The first ever Semmelweis International Students’ Conference was held on February 16 in parallel with the Students’ Scientific Association (TDK) Conference. Participants were drawn from ten universities across three continents, including McGill University in Canada, Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia and University of Medicine and Pharmacy Tîrgu Mureş in Romania.
Vice-Rector for Science, Innovation and International Affairs Miklós Kellermayer greeted participants with a quote from Albert Szent-Györgyi: “‘To see what everyone else sees, yet to think what no one else has thought.’ This is an important message for all of us: this is an ars poetica to becoming a scientist,” Vice-Rector Kellermayer remarked, adding that the young researchers present have “stepped onto an important avenue to becoming scientists themselves, or to at least being in touch with what scientific research is about.”
Dr. Béla Merkely, president of the TDK Council drew attention to the fact that the Conference was made possible through the financial support of the European Union’s Magister programme, which aims to support young people in entering the scientific field. The Programme also aims to allow as many people as possible to become familiar with students’ research both domestically and around the world, with the current Conference, projected to take place annually in Budapest, serving as one of the means to this end.
The Conference featured nearly forty presentations in five different scientific areas.
Pálma Dobozi
Translated by Gina Gönczi
