The last day of the Annual Meeting is over and I’m again sitting in my old lab at Stanford University, still somewhat exhausted from the intensity of the last couple of days. I will leave this meeting with many new experiences – after all, this was my first BPS Meeting, first big conference, first time presenting a poster and first time blogging!

I think the best with this conference has been all the interesting scientific discussions I have been having with people and I will bring many new things to think about with me back home. I really enjoyed the diversity at the poster sessions, both in terms of topics but especially in terms of presenters. Anything from undergraduate students to professors presented posters and walked around to discuss science with other presenters. I believe this mix was great for spurring discussion and networking over different age groups, something that might not happen very naturally otherwise.

I also learned a lot from all the platform sessions, some of it related to my own field but I also got some new insight into other research areas, something that is always valuable as new ideas tend to show up from unexpected places. All the social activities, dinners, and pub visits were of course incredibly fun and gave me the opportunity to meet both old and new friends. With all that said, I had a great time at the Biophysical Society Annual Meeting and look forward to BPS19 in Baltimore!

P.S. For those who still have some time to spend in San Francisco I would like to encourage you to explore other parts of the Bay Area. With Caltrain it is easy to visit places like San José, Palo Alto or Mountain View. And with Bart you can go to Oakland and Berkeley. Of course I would recommend to visit Stanford University in Palo Alto (but I’m a bit biased in that regard) and the Computer History Museum in Mountain View is great too!

-Cathrine Berg