Every year in November we celebrate those DIPP students who successfully graduated during the past year. Live music, warm welcoming words by the Speaker of the DIGS-BB, Prof. Gerhard Rödel, and the Dean of the IMPRS-CellDevoSys, Prof. Ivo F. Sbalzarini, and a commencement speech by an external speaker are part of the official program and lead to the celebratory handing-over of the official DIPP Graduation Certificates. A festive reception with finger food and drinks concludes the evening in a relaxed atmosphere.
This year’s commencement speech was a first: we had to call in speaker Daniel Müller, Professor of Biophysics at ETH Zürich in Basel (Switzerland) via video as unfortunately he couldn’t come to Dresden on short notice. However, thanks to the technical advances of our century, Daniel was able to tell the audience about his impressive path in science and about how you will never cease to learn from others, even as a senior scientist. Daniel was part of the very first DIPP PhD student selection in 2001 as a group leader at the MPI-CBG, a later step led him to the TUD BIOTEC and he is a founding member of the B CUBE – thus very well connected to our program and the BIOPOLIS Campus.
Opening the evening and setting some counterpoints to the talks was Dresden-based guitar player and beatboxer Frank Schlüter. Alumnus of the world-renowned guitar class of the Dresden University of Music (Hochschule für Musik), he displayed breathtaking musicality and skills with his unique arrangements of song classics such as Prince’s Kiss.