We are happy to announce our young investigators’ research day (YIRD) 2019 with the title “Family and Diversity – Impediment or Inspiration for a Scientific Career? Successful Women in Metabolism and Diabetes Research. Striving towards Equal Advancement!”. The symposium will take place on the 12th of September 2019 in the Medizinische Klinik at Heidelberg University Hospital.

During the symposium we will be hosting international female scientists with outstanding careers in metabolism and diabetes. What do they all have in common? Not only are they managing a lab, a unit or a department but also a family. Whether this is an inspiration or impediment, they will enlighten us while discussing their recent findings in metabolism research.

Each of the speakers will be introduced by a junior researcher. These “mini-chairs” as well as 3 short talks will be selected from the submitted abstracts . Chairs and speakers will be reimbursed for travel costs and are invited to the “Speakers’ Dinner” on the 11th of September 2019.

At the end of the symposium we will have a workshop and prepare a consensus letter. The consensus letter will be signed by all participants and send to members of the German Bundestag, the Ministry of Science, the DFG and the German Council of Science and Humanities (Wissenschaftsrat). That way we hope to take a solid step towards addressing gender equality issues in academia.

This meeting is free of charge! The goal is to inspire young scientists to pursue a career in academia and provide a forum to explore different paths in and out of the classical scientific track. We highly encourage students and post-docs to participate and submit an abstract for poster presentation.
Please find the tentative program in the attachment.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any further questions.

Kind regards,

Bilgen Ekim Üstünel and Johanna Zemva
(YIRD organizers)

• Dr. Bilgen Ekim Üstünel (Heidelberg University Hospital)
• Dr. Johanna Zemva (Heidelberg University Hospital)