PhD students & postdocs

Early Career Meeting

The BZH Early Career Meeting is an annual retreat for PhD students and postdoctoral fellows, held over an extended weekend at Kloster Schöntal (Baden-Württemberg). The scientific program, organized entirely by the PhD board, includes presentations, two poster sessions, and roundtable discussions.

In formal presentations, one selected PhD student from each BZH group briefly introduces the group’s main research topic and presents his/her specific project in front of an audience of about fifty colleagues. Complementary poster sessions provide ample opportunities for each student to present and discuss individual projects in detail in an informal setting. Highly appreciated are the round table discussions where five to six people from different groups come together presenting their projects in a concise manner without the use of any technical support (no slides, etc.). This encourages direct scientific exchange, instant feedback from the other participants and sharpens the presentation skills by focusing on the main scientific issues.
 
Importantly, three national/international guest speakers are invited by the students to present keynote lectures. These guests are welcome and encouraged to participate in the rest of the scientific and social activities during the meeting and to share their experience with the young scientists.
 
The BZH Early Career Meeting provides a platform not limited to scientific exchange, it also fosters personal exchange, the integration of new lab members, and the building of networks by including social events such as canoeing, hiking or board gaming. Again, the students choose the social activities.

During formal presentations, a selected PhD student from each BZH group introduces the group’s main research topic and presents their specific project to an audience of about fifty colleagues. Poster sessions allow for detailed discussions in an informal setting. The roundtable discussions, where five to six participants present their projects without technical support, encourage direct scientific exchange and enhance presentation skills.

Three national or international guest speakers are invited by the students to deliver keynote lectures and participate in the scientific and social activities throughout the meeting.
The BZH Early Career Meeting fosters both scientific and personal exchange, integrating new lab members and building networks through social events like canoeing, hiking, and board gaming, with activities chosen by the Early Career Researchers.
 
The first BZH meeting, now the BZH Early Career Meeting, took place in 2016, with over 50 participants, 40 poster presentations, and 10 talks, making it a successful gathering. Subsequent meetings have continued to provide unique opportunities for training and preparation for the next steps in their careers.

PhD Student Board

E-mail: PhDBoard@bzh.uni-heidelberg.de
Web: www.bzh.uni-heidelberg.de/PhDBoard
 

BZH Meeting 2025

Kloster Schöntal, June 26.-28.

Guest Speakers

Shin Numao	Novartis, Switzerland	Unlocking Opportunities: Navigating the Path from PhD to Industry Success
Arne Möller	Universität Osnabrück	Cryo EM on the Move Sensing and Signalling
Emma Fenech	Universität Köln	Unravelling endoplasmic reticulum complexity with novel systematic approaches mitochondria

 

BZH Meeting 2024

Kloster Schöntal, June 26.-28.

Guest Speakers

Dr. Federica Fiorentino	Roche, Switzerland	Unlocking Opportunities: Navigating the Path from PhD to Industry Success
Prof. James Hurley	University of California, Berkely, USA	Molecular Gymnastics of Lysosome Nutrient Sensing and Signalling
Prof. Robert Ernst	Universität des Saarlandes	Protein homeostasis at the crossroads to mitochondria

 

BZH Meeting 2023

Kloster Schöntal, June 22.-24.

Guest Speakers
 

Dr. Tom Rapoport	Harvard Medical School, USA	My long happy life in science (and what you might learn from it)
Dr. Stephan Kirchmaier	Promega, Germany	From cloning genes to crafting copy: A shift from academia to product marketing
Dr. Agnieszka Chacinska	IMol Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland	Protein homeostasis at the crossroads to mitochondria

BZH Meeting 2022

Kloster Schöntal, July 21.-23

Guest Speakers
 

Dr. Elena Porcellato	EuroAPI, Paris, France	It's all about chemistry: my journey from the BZH to industry
Dr. Andrea Thorn	Hamburg University, Germany	Coronavirus structural Task Force
Dr. Dimitrios Papagiannidis	EMBL, Heidelberg, Germany	Unraveling the receptor-ligand landscape of human gut microbial species

 

BZH Meeting 2021

Online-Meeting, July 22.

Guest Speakers
 

Georg Borner	Max-Planck-Institut für Biochemie	Martinsried - Spatial Proteomics: A Swiss Army Knife for Cell Biologists
Susan Lea	Center for Structural Biology, National Cancer Institute, USA	Structural stories from bacterial motility.

 

BZH Meeting 2020 (cancelled)

Online-Meeting, June 25-27.

 


BZH Meeting 2019

Kloster Schöntal, July 25.-27.

Guest Speakers
 

Julia von Blume	Yale University, USA	Mechanism of Ca2+ dependent protein secretion
Petr Chlanda	University of Heidelberg Medical School	Structural analyses of influenza and Ebola virus entry by cryo-electron tomography.
Harvey McMahon	MRC, Cambridge, UK	The structure-based targeting of alpha-synuclein to mitochondria promotes cellular health

 

BZH Meeting 2018

Kloster Schöntal, July 15.-17.

Guest Speakers

Hiro Saito	Kyoto University, Japan	Synthetic RNA technologies to control mammalian cell fate
Kevin Moreau	MRC,Cambridge, UK	Mechanisms of unconventional secretion - with a hint of conventional secretion.
Blanche Schwappach	Göttingen University, Germany	Functional analysis of ArfGAP proteins in their unique molecular niches on COPI vesicles

 

BZH Meeting 2017

Kloster Schöntal, June 25.-26.

Guest Speakers

Patrick Cramer	Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen	How genes are switched on
Wolfgang Baumeister	Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry,  Martinsried	The molecular machinery of protein degradation - structural studies ex situ and in situ
Terry Roemer	Merck Research Laboratories,  Kenilworth New Jersey, USA	Chemical Biology Approaches to Novel Antibiotic Discovery

BZH Meeting 2016

 

Gunter Meister	Universität Regensburg	Crosstalk between tRNAs and miRNAs mediated by the Lupus autoantigen La
Nicolas Leulliot	Paris Descartes University	Structural exploration of ribosome biogenesis
Christine Mayr	Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York	Alternative 3'UTRs mediate protein-protein interactions and regulate protein localization and functions

Impressions