International Magnesium Symposium organized by the Society for the Development of Research on Magnesium (SDRM)

On Wednesday the 22^nd of June Jeroen de Baaij and I left work early to prepare for our trip. We had heard of the commotion at Schiphol, so we arrived four hours early to find relatively short lines that had us ready for departure three hours in advance. Or four hours, taking into account the delay. We arrived at the pretty "Motel One" in the middle of the night.

The next day, we had to get up early for some breakfast, after which we went to the Royal College of Physicians & Surgeons, where the Magnesium Meeting of the Society for the Development of Research on Magnesium (SDRM) was held. It was a beautiful location, with a small old library where we had our coffee breaks. The conference itself was in a meeting room with quite a small group of people: only about 15 people were in attendance. However, about a 100 more joined online. There were speakers on a broad range of topics related to magnesium: from magnesium in soil and nutrition to magnesium in health and disease. We had ample time to connect with the people present, including Francisco Rios and Rhian Touyz from our Radboud-Glasgow collaboration. When the program was finished, we all went for a very nice dinner at The Citizen restaurant. Finally, we went to a pub to try some Scottish lagers and whiskey. Unfortunately for me, after this, I still had to prepare my presentation.

Friday the 24^nd we had another day of presentations, this time more molecularly themed. Jeroen presented on genetic causes of hypomagnesemia. Shortly after, I got to present on the role of FAM111A in hypomagnesemia in Kenny-Caffey syndrome, together with Francisco Rios. After the lunch break there were some technical issues and the program was running quite late, but in the end, this was largely compensated and we ended up finishing only half an hour late. After all the presentations, there was an award ceremony where I was honored to receive an award for my presentation.

Some fun days in Glasgow followed, including singing to Scottish folk music in a pub, visiting the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum and travelling all around Scotland to see Loch Lomond, Glen Coe and Loch Ness.
 

Overall, I had a great time!

The library where we had our coffee and lunch breaks