In this 19th edition of the VLAG FLASH would like to draw your special attention to the following courses:

•	Food Hydrocolloids: Fundamentals and Applications to be held from 23 - 25 February 2009.
•	Light in the Intestinal Tract Tunnel to be held from 11 - 13 March 2009, Helsinki, Finland. Contact Person for VLAG PhD students: Ingeborg van Leeuwen-Bol
•	Master class Nutrition Communication: Challenges and Opportunities - 2nd edition to be held from 14 - 16 April 2009, Wageningen

Please register as soon as possible.

The deadline for submitting information for the 20th VLAG FLASH is 23 February 2009.

The next meeting of the VLAG Contact Persons will take place on Monday, 16 February 2009, starting at 15:30 hrs in the lecture room 63 in Biotechnion (WUR building 307).
We have invited Prof. Leif Skibsted (Head of Food Chemistry group, Department of Food Science, University of Copenhagen) director of Research School FOOD as a guest speaker. His presentation about the Research School FOOD and our mutual Marie Curie Initial Training Network "Enzyme technology for Lean and Green food processing" will start at 16:30 hrs.
If interested in joining the presentation please contact Vesna.Prsic@wur.nl.

In 2008 100 PhD students (79 registered at WU and 21 at UM) started their PhD project within VLAG. In 2008, 68 PhD students defended their thesis, 48 at WU and 20 at UM.

As of January 1st 2009 Prof. Martien Cohen Stuart has been appointed Scientific Director of the Dutch Polymer Institute (DPI). In this function he will monitor and expand the position of DPI in the area of scientific quality in polymer research.
Martien Cohen Stuart, head of the laboratory of Physical Chemistry and Collloid Science at Wageningen University, will be the principle contact person for the Scientific Reference Committee which, under the authority of the Supervisory Board of DPI, concentrates on monitoring research quality. His main responsibility will be to supervise long term research within the Polymer Innovation Programme, keeping in mind new developments in the area of polymer science and technology. (visit DPI)

Since January 1st, 2009, Dr. Willem van Berkel, senior scientist at the Laboratory of Biochemistry, has been assigned the chair of the Dutch Association for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (NVBMB). The NVBMB stimulates the biochemistry and molecular biology disciplines in the Netherlands in many ways. The NVBMB is a member of the Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS). With about 1600 members the association collaborates closely with FEBS and IUBMB. (visit NVBMB)

•	Philosophy and Ethics of Food Science and Technology January - February 2009, Wageningen This series of six Thursday afternoon sessions will include hands-on dealings with ethical and societal issues surrounding science. Participation in the course is free of charge.
•	Nutrient Density of Milk 26 - 28 January 2009, Wageningen The course aims to provide detailed scientific background on the significance of the nutrient density of dairy products in the diet, how the nutrient density can be changed at the different stages of the dairy chain and how the concept of nutrient density can be communicated to health professionals and consumers. The course consists of a series of lectures, several workshops and discussions.
•	Food Hydrocolloids: Fundamentals and Applications - 2nd edition 23 - 25 February 2009, Wageningen This course consists of a mixture of introductory lectures in soft matter science mixed with lectures on recent topics of interest for polysaccharides as food colloids and biomaterials. The course aims at bridging the gap between the forefront of academic soft-matter research and applications in foods and non-foods.
•	Light in the Intestinal Tract Tunnel 11 - 13 March 2009, Helsinki, Finland Organised by: Graduate School ABS with support from VLAG Contact Person for VLAG PhD students: Ingeborg van Leeuwen-Bol
•	VLAG PhD-week - 21st edition 6 - 9 April 2009 This activity is a compulsory part of the VLAG education programme and it is meant for the PhD students that have recently started their PhD study.
•	Master class Nutrition Communication: Challenges and Opportunities - 2nd edition 14 - 16 April 2009, Wageningen This Master class will focus on the specific role of nutrition communication in the process towards more healthy consumers. It is at postgraduate level and aims at nutritionists, physicians, nutrition educators, health promoters, health policy makers and scientists, interested in nutrition communication. The course may be of specific use for PhD students working in this field. The link above gives information on the previous edition of this course.
•	Food Toxicology and Food Safety 4 - 8 May 2009, Wageningen Organised by: The Postgraduate Education in Toxicology (P.E.T.)
•	Master class Nutrigenomics - 8th edition 6 - 9 July 2009, Wageningen During the Master class we will discuss new developments in nutrigenomics research including specific aspects of human and mouse studies, molecular epidemiology, applications of microarray analysis, metabolite profiling or biomarker identification strategies. The link above gives information on the previous edition of this course.
•	Nutritional and lifestyle epidemiology - 9th edition 21 - 26 September 2009, Wageningen The aim of this advanced training course is to acquire knowledge and expertise in the design, conduct and analysis of epidemiologic research on lifestyle and nutritional factors in chronic disease etiology. The link above gives information on the previous edition of this course.
•	Production and use of food composition data in nutrition - 9th edition 11 - 24 October 2009, Wageningen The aim of FoodComp 2009 is to show how the quality and usefulness of food composition data is determined by the quality of the production of analytical data for nutrients in foods, and the compilation of these and other data into food composition tables and nutritional databases. The link above gives information on the previous edition of this course.
•	Reaction kinetics in food science - 6th edition 26 - 30 October 2009, Wageningen The aim of the course is to acquire in-depth knowledge about kinetic modelling, and to apply and use kinetics in food science problems using modern software. The link above gives information on the previous edition of this course.

During the 7th Science day of the Dutch Heart Foundation (NHS) on 25 September Marieke Bos (WU-Human Nutrition) was awarded with € 2000 for the best poster on Epidemiology and Prevention. The title of her poster is: Effect of a high olive oil and a Mediterranean type of diet on serum lipids and insulin sensitivity.

On 26 November Flora Chadara (WU-PDQ) was awarded with one of the two € 1500 grants by the Storm - van der Chijs fund for promoting the careers of female scientists at Wageningen UR. Flora is investigating the processing of products from the Baobab tree, whose leaves, seeds and pulp are edible. Flora her research will generate knowledge about fermentation and processing which will help local women to boost the income they generate by processing and selling Baobab products. It's expected that the women will spend the extra income on improving the health and education of their children.

• K.A. Hettinga (Kasper) Quality control of raw cows' milk by headspace analysis - a new approach to mastitis diagnosis -. 14-01-2009, 16:00 hrs, Wageningen Prof. A.C.M. van Hooijdonk, Dr. T.J.G.M. Lam • P.S. Hofs (Bas) Colloids from oppositely charged polymers; reversibility and surface activity. 20-01-2009, 16:00 hrs, Wageningen Prof. M.A. Cohen Stuart, Dr. A. de Keizer • N.Y.P. Souren (Nicole) Genetic analyses of type 2 diabetes related metabolic risk factors: a twin study. 23-01-2009, 12:00 hrs, Maastricht Prof. J.P.M. Geraedts, Prof. M.P.A. Zeegers, Dr. A.D.C. Paulussen • M.A. Islam (Amin) Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli in humans and the food chain in Bangladesh. 26-01-2009, 13:30 hrs, Wageningen Prof. M.H. Zwietering, Dr. A.E. Heuvelink • F. Franssen (Frits) Sarcopenia in COPD: functional and metabolic implications. 30-01-2009, 14:00 hrs, Maastricht Prof. E.F.M. Wouters, Prof. A.M.W.J. Schols • M. Vermeulen (Martijn) Isothiocyanates from cruciferous vegetables: Kinetics, biomarkers and effects. 13-02-2009, 13:30 hrs, Wageningen Prof. I.M.C.M. Rietjens, Prof. P.J. van Bladeren, Dr. W.H.J. Vaes

• M. Bouwens (Mark) Nutrigenomics in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells. The effects of fatty acids on gene expression profiles of human circulating cells as assessed in human intervention studies. 20-02-2009, 13:30 hrs, Wageningen Prof. M. Müller, Dr. L.A. Afman • K.K.R. Tetala (Kishore) Microfluidic devices for sample clean-up and screening of biological samples. 27-02-2009, 13:30 hrs, Wageningen Prof. E.J.R. Sudhölter, Dr. T.A. van Beek • S. Wolterink-van Loo (Suzanne) Characterization and engineering of thermophilic aldolases. Synthesizing nitrogen-heterocycles in biosynthetic routes. 06-03-2009, 13:30 hrs, Wageningen Prof. W.M. de Vos, Prof. J. van der Oost • J.M.L. Heck (Jeroen) Milk genomics - opportunities to improve the protein and fatty acid composition in raw milk. 13-03-2009, 16:00 hrs, Wageningen Prof. A.C.M. van Hooijdonk, Prof. J.A.M. van Arendonk • H.I.M. Sawalha (Hassan) Polylactide microcapsules and films: preparation and properties. 16-03-2009, 16:00 hrs, Wageningen Prof. R.M. Boom, Dr. C.G.P.H. Schroën • N.G.H. Leferink (Nicole) Characterization and redesign of galactonolactone dehydrogenase, a flavoprotein producing vitamin C. 08-04-2009, 16:00 hrs, Wageningen Prof. S.C. de Vries, Dr. W.J.H. van Berkel

•	Career Assessment - February (visit WGS)
•	The Art of Writing - 4 February (visit Language Services)
•	Scientific Writing - 8 February (visit Language Services)
•	Competencies for Integrated Agricultural Research - 9 February (visit WGS)
•	Information Literacy, incl. Introduction Endnote - 10 February (visit WGS)
•	Techniques for Writing and Presenting a Scientific Paper - 17 February (visit WGS)
•	Effective behaviour in your professional surroundings - 23 February (visit WGS)
•	PhD Competence Assessment - 24 February (visit WGS)
•	Project- and Time Management - 3 March (visit WGS)
•	Career Perspectives - 19 March (visit WGS)
•	Communicating science with press, policy and public - 7 May (visit WGS)
•	Career Orientation - 29 May (visit WGS)

•	Professional in Supervision - 15 April (visit WGS)

My name is Van-Anh Phan and I am Vietnamese. I started my PhD in February 2008 at Product Design and Quality Management. My project aims at applying Bayesian Belief Networks as a modeling technique for Sensory Specific Satiation data. Before coming to Wageningen UR, I obtained an Engineering degree in Food Technology in Vietnam; a Master's degree in Food Science in France and then worked for three years as a research assistant at Nestle Research Center Lausanne, in Switzerland.
As a chairperson of the VLAG PhD council, I look forward to contributing to improve communication and information sharing within the VLAG PhD student community. Personally, I take this duty seriously and consider it as a training course to develop my soft skills. I hope that the council will receive support and input from all PhD students.

For a list of the current members of the PhD council see http://www.vlaggraduateschool.nl/phdcouncil.htm

Every two years PhD students from the Division of Human Nutrition organise an international study tour. This tour is an experience on scientific, cultural and social level to increase and strengthen the knowledge in nutrition research and related areas and establish new contacts. This year, between October 17th and 31st of 2009, they will visit a number of universities, institutes and companies in Scandinavia (Denmark, Sweden and Finland). The tour provides an excellent opportunity to stimulate collaboration within the field of Human Nutrition (visit PhDtour2009)

Also the PhD students at Microbiology, Physical Chemistry & Colloid Science and Organic Chemistry wil go on tour in 2009. More in the next VLAG FLASH.

Concentrated faces, enthusiastic responses. These impressions were taken from the renewed course Bioreactor Design and Operation that was organised 23-27 June 2008. In response to the need of previous participants to this course to practice more with the theory, a digital case was developed within the educational program of B-Basic, a large national research program on industrial biotechnology. The digital case allowed the participants to calculate in several steps the optimal parameters to produce bioethanol. This way of practicing with the theory was received very well by the participants, as can also be told from the positive results of the course evaluation. Next to this stand-alone case on bioethanol another case on arachidonic acid production was used to support the lectures on this topic. This way of introducing more interactivity to the lecture was also appreciated.
Janneke van Seters

•	Colloquia Laboratory of Physical Chemistry and Colloid Sciences, WU Every week, the laboratory of Physical Chemistry and Colloid Sciences organises a colloquium. 16 January 2009 read more
•	Schrijven over wetenschap The language of this course is Dutch. 20 January - 7 April 2009. (visit de Lynx)
•	Design of Animal Experiments This WIAS course helps you to develop your skills in experimental design by active learning. 11 - 13 February 2009, Wageningen (visit WIAS)
•	NWO-Talent Days In 2009, NWO will organise Talent Days on 17 March and 6 October. Registration for the 17 March Talent Day has started 2 January. The 'Talent Days' series helps you developing other skills than technical skills, such as writing, networking and planning. (visit NWO)
•	Procter & Gamble R&D PhD Seminar This seminar will give you the opportunity to experience the challenging working world of P&Rs R&D organisation and practise the skills needed to be successful. 30 March - 2 April, Egham, England (visit PG Careers)
•	BCF Event 2009 BCF Event is the umbrella name of BioCareer Event, ChemistryCareer Event en FoodCareer Event, and the 2009 edition will take place in the Amsterdam RAI. With an extensive exhibition with expectedly over 125 employers, education institutions and recruitment & selection agencies and an extensive program of presentations and workshops. 28 May 2009 (visit BCF Event)