Travel grant provides ticket to international conference
To receive an award at one of the most prestigious international scientific conferences is what junior researchers dream of. For Yvonne Padberg, a PhD student in Biology at Münster University, it came true. In Ventura in America she received the prize for the best talk given at the Gordon Research Seminar for junior scientists. Her trip to the USA was made possible by a travel grant provided by the Cells-in-Motion Cluster of Excellence (CiM). The aim of the “Travel Grant for Female Researchers” is to promote the presentational and networking skills of female researchers in the Cluster of Excellence and to enable them to take part in international scientific conferences. “If it hadn’t been for this financial support, I wouldn’t have been able to take part in a conference held outside Europe,” says Yvonne Padberg.
Being able to present her project there really was something special, she says. “And then getting the award was a total surprise,” says the 26-year-old. Padberg convinced the jury with her new findings relating to a secreted protein which plays an essential role in the formation and function of the lymphatic system.
The Gordon Research Seminars take place several times a year as part of the Gordon Research Conference, which is seen as the most prestigious conference in most fields of natural sciences. Only a small number of applicants are selected to give a presentation. “For a PhD student like Yvonne it’s a great opportunity not only to present your own work in such illustrious company, but also to make important contacts,” says CiM Professor Stefan Schulte-Merker. Yvonne Padberg is doing her PhD in his working group at the Institute for Cardiovascular Organogenesis and Regeneration at the Medical Faculty of the University of Münster.