Fourth Summer School, 20-24 July 2009, Budapest, Hungary
This year the 4th NASCENT Summer School was held in Budapest, at the University of Technology and Economics (BME). Founded in 1782, BME was the first university in Europe to train engineers at university level. Several laureates from this university were awarded Nobel Prizes, in physics and chemistry and also many famous inventors graduated there, like Ernő Rubik famous for his cube. BME is a nice venue for seminars: placed on the riverside of the Danube, it is only ten minutes from the center of Budapest and inside the campus there are several parks and historical buildings to admire, like the central building and the library.
The 4th NASCENT Summer School started on 20th July and the courses were held inside the campus. In the mornings the courses focused on proposal writing and on experimental design. The lecturers were Dr. Péter Mogyorósi and Dr. Sándor Kemény, respectively. The first one gave the young researchers an introduction on the key points necessary to apply successfully to a call for a proposal, pointing out the most useful information sources to find a suitable call and how to set-up a credible financial plan for the project. The latter course started with a brief introduction to the design of experiment theory to finish with a real case application, using the data of a recent publication done in a collaboration between two groups of our network.
In the afternoons there were several laboratory practicals at the Department of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry, where techniques like DESI-MS-MS, SPR and MIPs over filterplates were demonstrated. On Thursday we had the opportunity to visit the Research Institute for Technical Physics and Materials Science. The Institute is situated in one of the hills of Budapest, about an hour by bus from the University. There, we saw the various technology they use, like their clean room for chip processing and their ellipsometry and electron microscopy lab. On the final day, the groups gave a presentation about their results at the lab practicals together with a simulation of a project proposal.
The school was also a good opportunity to get know each other outside the working environment. Several students spent an eveningtogether at the famous Szecheny open-air thermal bath and there was also an End of School dinner in a nice eat-all-you-want-for-a-fixed-price restaurant where there was a chance to try the typical Hungarian palinka with honey.
By Dr. Viola Horvath
