International Graduate School of Neuroscience
Graduation Day 2024
On December 13, 2024, researchers, staff, friends, and family came together on Graduation Day to honor the 2024 graduates, who had completed the IGSN program and would finally receive their PhDs in Neuroscience.
Talks and Poster Session
The warm welcome of the speaker of the IGSN Prof. Dr. Katrin Marcus-Alic began the festivities. As is the tradition, current IGSN PhD researchers presented their work to the audience.
Additionally, IGSN alumni Egor Dzyubenko presented his work as a postdoc at the University Clinic Duisburg-Essen. Their presentations highlighted the high standard of work being done at the IGSN and the diversity of topics tackled by young scientists. Thank you, Patrick Reinhardt, Beyza Bozkurt, Baffour Sarpong, and Egor Dzyubenko for your excellent talks – great job!
IGSN Poster Prize
A jury of young researchers took over the task of finding the best IGSN poster. All PhD candidates presented their projects to the jury in a three-minute presentation and answered the questions of the jury members. These are the winners:
- 1st place: Mr. Niklas Rilke from the Department of Neurology, University Clinic St. Josef Hospital for his poster “Propionic acid activates anti-inflammatory processes and induces the repair-phenotype in Schwann cells”.
- 2nd place: Mr. Lionel Butry from the Neuroimaging Group at the Department of Neurology, University Clinic Bergmannsheil for his poster “Neural correlates of lumbar tactile acuity in healthy individuals”.
- 3rd place: Mr. Patrick Reinhardt from the Department of Experimental and Molecular Psychiatry for his poster “Molecular correlates of altered mating behavior in a rat model of bipolar disorder”.
Thank you especially to IGSN faculty member PD Dr. Lara Schlaffke who created the trophies in the form of mini-brains.
IGSN Publication Prize
For the 3rd time, the IGSN awarded a publication prize for the best publication of a doctoral researcher. Doctoral candidates could apply with their first authorship publication which was accepted between September 2023 and August 2024. A jury of Faculty members reviewed four nominated publications.
The IGSN publication award went to Mr. Nicolas Diekmann for his publication “N. Diekmann and S. Cheng. A model of hippocampal replay driven by experience and environmental structure facilitates spatial learning. eLife 12:e82301”
Congratulations to all winners!
Winners of IGSN school competition received prizes
At the beginning of the graduation ceremony, the winners of this year’s IGSN painting competition received their prizes. The 2024 contest was entitled “A muddle in the head – when forgetfulness becomes an illness” (Kuddelmuddel im Kopf – wenn Vergesslichkeit zur Krankheit wird). Pupils from Bochum’s primary schools had entered more than 130 excellent works.
Then it was finally time for the graduates to take center stage. Dressed in traditional IGSN mortar boards and gowns they received their much-desired PhD diplomas. Each graduate was honored in personal speeches by their supervisors. Five graduates received their PhDs this year. The IGSN is so very proud of all of you – we wish you all the best for the future!
Thank you to everyone who made this day such a wonderful occasion!
From left to right: IGSN Vice-Speaker Prof. Carsten Theiß, Baffour Sarpong, Patrick Reinhardt, Beyza Bozkurt, IGSN alumni Egor Dzyubenko, and IGSN Speaker Prof. Katrin Marcus-Alic
From left to right: Poster prize winners Patrick Reinhardt, Lionel Butry, Niklas Rilke with the director of the IGSN Prof. Denise Manahan-Vaughan
Graduates from left to right: Laura Dolon Vera, Hilal Cihankaya, Vuk Markovic, and Melissa Sgodzai