17th - 18th September, Traunkirchen, Upper Austria

The post doc retreat this year had some of us older postdocs in a state of optimistic giddiness this year. Let me explain why. As children, many of us were exposed to the science fiction television series Star Trek that followed the voyages of Captain James T. Kirk and his crew aboard the starship Enterprise exploring the galaxy, attempting to “boldly go where no man had gone before”. Now, as we have grown older and wiser we realize that much of what we saw on this program was silly and merely the extension of a vivid imagination. Some examples are using “red matter” to create black holes as weapons against alien populations, using “modified T-cell viruses” to create new civilizations and the most ridiculous, William Shatner’s acting ability.
But we also chuckled at the thought of everyone carrying a hand held device that could allow for communication with others as well as signals from space that could pinpoint your exact location. So when we learned Anton Zeilinger, the physicist who demonstrated that particles may exist simultaneously in two places at once, therefore definitively proving teleportation was more science than fiction, would be joining us, we started thinking of the possibilities. No more crowded Straßenbahn commutes to work in the cold Vienna winters. Safer transport home after beer hours that go on a little late and of course, easy lab retreats to Hawaii.

At the invitation of Dr. Zeilinger, we traveled to the Salzkammergut region of Austria to the Traunkirchen, an old monastery, which now operates as an academy for scientists who wish to broaden their scientific thinking in any way possible. This theme we felt fitting, as that was in part our intention for the retreat as well. When we arrived it was clear to see the uniqueness of the Traunsee. Historically the city had always prided itself on supporting philosophy of any kind and with the beauty of the lake and stimulating conversations had by the groups that set out for a quick exploration, one could see how.
After a second lunch of the day we took in a talk that, although was based largely on science that was not directly related to any our particular niches, sparked very invigorating conversation afterwards. We contemplated origins of life and parallel universes that we were assured “of course exist”. We also proposed the possibility of human teleportation, but were slightly discouraged that due to the complexity of the human body, we are not quite there yet. Sadly, we could not be beamed across the lake for dinner, but luckily we are still needed as biomedical researchers.
We were also treated to a lesson in scientific ethics, as virolgist Tim Skern presented a very detailed and political perspective on the HIV/AIDS situation in Africa.
Our lectures finished with a more conventional scientific talk from Michael Kiebler, the director of the department of neuronal cell biology at medical university of Vienna.
Well prepared for intriguing dinner discussion, we took a boat across the lake to the Hois’n Wirt, which we were assured was an excellent seafood restaurant and indeed, I believe most were satisfied with the fish, wine and of course, schnapps.
We took the later portion of the evening to get to know each other a bit better and while sitting comfortably by the lake, learned such important lessons as, one should be careful when wandering alone through the jungle in Costa Rica. That the Austin Power’s character of Ivana Humpalot is called Anette Halbestude in German and finally, through the addition of the GMI postdocs, that trees need love too. I believe a good time was had by all.

The next day we said goodbye to the Traunsee and ventured to the historic salt mines of Hallstatt. We were taken on a tour though the Salzwelten and learned interesting facts about the mines as well as the competitiveness of our colleagues while racing down the slides in the caves.