From the 11^th to the 13^th of July 2014, the 3^rd European MD/PhD conference 2014 took place in beautiful Brunnen, located in the heart of Switzerland. Most conference activities and guests were accommodated at the prestigious Seehotel Waldstätterhof. The hotel has a history of impressive guests such as Queen Victoria of England, King Alfonso of Spain and Winston Churchill. The conference was inspiring, with the lecture of former Nobel Foundation Trustees president Prof. Barbara Cannon elaborating on brown fat as an inspiring take-off. Lake Lucerne proved to be extremely cold, especially late in the evening. However, during a magical boat trip, it was the perfect scenery for an educative poster session.

During the last night of the conference, board members of the upcoming conference Dorien van Ginkel and Ruben Buys presented the location of the 4^th edition of the European MD/PhD conference: Groningen, The Netherlands! The enthusiastic response of all attendees is still inspiring us today, and we are trying our best to step out of the shadow of our Swiss predecessors.

Champagne Winner

During the boat trip on the beautiful Lake Lucerne, also called the Vierwaldstättersee, we gave everyone a typically Dutch treat, called a ‘Stroopwafel’. Only one ‘stroopwafel’  contained a coin, worth a bottle of Champagne at the social gatherings during the 4^th European MD/PhD conference in Groningen. Christian Keller from Zurich was the lucky winner of this special prize and we would therefore like say ‘proost’, ‘cheers’, ‘à votre santé’ and ‘skål’!