The 17th Edition of MSBM is now underway, our students and faculty being greeted by the Croatian sunshine over the weekend as they arrived.
Sunday evening kicked off with a welcome from Prof. David Goodlett (University of Victoria) and Prof. Ron Heeren (M4i, Maastricht), giving students an overview on the scientific and social program, and finding their feet in the historic city they will spend the week.
MSBM is as much about students and faculty building life long networks as it is about the science itself. So in order for students to get to know each other, they were split into teams and between them presented their posters to each other. Their task was to build and present an idea for a project which would see them each use their different skillsets to add something of real value to the project. The presentations were all fantastic, and some highlights included collecting samples from aliens, analysing the tears of mass spectrometrists, and interpretive dances.
Monday morning started early for some, with a hike up the mountain before breakfast led by Ron, the reward being the views of the Adriatic Sea and the Old Town below them.
Finally, the real science kicked off. Fundamentals of Mass Spectrometry, Separation Science and Electrospray from Dr. David Kilgour (Vibrat-Ion), Carolina Sanchez (AstraZeneca) and Dr. Rachel Loo (UCLA) saw the morning session out and bought everyone up to speed with the fundamentals.
After lunch, the instrument lectures begun, with Andreas Baumeister (Shimadzu) introducing MALDI, David Kilgour taking our students through the world of Quadrupoles and Ion Traps, and Emma Marsden-Edwards (Waters Inc.) walking us through Ion Mobility Spectrometry.
As the sun draws to a close on the first day, students worked on their exams in the courtyard and discussed the questions with the faculty, whilst enjoying pizza and beers together.
There are collaborations around the world which exist because alumni of MSBM met during this week, its brilliant to see another week kick off, and exciting to consider what science will happen in the years to come between our students and faculty which begun surrounded by the walls of Dubrovnik.
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