Bioinformatics Career Day very popular

24 Nov 2011

The first ever NBIC-LOBIN career day for bachelor (HBO) bioinformatics students was extremely popular, as an overwhelming 130 participants came to Leiden on November 18^th. And all twenty stands where filled with companies and master tracks.

“If I could choose another education, it would be Bioinformatics,” declared Professor Johan Den Dunnen (LUMC) in his welcoming lecture. “You have chosen a field in full motion, where big things are happening right now. And with excellent job prospects: it’s been a while since I hired someone more able with pipette than keyboard.”
In several following lectures, the assembled 3^rd and 4^th year HBO students from Nijmegen, Groningen and Leiden saw their possible futures unfold. Alumni spoke of their choices: to start working right away, or participate in a master track first? The two directly accessible master tracks, at the VU University and Wageningen University, explained their expertise and mutual need to explore the systems biology field.

The afternoon was meant for mingling with employers in the bioinformatics field. There was a very mixed set, multinationals like Keygene stood side to side with start-ups and universities. For a select set of participants there was a guided tour in the Leiden Genome Technology Centre and its multitudes of sequencing machines of all ages. Keynote speaker Jaap Heringa (VU, scientific director NBIC) concluded the day with his vision of the field in the next 15 years, after which the mingling continued happily over drinks.

You can find more information in the programme of the Bioinformatics Career Day 2011. The next career day will be organized in 2013 by the Hogeschool Nijmegen and Arnhem, also together with NBIC.

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