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Greeting!
We thank you very much for this opportunity to speak on behalf of all of the Summer School Students. First and foremost, we would like to express our appreciation to Professors Akay, Dr. Sunaga, and the financial supporters for organizing this high quality event for us. We would like to briefly talk about a few big takeaways from the 2019 BioX Summer School.
Most of the students come from different countries and regions, and the students presented grand diversity, just like beautiful beads rolling all around with individual beautiful colors. But then came the exceptionally brilliant professors, who served as the string to help us to form a necklace. You approached us, you counted as colleagues and supported us with ideas and questions to move forward on one questions or on other. You found the place for everyone to form an unusual and nice necklace. On behalf of the postgrad students we can tell you, this is an exceptional honor for us and that life and research would be much nicer if all of the students could have mentors like you all. And really special thank you for Pressors Akay for serving as a clasp for our necklace, and bringing us all together.
We would like to talk about a few other integral parts to this necklace: curiosity and kindness. First, curiosity is what drives all of us to explore, problem solve, and innovate. Sometimes, though, we get lost in the details and forget the true beauty of curiosity. The 2019 BioX summer school was an incredible opportunity to expose us to inspiring research and to invigorate our desire to explore. We were exposed to a plethora of exciting fields: Dr. McShane’s sensing and biomaterials, Dr. Brenan’s entrepreneurship, Dr. Bonato’s rehabilitation therapy, Dr. Sajda’s neuroimaging, Dr. White’s computational neuroscience, Dr. Mitchell’s Nucleic Acid Transfection, Dr. Karin Wang’s population migration, and Dr. May Wang’s big data and bioinformatics. Thank you all for doing such inspiring work and for sparking our curiosity.
Second, positive feedback loops do not only exist within biological systems. Professors Akay, you have both been a catalyst for kindness. You have welcomed each and every student as you would family. This is not common. You unconditionally share your energy, hospitality, and affection with those around you. All of the wonderful professors here clearly see this as well since they all say that when Professor Akay asks them to do something, they always just have to do it. This infectious kindness circles through all of you professors, and we want to acknowledge the many opportunities and tasks you put on hold to share you work and experiences with us. You have been unbelievably open and gracious, engaging us in conversation and patiently answering our endless questions. Lastly, this kindness spreads to the students, and allow us to form life-long friendships with each other. We hope to learn from your example and to continue spreading the incredible kindness you have shown us.
So cheers to an unforgettable week of knowledge and friendship.
Best,
Luca Tóth and Julia Schaepe
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