Frontiers in Biology

This course deals with the latest developments in Biology and covers a wide range of themes, including molecular, organismal and ecological subjects. Highlights in current biology will be addressed by inviting keynote speakers who are active in various biological disciplines. The course includes four small scale symposia. Each symposium is thematically covering one of the four specialisations of the MSc Biology. In couples students make a scientific poster inspired by talks presented in one of these symposia. Posters will be presented in a scientific congress-like setting and assessed by students and teachers (depending in total 3-4 separate poster sessions). Next to lectures and poster writing, students write a research proposal. This is an individual assignment; research proposals are written following a standard NWO (= Dutch research council) format. Students are closely supervised by staff members during three individual feed-back sessions.

After successful completion of this course students are expected to be able to:

• Understand the latest developments in modern biology as presented in lecture clusters that thematically relate to the current biology specialisations
• Develop a problem statement inspired by key questions presented in one of the four biology specialisation-related lecture clusters
• Write a research proposal according to pre-defined format based on the problem statement
• Comment intermediate version of research proposal from two students on proposals that thematically belong to other specialisations within biology
• Make a poster OR a presentation (in couples) within the problem statement domain that will be presented in a symposium-like setting

Assumed Knowledge:
BSc Biology or comparable knowledge.