get the truth about the ups, downs and turn-arounds of one illustrious career! The session is free. You do not have to register in advance to participate. Just turn up! (Note: this session runs concurrently with the start of the Poster Session and with the EMBO Media Workshop.)

Career Workshop
We all have the potential to make a success of our careers, whether it is in scientific research, a science-related job or something quite unrelated to science. Aimed at PhD students and postdoctoral researchers, this four-hour workshop on Wednesday morning (09:00 to 13:00, 3 September) after the main meeting, will help you take a proactive approach to your career planning so that you are well- positioned to make a successful transition into your next post. The workshop will look at your own personality, qualities and skills, as well as CVs, interview techniques, etc. To participate in the workshop you must sign uponline before 15 July. There is participation fee of €35.

EMBO Science and Society Session
This session on Monday, 1 September (13:00 – 15:00) is entitled New stem cell research – overturning the ethical debate? The session aims not only to present some of the latest scientific research in the field of stem cell research but also to stimulate discussion on ethical aspects of its application: in particular, society’s concerns surrounding stem cell research and its applications in the field of human reproduction. The first speaker is Karim Nayernia (Newcastle University, UK) who recently announced results on deriving sperm cells from bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells. His talk will concentrate on his findings, their implications and possible applications. The second speaker, Emily Jackson (Law Department, London School of Economics, UK), will speak about the ethical and legal aspects of stem cell research and new reproductive technologies. The talks will be followed by an open discussion.
A bioethics session supported by the BioTethed Project

EMBO Media Workshop
Who should communicate science with the public? The tension implicit in this question is borne out by the results of the Eurobarometer study, which shows that the public would like more direct communication from scientists, but that their major source of information is the television, followed by radio and newspapers. Clearly, little public science communication would be possible without the media. Whether the media quote scientists or write articles based on their interviews with scientists, journalists are a vital link in the chain of public communication of science, and an important influence on policy and public perception. How do scientists make sure that their voice is accurately reported – or reported at all – by the media? Knowledge, understanding and a pro-active attitude to communication, these and more aspects of the interaction between journalists and scientists will be discussed in this workshop on Tuesday, 2 September (13:00 – 15:30), which will include one or two interactive exercises and demonstrations.

Technical Workshops
The 13:00–16:00 slot Sunday–Tuesday accommodates several Technical Workshops by commercial companies on new techniques and instrumentation. These workshops run concurrently with the Poster Sessions.