On July 5th the Health + Life Science Alliance embarked on its first big event – the ScienceSplash – on a Neckar boat, starting with an invigorating talk by ERC President Maria Leptin highlighting the value of basic research.

Leptin was followed by Nobel Laureate Stefan Hell, who gave a brilliant talk about the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy and the principles underlying his discovery to bypass the diffraction limit and open up totally new dimensions.

During lunch the career advisors of our Member Institutions Birgit Borgards (Medical Faculty Heidelberg), Rachel Coulthard-Graf (EMBL), Susanne Hausselt (Medical Faculty Mannheim), Barbara Janssens (DKFZ) and Susanne Scheer (Heidelberg University) were available for personal advice, an offer happily taken up by many participants.

While networking, we all enjoyed the gorgeous view of the Neckar and its surroundings, the river that connects our two cities Heidelberg and Mannheim.

Our last keynote speaker, Stephan Urban, took us on a journey from his early virology research to his work on HBV and HDV and how he and his colleagues developed viral entry inhibitors.

Time rushed by when eighteen participants explained their research in elevator pitches allowing everyone to get a glimpse into their exciting work:

Pascal Aggensteiner (ZI), Arica Beisaw (UKHD), Marco Binder (DKFZ), Anthoula Chatzimpinou (Heidelberg University), Anchel de Jaime Soguero (Heidelberg University), Linda Decker (EMBL), Angelika Feldmann (DKFZ), David Gomez-Zepeda (DKFZ), Steve Grein (UHD Medical Faculty Mannheim), David Gvaramia (Medical Faculty Mannheim, UHD), Christoph Korn (UKHD), Elisa Kreibich (EMBL), Aiste Kudulyte (UKHD), Sebastian Markert (EMBL) Marvin Möhler (Heidelberg University), Elisabeth Seebach (Medical Faculty Heidelberg, UHD), Mai Tran (MPImR) and Rhys Wardman (Medical Faculty Mannheim, UHD).

The event ended with a splash of creativity and fun when all were asked to show a bit of their dexterity to sculpture a piece of clay and visualize an aspect of their research.

Over 100 researchers at all career stages and from all our member institutions attended the event and we would like to thank all the participants for making this event an unforgettable experience!

Get an impression of the dynamic atmosphere and watch our video on YouTube.