The highly anticipated International Student Conference 2018 in “Health and Social Sciences” took place on March 16th and 17th at Riga Stradins university and gathered 1130 passive participants, 250 active participants and 80 members of the jury from more than 25 countries.

This year marked the 67th birthday of the conference as well as the 4th year that the conference was held on an international level, as students and jury members from near and far gathered for this great event. The quality of the International Student Conference 2018 was exceptionally high – this was a statement made by the rector of Riga Stradins University who was also a member of the jury and regularly attends conferences outside of Europe.

“This year interest from the students was higher than ever before! I am especially happy about the 3 guestlectures, which were widely attended, appreciated and without doubt of high quality. We reached a record high number of passive participants, which can only mean that next year there will be an increase in the number of scientists” said the project manager of ISC 2018 Sandra Cipkina.

In the Opening ceremony, one of the keynote speakers Dr. Andrejs Brauns, a lecturer in Haemotology at the Queen Mary University of London as well as a graduate of Riga Stradins University talked about “Spatial Genomics in Haemotological Maligancies”. The second keynote speaker was the chairman of board at the Association of Latvian Young Scientists who emphasised the meaning of “Communicating Science”.

During the conference students were able to attend 11 Health Science and 2 Social Science sections, where participants presented their scientific works in front of the audience and jury, as well as took part in a discussion with well known professors and specialists. Beside the presentations, there were numerous other opportunities for students. This year saw an increase in the number of workshops, therefore each student could choose a workshop to meet their interests. Other opportunities included attending guestlectures from the president of the Royal Society of Medicine Emergency Medical Section about “The Principles of Diagnosing and Treating Life-Threatening Thoracic Injuries”. Students studying Social Sciences had the opportunity to attend a guest lecture by Mārtiņš Daugulis on “Critical Thinking and Media Literacy” and a guest lecture by Prof. Eugene Eteris called “Latvian Future: Politics and Economics Combined”. The conference program also included tours and trips to established Latvian businesses: Grindex, the Central Laboratory, New Black and Overpriced.

Thanks for being a part of the International Student Conference 2018 and we look forward to seeing you next year!