Cell News 2/2016
4
PREFACE
Dear colleagues, dear DGZ members,
Promoting the careers of young scientists is a central mission of the German Society of Cell
Biology. Our community needs young talents to carry over the ideas of Cell Biology to the next
generation. Stimulated by our advisory board, we decided to launch a new format for our next
International Meeting, aiming to reach out to our young talents. At the same time, it is obvious
that we as a society need even more input from the established and experienced community
members to make our new concept a success.
Organised by Simone Reber, Volker Gerke, Thomas Magin and colleagues, next year’s meeting
will take place at the University of Leipzig as DGZ spring meeting 2017, from March 1 to 3.
How does the new format look like? Following members’ input, we decided to have all sessions
as plenary ones, thus promoting outstanding science of our members to the whole DGZ commu-
nity across disciplines. A key goal is to advance member networking at all levels during sessions,
at posters, in informal discussions and during social events.
To make the meeting an opportunity for members and to shape it according to their scientific
interest, we especially ask our junior members to suggest and organize key sessions. This will
enable them to put forward topics, which they want to discuss during the meeting and beyond.
To do so, the spring meeting will provide the stage for 4 two-hour-symposia suggested by junior
DGZ members, who will also serve as the symposium chair. These sessions will consist of one
keynote speaker and 3 other DGZ member speakers that include the chair. Suggested topics can
cover any area of modern cell biological research. The DGZ will provide up to Euro 1000 and free
registration costs for the keynote speaker. The chair and other speakers will get free registration.
Preference will be given to chairs who are independent junior group leaders but do not yet hold
tenured professorships.
To give our student members the chance to advertise their work in front of the community the
spring meeting will also offer plenty of time for discussions around posters including up to 30
one-minute poster flash presentations to cover as many abstracts as possible. Included in the
meeting fee will be an exciting free dinner party with drinks at the famous Moritzbastei.
To finance the meeting and to present young talents at early career stages, our society depends
on the continuous support of our sponsors, including the awardees of the Nikon Young Inves-
tigator Award, the Walter Fleming Medal, and the Binder Innovation Award. Moreover, we will
also feature the Carl-Zeiss lecture, the highest endowed price of the DGZ, at our international
meeting, given by an eminent colleague. To strengthen our relationship with the American
Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) and to ease career opportunities, one of the speakers will be a
colleague from ASCB.
If you are interested in organizing and chairing a DGZ young scientist symposium at our spring
meeting in Leipzig, please send a short proposal with a topic, brief motivation and key note
speaker suggestion: (Sabine Reichel-Klingmann)
We are looking forward to your suggestions!
With kind regards,
Carien Niessen, Oliver Gruß, Thomas Magin and Karin Schumacher
