International Symposium: 15 Years of the Institute of Biomaterials
The international symposium to celebrate the 15 years of the Institute of Biomaterials took place on 29th November 2024, hosted by Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini, Head of the Institute.
The scientific part of the symposium included as invited speakers: Prof. Ipsita Roy (University of Sheffield), Dr. Irem Unalan (Institute of Biomaterials, FAU), PD Dr. Fabian Westhauser (University Hospital Heidelberg) and Prof. Andreas Arkudas (University Hospital Erlangen). Prof. Mathias Goeken, Head of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at FAU gave a welcome address. The session was moderated by Dr. Zoya Hadzhieva and Ms Marcela Arango-Ospina, PhD student.
The second part of the symposium included short presentations by alumni of our Institute, who participated in presence and online, as mentioned in the program. The event finished with a social dinner. More than 80 people, current and formed members of the Institute, attended the symposium and more than 40 alumni and formed members connected online, mainly based in different countries such as Thailand, Egypt, Turkey, Japan, Argentina, the Netherlands, UK, Greece, Mexico, and Brazil.
Prof. Boccaccini said: “It was a fantastic event. I am happy that we decided to organize this symposium to celebrate the 15 years of our Institute. I am grateful specially to our more than 20 alumni who came to celebrate the achievements of the Institute with us, and the many that connected online. We had 4 excellent invited presentations on different biomaterials aspects and it was great to have statements of our alumni, coming from industry and academia, telling us their “story” after leaving our Institute. I thank also the current members of the Institute who participated in the event, specially those who supported the organisation with their hard work and commitment”.