Josine de Winter & Rob Wüst
Department of Physiology, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

https://doi.org/10.36866/pn.94.17a

21 September 2013,
Felix Meritis, Amsterdam,
The Netherlands

Although the meeting was called the ‘European Muscle Conference’, people from all corners of the world gathered in Amsterdam for an exciting meeting on muscle physiology. Together with the help of some travel grants, scientists from Brazil, Australia, South Africa, South Korea and the USA were able to present their work in a World Heritage Canal House: Felix Meritis – ‘Happy through Merit’. The venue was constructed in the late 18th century to provide a meeting point between ‘enlightened’ scientists and artists. As such, the location perfectly matched the aims of the meeting.

Co-sponsored by The Physiological Society, a satellite Young Investigators Symposium was held on Saturday 21 September 2013. We were happy to welcome over 120 young (and more senior) scientists to this ‘pilot event’ before the start of the EMC conference. David Eisner started the afternoon with an entertaining presentation about how to become successful in science. He emphasised that science is fun and you should follow your own dream, but not become a hermit!

His presentation was followed by a moderated panel discussion with David Eisner, Karin Sipido, Jill Tardiff and Pieter de Tombe. Questions from the audience on topics like ‘what to do after your PhD’ and ‘work–life balance’ were vividly answered by the experienced panel. After this, three young investigators presented their work, followed by an interactive discussion in a friendly atmosphere.

During the subsequent four days of the European Muscle Conference, which had the theme ‘moving into translation’, many young investigators were given time to present their work in an oral presentation. The poster room, located in the old library room overlooking the canals, was the perfect location for lively and friendly discussions on the latest developments in muscle physiology. Oral prizes were awarded to Steve Hunter (UK), Benedetta Tosi (Italy), Arpad Kovacs (Hungary) and Claire Latroche (France). Poster prizes were awarded to Charles Jung (USA), Svitlana Pasteuning (Netherlands), Silva Bogaards (Netherlands) and William de Assis Silveira (Brazil). We are grateful to Springer and Digital Printing Partners for their sponsorship of these prizes.

Given the feedback from young and old participants, we can conclude that the ‘pilot’ of bringing young scientists into the core of the EMC conference has been very successful.

We are looking forward to seeing you all at the Young Investigators Symposium at the 2014 EMC conference in Salzburg, Austria!
www.emc2014.com