Second Annual PhaNuSpo Retreat, 2023

The second Annual Retreat of the VDS PhaNuSpo took place at the Maiers Oststeirischer Hof in Söchau in the Steiermark, Austria, on 18 - 19 September 2023. A total of 70 PhD students, 3 children, 17 PIs and 1 SAB actively participated in the two days of informative talks, poster sessions and workshops, which gave the participants the opportunity to interact, work on planned activities, and network and socialise in a relaxed and beautiful environment. 

On the first day, Thierry Langer (Head and Porf. of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences), Karl-Heinz Wagner (Dean of the Faculty of Life Sciences and Professor at the Department of Nutritional Sciences) and Robert Csapo (Professor at the Department of Sport and Human Movement Science) presented the wide range and diversity of research carried out at the VDS PhaNuSpo.

This session was followed by a very competitive and high quality poster session, where 32 PhD students presented their research. One of the aims was to encourage the authors to present their research in a way that would be attractive and understandable across disciplines. A jury of PhD students and PIs assessed the posters and 4 best poster prizes were awarded: Sigrid Adelsberger, Verena Schwingenschlögl-Maisetschläger, Lukas Wimmer and Michael Netzer.

The jury speakers Judith Rollinger and Andrea Cabrera, and the jury members, Franziska Heidrich, Katja Csarmann, Sebastian Bayer, Zian Xue, Gabriela Caporossi, Robert Csapo, Marietta Zille and Tilman Kühn were impressed by the quality and the on-site discussions, which gave both, the PIs and PhD students, an insight into the research topics of our early career researchers, and the opportunity to discuss and exchange across and within the major disciplines. On behalf of the Doc School, congratulations to our winners and many thanks to our jury members for preparing the evaluation criteria and conducting the on-site evaluation.

Photo showing from left to right the poster prize winners Lukas Wimmer, Michael Netzer, Verena Schwingenschlögl-Maisetschläger and Sigrid Adelsberger

fltr: Lukas, Michael, Verena and Sigrid

© VDS PhaNuSpo

We were delighted to host Prof. Daniela Caporossi, our Scientific Advisory Board member representing Sport Science and full Professor of Experimental Biology at the University of Rome "Foro Italico", and Werner Gruber, a well-known Austrian physicist, author, lecturer, cabaret artist, and co-founder of the Science Busters. We would like to thank Gabriela for her involvement in the jury, her recommendations and feedback, and her active engagement with our PhD students and PI members and Werner for his keynote lecture entitled "Werner Grubers's Big Brain Theory: How long need the rise and fall of a thought?"

In the evening, attendees were able to take advantage of the beautiful location by taking walks in the surrounding countryside, joining in the evening bonfire, and using the hotel's public spaces for chatting and socialising and dancing in the bar area, spa and music room.

On the second day, the participating PIs were invited to attend the workshop "Supervising PhD students" by the expert Markus Böckle. Mr. Böckle works at the Karl Landsteiner Private University (Austria) and is currently investigating the mental health and coping strategies of doctoral students in the life sciences and is also a psychotherapist.

The PhD students participated in career talks with postdoctoral researchers from the University of Vienna, Annette Brandt (Nu), Verena Battisti (Pha) and Zaccaria Schaun (Spo), or continued to prepare the upcoming PhaNuSpo podcast series, the Science Karaoke slides for the Faculty Event in October, among other initiatives.

The organisers are delighted with the very positive evaluation of the retreat and especially with the valuable feedback for changes, adjustments or suggestions for new items for the next PhaNuSpo Retreat(s). This wouldn’t have been possible without the positive and exciting attitude of all participants. So a big thank you to everyone for making this retreat a successful, pleasant, and enjoyable event. We are very much looking forward to our next retreat in a year's time.

Impressions from the 2nd Annual Retreat

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