The program featured invited talks by renowned experts, concise PhD candidates presentations, interactive roundtables on professional development and mental health, and vibrant poster sessions. Attendees also explored the ALBA Synchrotron on Friday, 29 November, emphasizing the event's focus on cutting-edge research. The inclusion of social activities like coffee breaks and poster sessions highlighted the meeting's informal yet enriching atmosphere.

Organized by and for PhD Candidates, the event is organized by members of leading research and academic institutions, including ICMAB-CSIC, UAB, ICN2, and IMB-CNM, and sponsored by MDPI publishing house, the AMIT association of women researchers and from the SCN2, the Catalan society of nanoscience and nanotechnology. 

The organizers said: "Overall, it has been a very enriching experience to have the opportunity to organise a PhD candidates conference. It has allowed us to understand the challenges behind the coordination of such a scientific event, as well as to network with young researchers from other centres and to develop our organisational and communication skills."

"As organisers, we have worked as a team, managing tasks in small working groups without losing sight of the overall focus of the process, in which we have all participated in ideas/suggestions. We take away the learning from all this preparation, as well as the satisfaction of having connected the young research community. One of the aspects that we consider most relevant of the JPhD is that it promotes interaction between disciplines and different institutions of the UAB Campus, allowing young researchers to present their work and learn about the work of other colleagues." 

JPhD2024 was not only a platform for sharing scientific insights and ideas but also an opportunity for networking and community building. By engaging researchers at various stages of their PhD journeys, the event reinforced the value of collaboration in advancing knowledge.

Among the invited speakers, the event counted with: Albert Figuerola, IN2-UB; Cristina Fornaguera, IQS; Mariela Menghini, IMDEA; Daniel Pérez, ALBA Synchrotron and Bárbara Polesso, ICFO.  The topic of the roundtables were "Career Development" by researchers of AMIT-CAT, and "Mental Health during your PhD".

The closing event at the end of two intense days was the awards ceremony:  the best presentation and the best poster were chosen (on this last case, both by the jury and popular vote). The winners received fantastic prizes, as shown below:

Best Oral Presentation sponsored by SCN2

• Awarded with 100 €:
  • Carla Riera Llobet - IMB-CNM, CSIC "Adaptative Computation Techniques in Proton Therapy "

Carla Riera Llobet, Best Oral Presentation Award  | ICMAB, CSIC 

Best Poster Award (by the jury) sponsored by SCN2

• Awarded with 50€ in a FNAC voucher
  • Elba Guasch García - ICMAB-CSIC "Enhancing Chondrogenic Differentiation with Hierarchical Quantsome-RGD Nanoarchitectonic Surfaces"

 Best Poster Award (by popular vote) sponsored by SCN2

• Awarded with 50€ in a FNAC voucher 
  • Joel Perez Poncelas - IMB-CNM, CSIC "Tuning of the AACVD temperature conditions for depositing tungsten oxide nanoneedles modified with Au and Pt nanoparticles "

Elba Guasch García (ICMAB, CSIC) and Joel Pérez Ponzelas  (CNM), Best Poster Award  (by popular vote) | ICMAB, CSIC 

The previous edition of the JPhD already broke all previous records with more than 100 attendants, and this year participation has gone even higher, with 113 participants in total. Of those, 56 participatns gave a talk during the two days of the event (in parallel sessions), and 17 presented a poster in the poster sessions.

The contributions were from all the different topics offered in the meeting, with more participants in the "Synthesis and Characterization" area (20) (*Total includes oral, poster and attendance only):

• Medicine & Bioapplicatons: 8 Oral + 3 Poster (14 in Total)
• Electronics & Nanofabrication: 11 Oral + 3 Poster (14 in Total)
• Energy & Environment: 11 Oral + 4 Poster (19 in Total)
• Nanomagnetism & Nanomaterials: 10 Oral + 3 Poster (15 in Total)
• Synthesis & Characterization: 16 Oral + 4 Poster (20 in Total)

Most participants were ICMAB PhD researchers (45), 19 came from the ICN2, 15 from the UAB, 13 from the IMB-CNM, and the rest came from other institutions, including 5 from IREC, 5 from ICFO and 2 from ALBA. 

Participant affiliation at JPhD2024  | ICMAB, CSIC 

The organizing committee was formed by 18 PhD researchers: Alba Cazorla Moreno, Lluís Casabona Cendra, Sara Garrido Rodríguez, Allan Lancézeux, Roger Morales Perez, Marc Mosqueda Dorado, María Jesus Ortiz Aguayo, Núria Pujol Sole, Arianna Quesada Ramírez, Meritxell Toda Casaban, Anna Sole Porta from ICMAB; Patricia Aguilar Merino, Kevin García Diez (also at ALBA), Jorge Martínez Romeral, Sara Navarro Rodríguez from ICN2, Marta Ruiz Ruiz, Mani Zartab from the UAB and Leo Salgado Chane-Pane from IMB-CNM. Thank you very much to all of them for this great effort and for the big success! 

Download here the Book of Abstracts of the JPhD2024 to see all the contributions from the participants. 

For more details, visit JPhD2024.

Past editions

• Fantastic edition of the JPhD2023 doctoral meeting (JPhD 2023)
• One more year, the JPhD meeting breaks participation records! (JPhD 2021)
• The JPhD2020 closes this edition having achieved the highest participation ever! (JPhD 2020)
• 4th Scientific Meeting of BNC-b PhD Students at ICMAB and ICN2 (JPhD 2019)