BLAM 2016 – a sunny event

Five people are showing their t-shirts. — Watching the BLAM team.

Thursday morning I had a feeling that something was wrong. The sky was cloudy and something was not as usual. But when the weather gods realized that it was time for BLAM (the Biology in Lund Annual Meeting) they brought out the sun!

A lot of people are standing outside drinking coffee. — Mingling in the sun.

After welcome, mingle and lunch it was time for the first plenary speaker – Emma Sayer from Lancaster University in UK. She talked about both carbon storage in soils and science communication. Emma Sayer and her colleagues had been to music festivals and engaging the public with ecology.

Two people are standing in the front of a lecture hall. — Listening to plenary speaker Emma Sayer.

The other plenary speaker was Ben Ashby from University of Exeter in UK. He spoke about sex, parasites and coevolution. His talk started the second day of BLAM.

A person is standing talking in a lecture hall. — Attending plenary speaker Ben Ashby’s talk.

This year there were not only talks and posters at BLAM. The new thing were workshops, not just one but three different ones for PhD-students and one for seniors. The PhD-students could choose between Science and the Society, Life after your PhD and How to perform a Three Minute Thesis.

Some people are sitting in a group room listening. — Workshopping.

Doing a 1-minute popular pitch about one of the posters challenged the seniors. These pitches were performed before the poster sessions.

A lot of people are looking at posters. — Watching posters.

Like the years before there was a price for the best talk and best poster. Aravin Chakravarthi won a prize of 10 000 SEK for the best talk. And Elsa Call won 8 000 SEK for the best poster. Congratulations!

Three people are standing with papers in their hands. — Announcing the prize winners.

Not all was serious and about science. As usual there was a mingle the first evening and the activity was to come up with an idea for next year’s BLAM that also could attract a general public during the 350 year celebration.

Two people are standing and discussing during a coffee break. — Discussing.

The groups presented their ideas during the final banquet. Unfortunately I have not been able to get any sound in the recorded videos. In iMovie I hear a faint sound if I rise the sound to 400%, but I have not found a way to export the movies with a louder sound. If anybody will give it a try to enhance the sound I can send you the original files. Otherwise maybe you could ask the participants to give you a private performance.