In March 2021, the ISGS launched an eSeminar series to build closer and more regular contacts within our solgel community between the biennial International Sol-Gel Conferences. The importance of such initiatives, in terms of the opportunities that they provide to learn about what our colleagues have been working on and to initiate/maintain collaborations and networks, is only amplified by challenges such as those posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been wonderful to see the extent to which the eSeminar series has been embraced by the community, as reflected in the number of attendees who regularly join us (even at times when they would normally be sleeping).
Given the growing success of the eSeminar series (and do join us for the next eSeminar by David Avnir on Thursday 2 September), the ISGS will soon launch a new monthly online lecture series – the ISGS eMasterClass – which will feature regular ZOOM presentations on selected topics by specialists within our community of practitioners. The presentations will be delivered in a “Summer School” teaching format, with two 30-minute lectures to be delivered in each session. Adopting the ethos underpinning the ISGS Summer Schools, our aspiration is to ensure that our PhD students and earlycareer scientists have the opportunity to learn from leading practitioners within our community, and for our leading practitioners to pass on their knowledge to the future leaders of our scientific and technical community. As is the case with the eSeminar series, an overarching goal of the eMasterClass series is to continue to build closer and more regular contacts between the “in-person” ISGS Summer Schools. It is proposed that each eMasterClass will be delivered in the middle of each month, to fall between the eSeminars.
More details regarding scheduling and lecturers will be provided soon. In the meantime, if you are interested in contributing to this initiative, please contact the ISGS Newsletter Editor.
