Croucher summer courses back with a bang in 2023
After a break of three years caused by the pandemic, we were delighted to see the courses return to Hong Kong.
The aim of the Croucher summer courses is to educate and inspire postgraduate students and early career researchers from Hong Kong and the wider region. During the pandemic, it hadn’t been possible to run them. But this year, and making up for lost time, there were no fewer than 13 courses available and they attracted over 300 young researchers from Hong Kong, other parts of China and from across Asia, Europe and the Americas.
The range of courses on offer was very wide, from Computational Neuroscience to Quantum Entanglement and Topological Order, and from Frontiers in Cellular Biology, to Neutron Scattering, as you can see here. They were held from May to August this year at a range of partner institutions across Hong Kong.
A key feature of the courses, which generally last for one very intensive week, is not only the high-level input that participants receive via lectures, but also the chance for participants to get involved in discussions, learn about each other’s research interests, and where appropriate, to get into the labs for demos and some “hands-on” experience.
It’s important to ensure that the courses continue to meet the needs and expectations of the participants, so their feedback is systematically collected. This has been extremely enthusiastic. Choosing at random, researchers attending the course on “Quantum Entanglement and Topological Order” led by Professor Zhengcheng Gu from CUHK, said it led to “inspiring discussions with others”, that it was “a great chance to communicate with excellent young physicists from all over the world” and that “the lectures were excellent”. Weiqiang Chen, who attended this course, commented: “The summer course is great. The topics are very attractive and the courses are very informative. I have learned a lot on SPT, symmetry enriched topological order, fractons, etc. It is one of the best programs I have attended.”
“The summer course is great. The topics are very attractive and the courses are very informative. I have learned a lot.
Networking is an important aspect of the summer courses. One participant on the course on “Emerging Viral Infections: The One-Health Approach,’ led by Professor Roberto Bruzzone from HKU, told us it was “great to meet researchers from different fields and countries”.
Highly active participation is part of the experience. For example, participants on the summer course “Patient-derived Organoids and their Applications in Cancer Research”, led by Professor Nathalie Wong from CUHK, not only gave great feedback on the course, they also got heavily involved themselves, with most of them giving their own interactive poster sessions.
Feedback from the academics leading the courses has been positive too. For example, Professor Vincent Cheung from CUHK, Course Co-director for the summer course on Computational Neuroscience, commented: “This course sponsored by the Croucher Foundation was an important step in cultivating the next generation of neuroscience students in Hong Kong who are equally well versed in neurobiology and neural computation.”
Croucher summer courses are offered in partnership with leading institutions in Hong Kong and we are very grateful for their support and initiative in putting on these courses. We are also indebted to the many senior researchers and lecturers who have devoted their time and expertise to making these summer courses a success, and offer our thanks to them all.
Meanwhile, we’re pleased to say that work on next year’s courses has begun. Please check out our website for details in due course.