Refreshing group retreat in Schnaittach

Group photo of group members standing outside on a balkony on a sunny day. From left to right: (Back row) Ricardo, Mathar, Vasily, Soham, Nadyezhda, Xinyu, Lennard, Kara, Farbot. (Kneeling middle row) Sreya, Miriam, Subhadip and Lukas (lying in front of everybody) Vasily, Soham, Miriam, Kara, Lukas, Sreya, Subhadip, Oma, Silke, Nadezhda, Mathar, Ricardo

End of July 2026 we went on a two-day retreat in Schnaittach near Lauf a. d. Pegnitz. There, we started our program with a guest talk by Michael Schmiedeberg about quantification of Quasi-Crystals and jamming.

Our own scientific content consisted of joint presentations by multiple group members about our future ideas for our individual projects. We especially focused on common topics that we are working on and explored how we might use our joint expertise in future research directions. The joint presentations included a wide range of topics from Cell-Cell interactions in immunology and bacterial biofilms over image analysis to active matter.

To have a break from the scientific content, we went on a hike which lead us to explore a ruined castle and creampuffs. Of course our traditional PowerPoint karaoke presentations and a evening of chatting made for a very exciting and diverse program.

In total, we are now fueled up with new ideas and energy to drive our research projects further.