The BIST Master Winter School on Microscopy, Nanoscopy and Imaging Sciences  came to an end last friday with the celebration of the 2024 BIST Symposium on Microscopy, Nanoscopy and Imaging Sciences at ICFO in Castelldefels. The Symposium brought together internationally renowned speakers and members from the BIST community to learn about the latest advances and techniques in optical microscopy, electron microscopy, scanning probe microscopy, and imaging technology.

The day before the Symposium, Thursday 15th, the BIST Master students gathered at ICFO for the Winter School. In the morning, they engaged in a seminar on advanced imaging analysis by Dr. Chong Zhang (IRB Barcelona). Dr. Nadia Halidi (CRG) then introduced them to ethical considerations in imaging processing with FAIR bioanalysis. During the afternoon, the students had the unique opportunity to meet three of the speakers invited to the next day Symposium: Prof. Sara Bals (University of Antwerp),  Prof. Gabriel Sánchez- Santolino (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) and Prof. Carlo Manzo (Universitat de Vic-Universitat Central de Catalunya). The researchers provided introductory lectures on their respective topics, before delving deeper into them during the open Symposium. BIST Master students actively engaged, posing questions about the research and gaining valuable insights into the speakers’ professional journeys.

On Friday, the students attended the BIST Symposium on Microscopy, Nanoscopy and Imaging Sciences, an open event that reached its seven edition this year, and that was celebrated at the ICFO auditorium. The BIST Master students had an active role, introducing the speakers infront of the audience, and also presenting their master research projects during a poster session after lunch. The poster presentations were evaluated by a panel which awarded the top two posters (with a tie for second place), and a third awardee was chosen by the public. The awardees are:

Elia López, supervised by Xavier Trepat at IBEC (1st Place)
Iphigénie Goux, supervised by Núria Montserrat at IBEC (2nd Place)
Mohmed Abdalfttah, supervised by Eduard Batlle at IRB Barcelona (2nd Place)
Asli Ceren Simsek, supervised by Elvan Böke at CRG (Public’s Choice)

Congratulations to this year’s winners!

The 2024 BIST Symposium on Microscopy, Nanoscopy and Imaging Sciences was organised in collaboration with ICFO and ICN2, and sponsored in part by the Sociedad de Microscopia de España, European Microscopy Society, and ThermoFisher Scientific.