The Junior Scientist Zoonoses Meeting (JSZM) of the National Research Platform for Zoonoses took place from 7-9 June 2018 at the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (Hamburg). 56 young scientists from various institutions and disciplines attended the event. During the event, Dr. Kore Schlottau (Friedrich-Loeffler-Institute, Greifswald - Isle of Riems) was elected member of the Internal Advisory Board of the Zoonoses Platform.
Since 2013, the popular meeting of the Junior Scientist Zoonoses Meeting (JSZM) has been held once a year at a renowned research institution in Germany. This year's venue was the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNITM) in Hamburg from 7 to 9 June 2018. With almost sixty participants, it was the largest of its kind so far.
The speakers were Prof. Dr. Sascha Al Dahouk (Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, Berlin), Prof. Dr. Marylyn Addo (University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf), Dr. Jan Brase (Georg-August-University Göttingen), Dr. Katja Brase (Boehringer-Ingelheim), Fabian Flüchter (Bucerius Law School, Hamburg), Prof. Dr Gülsah Gabriel (Heinrich-Pette-Institute, Hamburg), Prof. Dr Hans-Dieter Klenk (Philipps-University of Marburg), Dr Sascha Knauf (German Primate Center Göttingen), Dr. Björn Petersen (Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut Mariensee), Prof. Dr. Martin Pfeffer (University of Leipzig), Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schaible (Research Center Borstel), Dr. Julia Steinhoff-Wagner (Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn), Prof. Dr. Egbert Tannich (BNITM) and Dr. Anna Tschaut (Technische Universität Dresden). As in previous years, the meeting was organized by committed young scientists from the Zoonoses Platform on the initiative and with the organizational support of the staff of the Riems site.
The first day of the meeting was dedicated to round table discussions in which the participants presented their research work in the form of a poster. The following days offered a varied programme with competent speakers on various topics such as data management, protection of study results as intellectual property, optimisation of poster presentations and new forms of presentation such as a "science slam", disease control via gene editing and much more. With regard to individual career planning, Prof. Dr. Hans-Dieter Klenk from the Philipps University of Marburg and Dr. Katja Brase (Boehringer-Ingelheim) offered an insight into their respective professional careers. The motivational presentations, which are a unique selling point of the JSZM event series, were particularly popular.
On the last day of the JSZM, a joint event with the German Society for Tropical Medicine and International Health and the tropical medicine course at BNITM took place for the first time in the spirit of the One Health concept. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Sophie Schneitler (Bethanien Hospital, Solingen), Prof. Dr. Gerd Burchard (BNITM) and Dr. Philip Eisermann (BNITM) for their support in organizing the event.
Within the framework of the JSZM 2018, Dr. Kore Schlottau (Friedrich-Loeffler-Institute, Riems) was elected as the new junior researcher representative on the Internal Advisory Board of the National Research Platform.
Finally, we would like to thank Prof. Dr. Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit as host and Dr. Jessica Tiedke (both BNITM), for their excellent local support.
The venue for the JSZM 2019 has not yet been decided; a research institution in Berlin or the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institute, Greifswald - Insel Riems is conceivable.