{"id":35037,"date":"2024-03-21T12:37:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-21T12:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/alumni\/?p=35037"},"modified":"2024-06-28T09:09:26","modified_gmt":"2024-06-28T09:09:26","slug":"retirees-afternoon-2024-reflecting-on-50-years-of-embl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/alumni\/blog\/2024\/03\/retirees-afternoon-2024-reflecting-on-50-years-of-embl\/","title":{"rendered":"Retirees’ Afternoon 2024: reflecting on 50 years of EMBL"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Friday, 22nd March, EMBL Heidelberg hosted the annual alumni Retirees’ Afternoon, welcoming back a host of EMBL retirees and pensioners to mark 50 years of EMBL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hybrid event began with an informal meet-and-greet session where former colleagues reconnected and shared memories. Afterwards, online and in-person retirees spoke about what EMBL means to them, reflecting on the profound way in which their time at EMBL has shaped their personal and professional lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sharing what EMBL means to him, Former EMBO Director Frank Gannon said: \u201cYou couldn\u2019t be ordinary in the EMBL environment. It was \u2013 and still is \u2013 an outstanding laboratory in terms of quality, internationalism, lack of empire building, a turnover of young scientists and investing in the best in Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For others, their association with EMBL is strongly bound up with their personal lives. Former Research Technician Valerie Hungerford said: \u201cI found my husband at EMBL Grenoble.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leo Burger, Head of the EMBL Heidelberg Mechanical Workshop from 1979-2023, said: \u201cEMBL was always there in my life. The work was so interesting that time meant nothing – I would stay well into the night solving problems.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EMBL’s first Librarian, Mary Holmes, looked back on EMBL as “the most important thing in my life, after my family\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The afternoon continued with more informal discussions, allowing retirees to mingle, share updates and further reminisce about their time at EMBL against the inspiring backdrop of the EMBL Imaging Centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below are some snapshots from the event, which capture the warm and vibrant spirit of the EMBL retiree community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next year’s annual Retirees’ Afternoon will take place on Friday 21 March 2025<\/strong>. Please mark your diaries! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meantime, bookmark the EMBL Alumni Events website<\/a> and ensure your details are up to date in the Alumni Portal<\/a> to stay up to date with further announcements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Marijke Wijnaendts (left), Gabriele Suck (middle) and Roel Wijnaendts (right)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Frieda Gl\u00f6ckner (left), Mary Holmes (centre) and Hajo Delius (right)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Doros Panayi (left), Gareth Griffiths (centre) and Frank Gannon (right)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Leo Burger (left) and Keith Williamson (right)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Friday, 22nd March, EMBL Heidelberg hosted the annual alumni Retirees’ Afternoon, welcoming back a host of EMBL retirees and pensioners to mark 50 years of EMBL.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":35039,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"embl_taxonomy":[],"class_list":["post-35037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"acf":[],"embl_taxonomy_terms":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Alumni-Meeting-IC__001-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35037"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35115,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35037\/revisions\/35115"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35037"},{"taxonomy":"embl_taxonomy","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/embl_taxonomy?post=35037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}