Experiences

Experiences 2022

The experiences of the 10th Life Science Symposium can be read in the review booklet below. The symposium was held in the CORPUS Congress Centre in Leiden and the theme was: Sailing away from one-size-fits-all: Technological Developments in Personalised Medicine.



Experiences 2020

The experiences of the 9th Life Science Symposium can be read in the review booklet below. The symposium was held in an online environment and the theme was: From Waste to Resource – Biotechnology for a Circular Economy.



Experiences 2018

Experiences from some of the speakers of the 8th symposium: Immunotherapy – Enhancing the human defence system.

Dr. Christian Klein

Department Head Cancer Immunotherapy Discovery, Roche Innovation Center (CH)

“I enjoyed the LIFE Symposium” Immunotherapy” very much, there was an excellent speaker panel with renowned scientists from academia and industry spanning various topics from cancer immunotherapy to autoimmunity. The meeting organization was perfect and interactions at the symposium very enjoyable”


Prof. Jim Heath

President of the Institute of Systems Biology, Seattle (US)

“The 2018 Life Science Symposium was a wonderful experience. First, the students did an extremely good job planning the symposium, from personally picking me up at the airport (!) (even if we did get lost a bit getting back to Leiden). Further, the symposium hosted a slate of top-flight speakers, all of whom who went to some trouble to be good teachers. That doesn’t always happen! Finally, the audience itself, including these students, were well-prepared, and their preparation made the discussions following each lecture highly educational. Thanks so much for putting together such a terrific event.”


Prof. Rob de Boer

Professor at Theoretical Biology group, Utrecht University (NL)

“I very much enjoyed speaking and participating at the 8th Life Science Symposium. The meeting was very well organized, and the students invited excellent speakers giving exciting talks. The overall quality of the symposium
was at least as high as other meetings I normally attend.”


Dr. Sander van Kasteren

Group Leader Chemical Immunology, Leiden University (NL)

“I was mightily impressed by the symposium. The students had managed to collect a diverse and high-quality line up of speakers, of which I was proud to be one. The eye for detail of the organisers was exquisite, with all aspects of the meeting executed to perfection. Scientifically, the student audience provided a nice challenge; their sometimes left-field questions showed a maturity in insight and could sometimes catch you off guard. In all, it was a pleasure to be part of this.”

 

Experiences 2016

Experiences from some of the speakers of the 7th symposium: Bioenergy – Engineering a greener future.

Prof.dr. Lee Lynd

Professor at the Thayer School of Engineering Dartmouth

The quality of the talks was as high as any of the many meetings I have attended. It was an honour to have an opportunity to speak to this large group of bright young people as they seek to understand biotechnology and bioenergy, and to find their place in these dynamic fields.


Dr. Jeff Lievense

Senior Engineering Fellow, Genomatica, USA

This was an exceptionally well organized symposium that addressed the challenging subject of bioenergy with diverse, stimulating lectures and an energetic panel discussion. If it influenced only a few attendees to dedicate their careers to making human prosperity sustainable, it will have been a great success.


Dr. Sharief Barends

Dupont, Director of Research & Development

I think the biggest compliment to the committee is that afterwards the question that stuck with me was for whom the symposium was organized. For the LST or other students? For the employees of Delft University of technology and University of Leiden? Or was it organized for the speakers themselves? I think it was for all of us. This is how valuable and joyful I experienced the day.


Prof.dr.Ir. Mark van Loosdrecht

Evironmental Biotechnology, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands

The symposium really was a well organized day! And as many already mentioned during the symposium, the quality of the programme was much better than that of many international congresses addressing this area.



Experiences 2014

Experiences from some of the speakers of the 6th symposium: Ageing – Limits of LIFEspan.

Prof.dr. Nils-Göran Larsson

Max Plank Institute for Biologie of Ageing, Germany

I was very impressed by the symposium. Not only did the students organize the meeting in a very efficient and administratively smooth way, but they had also put together a really interesting program covering various aspects of the biology of ageing. The lecture hall was full with young interested people and many questions were asked. Overall, I feel this was a very successful meeting. I was actually so stimulated by the event that I will encourage students at our institute to organize a similar meeting. Well done indeed!


Prof.dr. Peter Adams

Beatson Institute, Glasgow University, United Kingdom

The 6th Life Science Symposium on ageing in Leiden, The Netherlands, on May 12, 2014, was extremely well organized by the student organisers – from pick ups at the airport to umbrellas to counter the Dutch weather! Every detail was thought of. The talks were excellent and questions were good. It was good to see the student audience asking most of the questions.

For me, the best part was initiating new collaborations. Based on interactions at the meeting, we have initiated collaborations with other speakers, Dr.Keisuke Kaji and Dr. Eline Slagboom. This is always what is hoped for from meetings.


Prof.dr. Eline Slagboom

Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, the Netherlands

In my opinion the organisation of the LIFE symposium was excellent. There were good speakers and the topics on which they spoke were selected with care. I think this symposium gave the attending students a good illustration on many different biological points of view on the phenomenon ageing. I am sorry that prof. Guarente could not attend, since he would have made a great contribution to this.