Group picture of the PhD students and postdocs from UPSC in front of the greenhouses at ViPS; photo: Sonali Ranade
Last week, 34 PhD students and Postdocs from UPSC visited the Viikki Plant Science Centre (ViPS) in Helsinki. Within two days, they got an insight into the research that is performed at ViPS, presented their own research and visited the facilities. This was the second joint meeting between UPSC and ViPS.
Arriving on Wednesday afternoon, the programme started with a joint dinner at the Brewery of Suomenlinna in Helsinki. The next day focussed on research. After an introduction to the centre by its director Paula Elomaa, the group from UPSC got an insight into different research projects at ViPS and every one of them presented their own research in a two-minute-long flash talk.
The afternoon on Wednesday started with the ViPS Science Fair. PhD students and postdocs from ViPS research groups presented their projects in form of posters to master students. By joining the Science Fair, the visitors from UPSC got an overview about the broad range of research projects done at ViPS. The day finished with a UPSC/ViPS get-together and one-on-one meetings with ViSP group leaders. Several PhD students and postdocs used this opportunity and appreciated those personal meeting.
On Friday morning, the PhD students and postdocs from UPSC could visit different research facilities. They were interested to see how things are organised at ViSP and got tours to the greenhouse, the phenotyping facilities, the metabolomics unit, the sequencing service and some other labs. The group flew back to Umeå in the afternoon.
Two years ago, the PhD students from the Doctoral Programme in Plant Sciences that is associated with ViPS visited UPSC. The visit to Helsinki this year was a follow-up meeting that shall help to strengthen the collaboration between the two plant research centres.