Denis Wakeham
Cardiff School of Sport and Health Sciences, UK

Joana Rodrigues & Roxanne Newman
Anglia Ruskin University, UK

Michael Vaughan
University College Cork, ROI

https://doi.org/10.36866/pn.113.26

This past September, London was filled with physiologists, hailing from all over the world. They gathered for the inaugural Europhysiology meeting, hosted by Europe’s largest physiology societies. The three days of the main meeting, preceded by a day involving the European Early Career Physiologists Symposium and three concurrent satellite meetings, brought together physiologists with varying specialities and interests.

The conference provided a friendly environment for physiologists from all stages of their career.

As Denis Wakeham said, “Each of the research symposia I attended were engaging, well organised and included a mix of established and early-career researchers.”

The diversity of career stages made for moments for mentoring. “During the late breaking poster session I had an insightful conversation with Vaughan Macefield, about the study of autonomic neuroscience in humans. Discussing the subtle intricacies of data interpretation with an established researcher is of great help to all us early career scientists,” continued Wakeham.

The friendly environment enabled undergraduates to have the confidence to present their work. “A fundamental part of science is the presentation of one’s work to fellow scientists. Presenting at Europhysiology provided each of us with the chance to discuss our work and gain critical feedback from the experts in an exciting but relaxed atmosphere,” said Joana Rodrigues and Roxanne Newman, undergraduates at Anglia Ruskin University, UK.

Michael Vaughan, a young PhD trainee at University College Cork chimed in, “I was terrified at the thought of being surrounded by so many “real scientists”, but was surprised to arrive at what I could describe as a massive family reunion. While your new-found “relatives” may be world leaders in their fields, pushing the bounds of physiological knowledge, the atmosphere was very much like one big family gathering.”

While there were academics of varying seniority, attendees found it useful that there were also people outside academia, such as representatives from the fields of industry and science communication.

The science presented at the conference was up-to-date, groundbreaking, new research. “We truly felt we were glimpsing through the looking glass!”, said Rodrigues and Newman, “During Europhysiology there was something to please every physiologist in the room, from “wet lab” work to education & teaching symposia.”

Scattered throughout the days were fascinating glimpses into about how reindeer and bears survive the winter, how the eyes may be an access route to the brain’s chronobiology, and how Edmund Goodwyn discovered the diving response, laying the groundwork to stop the inappropriate blowing of smoke to cure drowning.

Daniel Martin kept us all enthralled with his recount of Xtreme-Everest’s work atop the world, and how it helped those in the intensive care unit (ICU). The multiple seminars on Education & Teaching gave way to brilliant debates on implementation/adoption of new techniques, games and assessments. Other talks drew attention to important, but less well-known areas of physiology. Professor Maiken Nedergaard gave an outstanding overview of her pioneering work, investigating the glymphatic system, during her plenary lecture. This clearance system cleans the brain of its waste products. She eloquently illustrated the importance of the glymphatic system for maintenance of brain health.

Check out #europhys2018 on Twitter for the full story. We hope to see you in Berlin for Europhysiology 2020!