The Junior Scientist Zoonoses Meeting (JSZM) is an annual event hosted by the German Research Platform for Zoonoses to promote its doctoral students and early stage postdocs. In 2019, the JSZM took place at the Robert Koch-Institute in Berlin from June 20th until June 22nd. Forty-nine junior scientist of the Zoonoses Platform from different disciplines attended the meeting.
Supporting junior scientists is an important goal of the German Research Platform for Zoonoses. For this reason, the office at the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institute on the island of Riems, Greifswald, organizes the annual JSZM at changing renowned research institutions in Germany. This year, the meeting was realized with the kind support of the Robert Koch-Institute (RKI) at one of its research locations in Berlin.
The meeting in 2019 was attended by 49 junior scientists, who started the meeting on the first day with a guided tour at the historic institute section and the RKI museum. After a brief excursion into the history of infection research in Germany and the beginnings of the "One Health" idea, the participants had the opportunity to present their own current research work in small moderated “Round Table Discussions”.
The second and third days of the meeting were marked by speeches from guest speakers, providing insights into their diverse personal career pathways, their current research, giving career advices, or presenting funding opportunities/ career options. The diversity of the speakers reflected the interdisciplinarity of the participants at the meeting covering human and veterinary medicine as well as biology, biochemistry or entomology among others. A big thank you to all invited guest speakers for their inspiring lectures and their great commitment in the following discussions!
The election of the Junior Scientists representative for the Internal Advisory Board of the Zoonoses Platform also took place at the JSZM. We congratulate Julia Assmann (RKI) on her election and look forward to the future cooperation.
With the meeting, a further step towards interdisciplinary networking of scientists in zoonoses research was made. A step that can also bring us closer to the realization of the "One Health" idea. Many thanks to all for their active participation in the meeting and the great atmosphere during the event. The location for next year’s meeting will be announced soon.
Dana Thal, German Research Platform for Zoonoses, Office Insel Riems
