The DDA Summer School Experience
In the last week of August, 50 accomplished PhD students convened for the DDA Summer School 2022. As is tradition, it was held in beautiful surroundings at Sinatur Hotel Gl. Avernæs in Southern Funen. It was four days of lectures, workshops, poster presentations, and social and networking activities for the talented early career researchers. We asked a couple of first-timers about the experience.
The sky is blue, and the bay water sparkles in the backyard of the historical buildings of the hotel Gl. Avernæs. Located on a peninsula in stunning rural surroundings, this is the perfect place for reflection and relaxation. The participants of this year’s DDA Summer School had plenty of opportunity for both, when they met up for a four-day PhD course in diabetes and metabolism.
Some participants return every year for the course. But what is the DDA Summer School like for someone who has never experienced it before? We asked a couple of first-timers just that.
Sophie Walker
“I got the idea of signing up for the summer school from my supervisor and other people in my department who had been before, and who highly recommended it. So I applied – and I got a seat,” says Sophie Walker.
Sophie Walker is doing a PhD at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. She is looking at islet transplantation for the therapy of type 1 diabetes, trying to optimize it by using microparticles. The hope is to improve the liver environment.
We asked her what it was like being at the DDA Summer School for the first time.
“It has been brilliant. It is an amazing place, and everyone has been super friendly. It is nice to speak to professors and to people who are at different stages of their careers and people who have taken different paths. It is great to just chat to people and get ideas about careers and career progression,” explains Sophie.
“It has also been really good with a wide range of topics covered in the different lectures. My background is in chemistry, so it has been nice learning about biology – and also learning about more than just type 1 diabetes, which is my main area,” says Sophie.
Poster Presentations and Work-Life Balance
The DDA Summer School includes poster presentation sessions, and Sophie was looking forward to presenting her research.
“I have a poster presentation coming up, which is exciting. So hopefully I get some feedback on my project and maybe get some new thoughts. Because of COVID, this is actually my first time presenting outside my own department, so it is quite exciting,” says Sophie Walker.
Although the DDA Summer School is a PhD course, it cannot all be talks and lectures; there is always an endeavour to strike a balance of diverse activities in the programme.
“I really like that there is time in the programme for activities like going for a run in the morning or a swim or playing games in the afternoon. You are both learning a lot, but also having fun and networking with people. It is very much like striking a work-life balance, which I think is really important, especially in science,“ says Sophie.
Emily Knuth
For Emily Knuth, this is also her first time at the DDA Summer School. She is a PhD at Merrins Lab in the Department of Biomolecular Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US.
“This is my first time in Denmark, and my first time at the DDA Summer School. I signed up, because my mentor, Dr. Matt Merrins, was invited to speak, and the combination of scientific lectures and networking sounded extremely beneficial for my career and educational development,” says Emily.
We asked Emily about her overall experience, and if she learned anything new.
“My best experience was talking to other scientists about my work during the poster session and getting to hear input from a wide range of scientists in the diabetes field about my work,” says Emily, “I learned more about how clinical trials are performed in industry, which was really illuminating and helpful for my future career.”