Norbert Balak's

I was privileged to be able to attend the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in Amsterdam in April that was funded by Santander Bank as part of the Royal Holloway Travel Award. The ECCMID Conference is a highly prestigious annual congress where top-class researchers present their cutting-edge scientific achievements and new prospects in these fields. As part of the comprehensive programme of this events the Meet-the-Expert sessions provided excellent opportunities to engage in constructive talks and to build valuable connections that are highly beneficial for my future career advancement. The Official Symposia introduced topics such as the emerging issues of antibiotic resistance,  viral genetics, the clinical aspects of common and rare pathogens and pioneering researches in the field of vaccionology, ebola genetic engineering and fungal drug pharmacokinetics.

One of the main roles of the ECCMID conference is to educate future scientists or those who have scientific career aspirations. I was extremely lucky to take part in the educational workshops where we had a chance to practice new techniques, such as next generation sequencing or leading bioinformatics tools. These sessions were led by leaders in their fields which is a one in a lifetime opportunity for an undergraduate student. The practical implications of this scientific venue was enormous because the poster sessions, keynote presentations and workshops enabled me to experience good scientific practice, to learn more about the communication skills and multimedia tools available to better communicate science in the future. These interpersonal skills are an important part of my education and personal development. Science means teamwork, active collaboration, effective communication and innovation that are all essential for the advancement of science.

My attendance at the conference greatly deepened my knowledge both in theoretical and practical terms that can be applied in different aspects of my future studies at Royal Holloway, and even beyond. The conversations and advices given my experts and leading scientists enabled me to better define the career path that I wish to take in the future.

As Sydney Brenner once said: “Science is an attitude. It's taking decisions based on evidence”, this statement is also applicable to students who strongly consider a career in academia. The Royal Holloway Travel Award helped me to achieve some of my goals by providing the opportunity to develop, acquire new skills and to make important decisions based on evidence that I gathered during my attendance at the conference.