Lab Retreat 2023

This year’s lab retreat took place in Giethoorn (“Dutch Venice”). Each year we venture out with the Vision & Cognition group to keep track of what we are all working on, practice how to give a concise and great scientific pitch and above all to get to know eachother a little better in a more informal setting.

With a group of 15, including Master’s students, PhDs and postdocs, we drove up to Giethoorn on Thursday the 7th of August. On the first evening, it was time for our yearly FameLab competition (see: https://www.famelab.ch/). Each member of the lab presents a short scientific story outside of their own work, to practice their science communication skills. This year’s winners were: (1) Jake, explaining why and how electric eels tend to jump out of the water to zap horses (or people) and (2) Sanne, introducing the thrashcan wars between cuckatoos and humans in Sydney’s suburbia.

On the 8th of August, we escaped from prison in nearby Paasloo. Split up in two teams, we did an escape “room” in which we broke out of a van and ran through the forest towards salvation. After our escape, we had some time left to explore the canals and islands of Giethoorn before picking up our stuff and heading back to Amsterdam.