Almost 60 scientists participated this year in the Central German Plant Physiology Conference ("Mitteldeutsche Pflanzenphysiologie-Tagung") to present and discuss current research going on in this field at the participating universities. The vast majority of participants, not only the attendees but also the presenters and chair persons, were ECRs, i.e., doctoral, master's and even bachelor's students at an advanced stage, about half of them international students. However, the overall high quality of the presentations and discussions and the perfect adherence of all speakers to the given time schedule could have suggested that the program would instead have featured quite experienced and established scientists in the field.
Range of organisms and topics
The presentations addressed a whole range of plant species (cyanobacteria and unicellular algae, monocots and dicots, model plants and crop plants) and research topics (e.g., regulation of gene expression, membrane transport of proteins and metabolites, plant hormones, biosynthetic pathways, organelle biogenesis, plant adaptation to environmental stresses, biotic interactions, ....), which were examined with a wide variety of methods and approaches. Despite or perhaps even because of this diversity, each presentation was intensively discussed, and it happened more than once that the discussion led to "wow effects", new ideas, and approaches. It would be unfair and inappropriate to single out individual presentations as particularly noteworthy, as the enthusiasm and enjoyment of all speakers in their own work was evident without exception. We would like to make just one exception: Prof. em. Christian Wilhelm, on whose initiative the whole conference series came into being more than 20 years ago, clearly demonstrated in his talk that retirement does not mean that the interest in actively shaping science disappears, quite the opposite.
A further and not to be underestimated component for the desired scientific exchange were, of course, the coffee breaks, which were deliberately scheduled to last 40 - 60 minutes each, somewhat longer than usual. Together with the traditional conference dinner and the shared breakfast, which was made possible by the joint accommodation of all conference participants in the Leucorea, this resulted in a relaxed atmosphere that was very much stimulating scientific exchange and discussions, quite similar to that of major EMBO conferences.
All in all, we as the organizers hope that all participants enjoyed the conference as much as we did and are already looking forward to the 24th edition of the conference, which will take place in Dresden next year.
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March 2025,
Bationa Bennewitz & Ralf Bernd Klösgen, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg