GLOBAL GET-TOGETHERS/ Traveling the World
MINI REUNIONS / TRAVELING TOGETHER
Most members join the lab as undergraduate apprentices or thesis students, then stay on as research assistants and MSc students. As one alumnus of the lab puts it - "DMBEL is a home away from home", and no matter where they go to next, they make time for mini-reunions in different places around the world. Some travel together after attending conferences, and/or seek out former labmates for dinner or coffee if they happen to be visiting cities where their old friends are.
Montreux, Switzerland 2023
Cambridge, England 2023
Stockholm, Sweden 2022
Amsterdam
Heidelberg, July 2022
Konstanz, Sept 2020
Vienna
Vienna
Prague
Cambridge
Basel
Heidelberg
Heidelberg
Goettingen
Heidelberg
Goettingen
Cologne
Heidelberg
Frankfurt
London
Heidelberg
London
Heidelberg
Prague
Lucerne
Berlin
Washington, D.C.
Malaysia
Singapore
New Zealand
Swiss Alps
Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Singapore
LAB TRADITION: DOING "THE OBLIGATORY JUMP"
DMBEL has other lab traditions it tries to keep. Our default go-to international conference is the annual meeting of the Korean Society for Molecular and Cellular Biology in Gangnam, Seoul, South Korea, for several reasons: (1) proximity of Korea to the Philippines (2) good value and high level conference graced by world-class speakers and Nobel laureates (3) affordability which allows us to send our undergraduate and graduate students to attend and present at the conference. Before or after the conference, current undergraduate thesis students and new members of the lab visit Gyeongbokgung Palace and do "the obligatory jump", a tradition that has evolved but is also a figurative jump-start for their career in molecular biology :-)
In like manner, members of the lab who have the chance to visit the University of Cambridge in the UK are encouraged to drop by The Eagle Pub where Watson & Crick announced the elucidation of the structure of DNA. Some lab members have jokingly visited the pub to formally "launch their careers".
