The writing competition, open for graduate students and postdocs attending the conference, invited budding writers to submit their thoughts on highlights of the developmental biology field, how it has contributed to society and/or what the future direction(s) may be. Laura wrote her piece as a reflection on the elegant set of 1920’s experiments that identified the Spemann-Mangold organizer, a cluster of cells that induces development of the central nervous system in amphibians. She was struck by the beautiful simplicity of the experiments, how the scientists used their knowledge of the natural world, and intricacy and technical complexity of the experiments themselves.
Laura said: “I really enjoy writing and it was very nice to be recognized for a piece of scientific writing for the first time.”
“It’s great and important that students enter such competitions. We are all very proud of how well Laura did.,” said her supervisor, Prof. Jordan Raff.
The first-place prize went to Daniyal Jafree, a 1st year PhD student from Dr David Long’s group in University College London, for his piece about a 2015 paper addressing the function and development of the cardiac lymphatic system. The winner was awarded a free trip to attend the 77th Annual Society of Developmental Biology meeting in Portland, Oregon, USA next autumn.
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Written by Lisa Gartenmann