Summer School 2025

The third Summer School of the RTG 2753 took place from the 30th of September to the 2nd of October 2025 in beautiful Ratzeburg at the lakeside at Hotel "Der Seehof". Once again over 2.5 days our entire RTG group was able to spend a couple of productive and enriching days focused on scientific exchange.

The Summer School was attended by our PhD students and PIs, along with three distinguished international guests: Prof. Dr. Karen Ersche (University of Cambridge & Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim), Prof. Dr. Nathaniel Daw (Princeton University) and Prof. Dr. Karin Roelofs (Radboud University). Our guests delivered state-of- the-art lectures and engaged in discussions with the RTG members throughout the Summer School. We are pleased that Prof. Dr. Karin Roelofs joined our RTG as Mercator Fellow starting from July 2025. 

This year was the last Summer School for the first cohort and the first one for the second cohort of our PhD students, providing an additional opportunity for a smooth transition between the groups. The members of the two cohorts worked closely together to prepare and deliver their project talks and poster presentations. It was delightful to see how far the first cohort has come and how the work is now being continued and taken further by our new PhD students. 

As with our first two Summer Schools, a special interest event was organised independently by our PhD students. With this year’s topic being “Public Outreach”, the event was kicked off by Neele Elbersgeld who introduced the topic of science communication and invited the group to reflect. The PIs and PhD students were then asked to split into small groups and produce social media posts on a scientific question of their choice within 20 minutes. In this short time some impressive results came out, which were then briefly discussed. 

Besides incredible scientific exchange, the RTG members had plenty of opportunities for informal discussions and reflection, including during the geo-caching team activity where the group got to venture out into the nature of Ratzeburg.

The RTG members returned to Hamburg with lots of insights for their respective projects and special memories to carry into the new academic year.