A new board for the IGBMC doctoral and post-doctoral students association
Alix Simon, a doctoral student in the Laporte team, has been elected president of the IGBMC Student and Post-doc Board (SPB). Alongside Fatima El Khaloufi El Khaddar, secretary, and Victorine Artot, treasurer, her objective is to maintain the activities already in place and to revive the major events previously organized by the association: symposium, career fair, retreat, participation in external forums, etc.
A unifying association to develop an institute spirit
"The SPB facilitates scientific and informal exchanges between members of the institute, which is a real asset," explains Alix Simon. Poster sessions, get-togethers, linguistic lunches - these events organized by the former management enabled members from different departments to meet. Now, the association "needs to relaunch the major events that were organized before the Covid crisis, such as the symposium and career fair".
Relying on 15 active members, the SPB regularly organizes events open to the whole institute, and is looking for volunteers. Whether for organization, installation, sponsor management or communication, "we need volunteers", says Alix Simon. Another of the association's major projects is "to organize a retreat specifically for the SPB, to really unite our members and create an institute spirit", adds Fatima El Khaloufi El Khaddar.
To strengthen the association's external influence, the SPB has become a partner of the Biotechnology Forum, organized by the BioTechno network. Other actions of this type are planned.
Three PhD students with experience in event organization
The new board of the association is composed of :
- President: Alix Simon, doctoral student in the Laporte team. A graduate of the Ecole Centrale de Nantes and with a diploma in biomedical engineering from Politecnico di Milano, her thesis project focuses on the integrated characterization of rare genetic diseases using omics and bioinformatics.
- Secretary: Fatima El Khaloufi El Khaddar, PhD student in the Hamiche team. Fatima El Khaloufi El Khaddar holds a Master's degree in Biological Chemistry from the University of Strasbourg, and her thesis project involves studying the structures and functions of pioneering transcription factors.
- Treasurer: Victorine Artot, doctoral student in the Hérault team. With a Master's degree in neuroscience from the University of Strasbourg, her thesis project focuses on the development of cortical overinhibition in the murine model to study Down's syndrome.
Last year, Alix Simon and Fatima El Khaloufi El Khaddar were already involved in organizing the language lunches. Victorine Artot was introduced to the association by Nicolas Zinter, her M2 supervisor and Get together coordinator. The doctoral student was already involved in setting up this type of event, but above all "I saw her organize our departmental retreat, and I could see her skills and seriousness", says Alix Simon.