The second ICMS PhD award concludes with a sweet win for Roger Riera
The ICMS PhD award celebrated its second edition Friday 10th of December in an online format. Five PhD students were selected to showcase their research work in a five-minute pitch during the award finale. Roger Riera from the department of Biomedical Engineering won the PhD award with his research on sugar receptor mapping using advanced microscopy.
The ICMS PhD award celebrated its second edition Friday 10th of December in an online format. Five PhD students were selected to showcase their research work in a five-minute pitch during the award finale. Roger Riera from the department of Biomedical Engineering won the PhD award with his research on sugar receptor mapping using advanced microscopy.
The ICMS community gathered online to enjoy an afternoon packed with multidisciplinary science and a home 'borrel' package arranged by the ICMS PhD committee. Following the same format as in the first edition of the award in summer, five finalists were selected from a previous round of abstract submissions to the final pitch round. Out of eleven outstanding research papers, the organizing committee voted four submissions to the final round, while the fifth finalists was nominated by popular vote. An impressive 32% of the ICMS community selected Suzanne Koch (Biomedical Engineering) for the competition finale.
The online award ceremony kicked off with five pitches covering various topics: theoretical predictions, biomedical engineering and advanced materials. The participants flashed the audience with animations, microscopy images and an accessible understanding of their research work. The host of the event, Coen van der Gracht, moderated the discussion of the pitches. The audience and jury were invited to ask questions about each pitch, promoting the interdisciplinary discussion of the ICMS community.
During a short coffee break after the final pitch, a Jury of 4 postdoctoral researchers evaluated the presentations to choose the winner. The event concluded with a win for Riera and his work entitled 'Single-molecule imaging of glycan-lectin interactions on cells with Glyco-PAINT'. According to the jury, Riera’s work stood out thanks to his 'Life-changing animations, sweet science and on-point presentation. Besides this editions award win, his work was also recently featured on the cover of Nature chemical biology. Riera wins a featured article in the biannual ICMS magazine and a cash price of 250 euros, just in time for an early Christmas gift.
Are you interested in increasing the visibility of your work inside the ICMS community and beyond? The ICMS PhD group organises the awards twice a year, so make sure to watch out for the next edition of the ICMS PhD award!