SEEM 2021 workshop concluded a success
The formidable years ever since the pandemic has greatly affected the extent of academic exchange and driven us towards a new culture of online discussions. Despite many virtual events successfully held, few of them served as a platform for early career researchers and brought a broader community beyond Europe. In view of this, three Europe-based young microscopists, Dr. Pei Liu (Technical University of Denmark, DK), Penghan Lu (Research Center Juelich, DE), together with IMN scientist Dr. Mingjian Wu initiated and organized the 1st Sino-European Early Career Researchers Virtual Workshop on Emerging Techniques and Applications in Electron Microscopy in December 2020 (SEEM 2020).
Following the success of SEEM 2020, the second event of this series, SEEM 2021, has been held on 7-10, December 2021, again concluded a great success. The workshop is sponsor-free, non-for-profit and free to attend. Beside the 3 original organizers, Dr. Zezhong Zhang (University of Antwerp, BE) joined the organizers’ team this year. This annual workshop sets up a regular bilateral forum for electron microscopists based in China and Europe, especially early career researchers and young PIs.
This year the workshop focuses on four scientific sessions, including 1) learning from and contributing to cryo-EM, 2) automation, data handling and deep learning, 3) advancing in situ electron microscopy and 4) quantification in multi-dimensions with four keynote lectures given by senior professors, 20 invited talks given by early career researchers and young PIs from 7 European countries and China. At the end of each session, a panel discussion led by the keynote lecturer turned out to be stimulating and insightful. Beyond the scientific sessions, two forums namely techno-bite and career development were also organized and received high recognition. In the techno-bite forum, industrial guests presented their technical innovations and perspectives of democratization of electron microscopy products. In the career forum, guests at different stages of their career, ranging from postdocs to faculty dean, shared their views of developing career pathways in academia.
The workshop has attracted 430 registrants from 27 countries and more than 120 organizations. Almost 300 colleagues have eventually participated in the workshop and contributed about 200 questions in the Q&A sessions after the talks, as well as many more comments during the panel discussions. Thanks to the online platform, excessive questions could be answered offline and shared with all participants.
During and after the workshop, the organizers received positive feedback from the attendees about the outstanding quality of the invited talks, the deep insight from the panel discussions, as well as the smooth organization and the welcoming atmosphere. We are looking forward to meeting more colleagues next December 6-9 in SEEM 2022!
