The purpose of the symposium is to stimulate scientific discussion and interdisciplinary research in food science, food development and food technology. The symposium will emphasize the rational design and fabrication of foods from a physical perspective, focusing on understanding and utilizing the basic principles of the assembly of elementary food components such as proteins, lipids, polysaccharides and colloidal particles, in relation to their phase behaviour. (visit website)

The deadline for submitting information for the 24th VLAG FLASH is 14 September 2009.

The next meeting of the VLAG Contact Persons will take place on Monday, 19 October 2009 starting at 15:30 hrs in the lecture room 63 in Biotechnion (WUR building 307).
The findings and advice resulting from the External Peer Review and the application for the KNAW accreditation of VLAG will be the most important discussion point on the agenda.
Contact: Vesna.Prsic@wur.nl

•	NuGO week 2009 31 August - 3 September 2009, Montecatini, Italy
•	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.
•	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.
•	Delivery of functionality in complex food systems - 3rd international symposium The purpose of the symposium is to stimulate scientific discussion and interdisciplinary research in food science, food development and food technology. It will emphasize the rational design and fabrication of foods from a physical perspective, focusing on understanding and utilizing the basic principles of the assembly of elementary food components such as proteins, lipids, polysaccharides and colloidal particles, in relation to their phase behaviour. 18 - 21 October 2009, Wageningen
•	Advanced visualisation, integration and biological interpretation of -omics data - 1st edition 26 - 28 October 2009, Wageningen Organised in cooperation with Division of Human Nutrition (WU) and Graduate School WIAS.
•	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.
•	VLAG PhD week 2 - 5 November 2009 This activity is a compulsory part of the VLAG education programme and it is meant for PhD students that have recently started their PhD study. The aim of the PhD week is to combine training skills with lectures on interesting scientific topics.
•	NUTRIM-day 2009 12 November 2009 More information will follow.
•	A unified approach to mass transfer 23 - 27 November 2009, Wageningen In this course you will learn a method to describe all mass transfer processes. The link above gives information on the previous edition of this course.
•	Management of Microbiological Hazards in Foods - 12th edition 15 - 19 March 2010, Wageningen The aim of this course is to further improve the knowledge of course participants regarding the management of micro-organisms that may compromise the safety of foods. The course programme combines lectures and group work ("case studies") with plenary discussions. The link above gives information on the previous edition of this course.
•	Bioreactor Design and Operation - 5th edition 22 - 26 March 2010, Wageningen Products from biotechnology cover a wide range, from pharmaceutical blockbusters to bulk energy carriers. In the research phase for new products main attention goes to the optimization of the microorganism. Genomics, physiology and metabolic engineering are the main study tools. Scale of operation is not really important in this case. The link above gives information on the previous edition of this course.

VLAG Events scheduled from 1 April 2010 onwards can be found at the VLAG website.

• W. Haasnoot (Willem) Multiplex biosensor immunoassays for antibiotics in the food chain. 11-09-2009, 11:00 hrs, Wageningen Prof. M.W.F. Nielen, Prof. H. Zuilhof • H. Bachmann (Herwig) Adaptive and regulatory responses of Lactococcus lactis in situ. 14-09-2009, 16:00 hrs, Wageningen Prof. M. Kleerebezem, Dr. J.E.T. van Hylckama Vlieg • M.W.H.J. de Been (Mark) Two-component signal transduction in Bacillus cereus and closely related bacteria. 14-09-2009, 13:30 hrs, Wageningen Prof. T. Abee, Prof. R.J. Siezen, Dr. C. Francke

• W.M. de Vos (Wiebe) Brushes and particles. 16-09-2009, 16:00 hrs, Wageningen Prof. M.A. Cohen Stuart, Dr. J.M. Kleijn, Dr. A. de Keizer • S. Lindhoud (Saskia) Polyelectrolyte complex micelles as wrapping for enzymes. 16-09-2009, 13:30 hrs, Wageningen Prof. M.A. Cohen Stuart, Prof. W. Norde, Dr. R.J. de Vries • M. Levisson (Mark) Biochemical and structural analysis of thermostable esterases. 28-09-2009, 16:00 hrs, Wageningen Prof. W.M. de Vos, Prof. J. van der Oost, Dr. S.W.M. Kengen • L.M. Sanderson (Linda) Exploring the activation and function of PPARα and PPARβ/δ using genomics. 29-09-2009, 16:00 hrs, Wageningen Prof. M. Müller, Dr. S. Kersten

Professor Daan Kromhout of the Division of Human Nutrition has been appointed to Academy Professor of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences because of his excellent track record in nutritional epidemiology. His research is concentrated on the relationships between diet and cardiovascular diseases. He was the first to show that eating a small amount of fish and a moderate intake of flavonoids lower the risk of cardiovascular diseases. He also described the features of the classical Mediterranean dietary pattern and its association with cardiovascular mortality. These results form the basis for national and international recommendation for a healthy diet and for prevention of cardiovascular diseases.
The results of his work have been published in high impact journals e.g. New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association and The Lancet. Kromhout received several national and international awards for his research achievements, amongst which the prestigious Federa-prize from the Netherlands Federation of Medical Scientific Societies for his research on diet and cardiovascular diseases, and the Silver Medal of the European Society of Cardiology for his contribution to preventive cardiology.
He supervised a large number of PhD students who now have become eminent researchers themselves, and attracted many excellent young investigators. The expectations of the Academy with respect to his future research and contributions to the next generation of investigators are highly stretched. His nomination as Academy Professor will certainly boost his future scientific work.

Sprakel studied the physics of self-organising polymer networks, which are widely used as thickeners in waterbased paints, cosmetics and oil-drilling fluids. His work offers new leads for the development of high-quality, environmentally-friendly coating products and contributes to the general understanding of self-assembled and nanostructured polymeric materials. He will continue his scientific carreer as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University.

The thesis focused on the compound estragole, which occurs naturally in certain herbs and has been observed to be carcinogenic in rodents at high dose levels. Within the project physiologically-based biokinetic (PBBK) models were developed to obtain quantitative insight into dose-dependent effects, species differences, and interindividual human variation in bioactivation and detoxification of this compound. The used approach could provide mechanistic answers to issues raised in the safety assessment of estragole.

Linda Oude Griep, from the Division of Human Nutrition, has received the poster prize for her poster titled 'Raw and processed fruit and vegetable consumption and 10-year coronary heart disease incidence' at the annual Dutch Epidemiogy Conference, which was held at 11 and 12 June 2009 in Amsterdam. The poster was awarded for its interesting content and methodology, and the clear and original lay-out of the poster.

•	Career Assessment - September (visit WGS)
•	Project- and Time Management - 8 September (visit WGS)
•	Scientific Writing - 14 September (visit Language Services)
•	Presentation Skills - 6 October (visit Language Services)
•	PhD Competence Assessment - 13 October (visit WGS)
•	Career Perspectives - 20 October (visit WGS)
•	Interpersonal Communication - 26 October (visit WGS)
•	Writing Grant Proposals - 2 November (visit Language Services)
•	Information Literacy, incl. Introduction Endnote - 10 November (visit WGS)
•	Effective behaviour in your professional surroundings - 18 November (visit WGS)
•	Techniques for Writing and Presenting a Scientific Paper - 15 December (visit WGS)

•	Professional in Supervision - 21 October (visit WGS)
•	Effective leadership styles (a Practical course for PhD supervisors) - 10 November (visit WGS)

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The Distinguished Lorentz Fellowship This fellowship is meant to encourage leading figures working in the Netherlands to pursue a research project during a residential fellowship at NIAS that culminates in an international interdisciplinary workshop. The Distinguished Lorentz Fellowship is open to researchers from the academic world as well as from other research institutions. The main criteria are that nominees should be able to cross the divide between the Social Sciences and/or the Humanities and the Natural or Technological Sciences or have clearly implemented findings from their own interdisciplinary research in service to society. Deadline 2nd week of September (visit KNAW)

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WU Sandwich Fellowship Applications for a sandwich fellowship outnumber by far the available places. Only the best candidates with the most original and innovative research proposals are selected. After acceptance, sandwich PhD students enrol in one of the Wageningen Graduate Schools, which are accredited by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences. The full project plan is once again reviewed, students follow a tailor-made education and training programme, participate in international and local symposia, take postgraduate courses, and publish their work in high-standing journals. Deadline 11 September 2009 (visit WU)

Earlier this year we signed an agreement with our colleagues in Denmark to intensify the collaboration between the two graduate schools. Most disciplines as gathered in VLAG are also present in FOOD. The succesfull application of the Marie Curie Initial Training Network LEANGRENFOOD was a good start to intensify the cooperation. The PhD students from the Division of Human Nutrition will visit Copenhagen in October during their international PhD study tour. (visit FOOD)
VLAG makes available 10 grants of € 300 each to attend this meeting on 23 - 24 November 2009, the meeting itself is free of charge and with a cheap airline ticket you should be able to cover all your costs with this. If you are interested in presenting your data at this meeting please contact Fré Pepping (Fre.Pepping@wur.nl).

•	NWO-Talent Classes A Talent Class is an extensive workshop, based on the Talent Day. In fall 2009 the following dates are planned for the Talent Classes: 22 September, 10 November and 8 December. (visit NWO)
•	Training course: Translation of genetic variation to gene function in biology and epidemiology 3 - 6 September 2009, Stockholm (Arlanda), Sweden (visit Diogenes)
•	PhD-training courses: Cardiac Function and Adaptation, Thrombosis and Haemostasis & Vascular Biology These three courses are taught simultaneously, meaning that each student can participate in only one of the three courses. Organised under auspices of and with financial support from the Netherlands Heart Foundation. 12 - 16 October 2009, Papendal (visit Netherlands Heart Foundation)
•	Design of Experiments Advanced statistics course organised by Graduate School WIAS The course is designed for those who are at the beginning of their scientific careers and those who have had some experience in designing experiments, but would like to refine their skills. It is not the intention of the course to teach the “statistical analysis” of the experimental design, the emphasis will be on the design of the experiment, and not on its analysis. 14 - 16 October (visit WIAS)
•	Food Risk Analysis: an integrated approach combining insights from the natural and the social sciences Course organised by Mansholt Graduate School of Social Sciences The fee for VLAG PhD students is € 250. 2 - 6 November (visit Mansholt)