From September 5-8, 2010, a joint symposium was held in Bologna, Italy: the 8~(th) European Symposium on Biochemical Engineering Science, 30~(th) International Symposium on the Separation of Proteins, Peptides and Polynucleotides and the 3~(rd) International Symposium of Bio-thermodynamics. A meeting report with its highlights is published in the forum section of this issue [1]. It is the second time in which the meetings were held together, as the organisers found that the three topics were highly complementary - I received feedback during and after the symposium that the interdisciplinary character was highly appreciated by the participants. ESBES also encourages the participation and career development of young scientists: several posters prizes were awarded and the Malcolm Lilly award is a traditional part of this conference series.展开▼
