Despite the wet weather putting some planned activities on hold, staff made the most of the opportunities to learn more about each other’s research and to get to know one another a bit better.
The two-day programme featured short scientific talks from members from each NCMM research group, giving some insight into the different projects and focuses within the Centre. Group leader Jens Preben Morth, whose group will rotate out of NCMM at the end of July 2019, gave an overview of his past eight years at NCMM, describing how his research evolved during his time as group leader, and sharing both personal and career highlights.
NCMM Young Associate Investigator, Simona Chera, Associate Professor at the University of Bergen, also presented her research project, involving a collaboration with NCMM group leader Irep Gözen. Two postdocs from the group of NCMM Associate Investigator Dirk Linke: Athanasios Saragliadis, who is collaborating with NCMM assistant director Hartmut Luecke; and Marcella Orwick-Rydmark, who is collaborating with Irep Gözen, also presented their research. A pre-dinner poster session, run alongside a sampling of local beers organised in honour of Preben Morth, allowed for further discussions and socialising.
The retreat ended with an Escape Room-style teambuilding challenge, where teams were tasked with saving their computer servers and data from being hacked and leaked by an unhappy ex-colleague. The winning team of Inga Pōldsalu, Elif Köksal, Gizem Karabiyik, Artur Cieslar-Pobuda, and Zhuokun Li managed to solve the puzzle in just 41 minutes.
Thank you to everyone for taking part, particularly to those giving a talk at the event. We look forward to next year’s retreat!
