Annual Meeting 2012
| Start: | 1 November 2012 |
| End: | 3 November 2012 |
| Place: | Hamburg Chamber of Trade |
| Holstenwall 1 | |
| 20355 Hamburg |
Conference reports
The annual conference of the German Society for Biomaterials (DGBM e. V.) took place in Hamburg during 1-3 November 2012. The impressive Chamber of Crafts of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg was available as the conference building. Against this beautiful backdrop, a total of 68 presentations in seven sessions on current topics in the field of biomaterials were held at a breathtaking pace with only a few breathers. A total of 290 participants were registered by the organizers, including ten exhibitors, 69 DGBM members, six keynote speakers and 101 students.
On the evening of the first day of the event, all conference participants were invited to a Senate reception in the City Hall of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and received by the second mayor, Dr. Dorothee Stapelfeldt, who had also assumed patronage of the annual conference. With her speech, Dr. Stapelfeldt underlined the important future role of biomaterials and motivated interdisciplinary cooperation and early interdisciplinary discussion in order to better understand and network the aspects of research, development, production and application in the clinic. After a few small but delicious appetizers, the group returned to the hotel with a detour via the Reeperbahn and a stopover at a "Burger Schnellrestaurant" to rest up for the next long day.
The next morning the conference program continued punctually at 8:30 am. While in the morning three sessions with 15 lectures focused on the scientific aspects, in particular on degradable metals and tissue engineering, in the afternoon, in addition to the DGBM general meeting, the Young Scientist Forum took place, which aroused great interest among all participating doctoral students. Dr. Barbara Hoffbauer showed different career paths for PhD scientists and motivated to more self-confidence in job interviews.
In the evening we were invited to a social evening at the Landungsbrücken on the historic sailing ship "Rickmer Rickmers", built in 1896. In addition to the dining room, there was also a ship museum on the lower deck with original cabins to marvel at. After the official speech by Prof. Willumeit and the impressive buffet, all participants, whether professor, doctoral student or employee, danced exuberantly to classics such as Macarena, ABBA or the new "Gangnam Style". This showed once again how well the DGBM family understands each other outside of the academic world.
There was not much time for rest, because the next morning it went on early at 8.30 a.m. true to the motto "Who can party, can also work" with the last sessions of the annual conference and an amazingly well-filled Chamber of Crafts. Finally, awards were presented for the best doctoral and master's theses, as well as for the best posters. The chairman of the German Society for Biomaterials, Prof. Matthias Epple, presented Maria Jäckel, Henning Menzel and Anja Lode with the prizes for the best posters amounting to 300 €.
Before the participants headed back, Prof. Aldo Boccaccini invited them to next year's annual meeting of the German Society for Biomaterials from September 26-28, 2013 in Erlangen, Middle Franconia. Even though Hamburg 2012 will be difficult to surpass, Prof. Boccaccini's speech gave a foretaste of the Franconian hospitality and the interesting conference program.
