Event: D-BSSE meets Alumni 2017
Biotech Alumni
On October 11th, the official Biotech Alumni faculty group and the D-BSSE meets industry association organized the second annual joint event for its members with the focus on strengthening the network of biotech alumni and current students. This year's edition was of particular importance, due to ETH BSSE department's 10th anniversary, which is why the evening in Basel became a major celebration and was officially supported by the department and the ETH itself.
After being welcomed by the faculty group and the association, the stage was handed over to Prof. Niko Beerenwinkel, deputy head of the D-BSSE department, who reflected on the last ten years in which the D-BSSE has undergone a successful development since its foundation. With 19 strong research groups, 8 promising spin-offs and a steadily growing international student group, the D-BSSE has created a remarkable basis to further expand its leading position in biotechnology and systems biology over the next decade and to achieve its overarching targets. The Biotech Alumni faculty group reported positive developments as well. President Andrea Spinnler reported on the advantages and organized events for members as well as the rapid growth of the faculty group, which benefited from a steadily increasing number of active members and international diversity.
Discussion with successful D-BSSE alumni
Following the official presentation by the D-BSSE, the main part of the evening continued with the discussion about D-BSSE alumni and their current role in the industry. Sebastian Bürgel (Co-Founder and CTO of Validity Labs), Marc Gitzinger (CEO of Bioversys), and Juliane Siebourg (Senior Biostatician at Roche) presented their professional career out of the D-BSSE and offered an insight into their diverse activities as alumni, from the management of a start-up to the evaluation of large study series in a large pharmaceutical company. The panelists were open to all interesting and critical questions of the presenters and the audience. In this episode of the annual Alumni Event, the focus of the discussion was put on the challenges of daily work in the industry, how it differs from research and how the experience gained at D-BSSE have contributed to the panelists mastering these challenges.
Networking Apéro
In order to close the evening, a networking apéro by all participants followed the panel discussion. The Innovation Loft of launchlabs as a venue symbolized the evening's event, providing an ideal atmosphere for a lively exchange between professors, alumni and students regarding research, innovations and visions at D-BSSE and beyond.
D-BSSE
