Read about:

Current Exchange
CSHL Meeting & Courses
Meetings & Conferences at CSHL
Courses & Workshops at CSHL

About Current Exchange

Current Exchange is published and managed by the Meetings & Courses division of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL). It is intended to communicate the science and stories that arise from all of our programs, including the ~30 small conferences and ~30 short courses we run each year in biology and biomedical science. Current Exchange is also a forum for discussions on a number of non-science topics that are covered in our meetings and courses, including career development, scientific communication, and public engagement. The blog features regular posts from Meetings & Courses staff members as well as guest posts from CSHL scientists and trainees. Regular features include:

• A Word From: Casual, one-on-one discussions with the senior scientists who organize our meetings and training courses. This series provides an insider’s look into meetings and courses at CSHL.

• Visitor of the Week: A weekly feature that spotlights visiting graduate students and postdocs who are on campus for one of our meetings or courses.

• #CSHLCourseLife: A series designed to equip CSHL course applicants and trainees with information they need to prepare for their stay at CSHL. Each post covers different stages in one’s #cshlcourselife – from receiving an acceptance letter to travel options to on-campus activities.

• Repeat Visitor: A special series that celebrates - and shows appreciation to - the scientists who participate in multiple meetings and/or courses in a year.

About CSHL Meetings & Courses

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) is a private, not-for-profit research and education institution at the forefront of molecular biology and genetics. During the months of March through December, CSHL functions as an advanced postgraduate center for research training through activities run by the Meetings & Courses Program.

Since 1945, annual short courses at CSHL have trained the rising stars in biological and biomedical research. Practicing scientists, from graduate students and research technicians to tenured independent investigators, often must learn new techniques, paradigms, or even entire subfields as part of their continuing research programs. And to learn these techniques, they turn to the short-course program at CSHL. Nearly 1,500 scientists visit CSHL each calendar year as participants in one of the thirty courses and workshops currently offered.

Complementing the short course program are more than thirty professional meetings and conferences held each year at CSHL in disciplines ranging from Glia to Retroviruses. Professional meetings are an integral part of a scientist's career: they are a primary means by which scientists stay current on the latest results and progress in their particular fields. Each year, more than 8,500 scientists from over 50 countries attend one or more CSHL meetings. The flagship meeting is the prestigious Symposium on Quantitative Biology, held each June since 1933.

Meetings & Conferences

Meetings and conferences at CSHL bring together scientists from all over the world to present and evaluate new data and ideas in rapidly moving areas of biological research. A key feature of CSHL meetings is that a majority of talks are chosen from openly submitted abstracts (with the exception of our annual Symposium). Programs and final schedules are put together by organizers on the basis of submitted abstracts, and so precise details about a given program are generally not available more than a few weeks in advance of the meeting. Both oral and poster presentations include plenty of discussion about unpublished work, which is valuable for graduate students and senior investigators alike. Researchers who attend CSHL meetings cite them as among the most informative, influential, and enjoyable scientific conferences in their field. Each year, more than 8,500 scientists from over 50 countries attend one or more CSHL meetings. 

To view our upcoming meetings, visit our website.

Courses & Workshops 

CSHL short courses and workshops complement our conferences by providing immersive training opportunities in a diversity of topics across the spectrum of biological sciences. Supported by federal and private funds, each course offers the successful applicant an opportunity to become rapidly immersed in a new set of concepts and techniques. Participants receive an intense, hands-on educational experience in which they learn a body of knowledge that would have otherwise taken months to piece together at their home institutions. Both teaching faculty and trainees have cited CSHL courses and workshops as career-changing; many state that CSHL courses stimulated new directions in their research, equipped them with new experimental techniques, and were unparalleled professional networking experiences. Our courses have trained many thousands of scientists who have gone on to distinguished careers in research and education, including nine Nobel laureates. Each calendar year, nearly 1,500 scientists visit CSHL from all over the world to participate in a course or workshop. 

To view our upcoming courses and workshops, visit our website.