Science club · Biocentrum Ochota · Warsaw · since 2013

Do Science!

Lectures and informal discussions over a coffee or a beer with excellent scientists. We talk about their research, and about the fundamental questions of science itself.

lecture → career advice → coffee / beer with the speaker → SCIENCE!

3 Nobel laureates hosted 40 meetings in the archive Run by PhD students and postdocs Institute-independent

About

Science Club
A place to discuss SCIENCE.

Do Science! is an institute-independent initiative started by PhD students and postdocs at IIMCB and Biocentrum Ochota. We invite excellent scientists, from Warsaw and from abroad, to give a lecture and then stay for an informal conversation.

The mix is deliberate: Nobel laureates next to young Warsaw group leaders, ribosomes next to bats, neuroscience next to genomics. The common thread is curiosity and a room full of early-career researchers who ask questions.

Meeting #13: lecture room, the projected Do Science! slide, and the group at a bar afterwards
Meeting #13 Prof. Magda Konarska, RNA biology lab, Centre of New Technologies; 11/19/2015

More than lectures

SciEvents, trips, mini-courses

Besides the lecture series we keep SciEvents, a shared calendar of bioscience events in Warsaw that anyone can add to. Over the years the club has also run journal clubs, an RNA mini-symposium, a two-week mini-course and an outing to an exhibition.

RNA Club Warsaw started in 2016 as a spin-off of Do Science! and restarts in October 2026 as a monthly series on the Ochota Campus.

News

Latest

We are relaunching Do Science! in Warsaw, and we need organisers

Do Science! is a simple idea. PhD students and postdocs invite a scientist they want to hear, and the speaker gives a lecture. Afterwards comes the part we like best: a career advice talk and a beer, without the PIs.

Since 2013, when we started Do Science! with Wojciech Siwek and many others, we have hosted three Nobel laureates and around forty other speakers (see the full list of meetings). The next round should be picked by the people who will sit in the audience.

Do Science! and RNA Club Warsaw can live side by side on the Ochota Campus. RNA Club brings the labs together. Do Science! is for early-career researchers who want to meet the people whose work they read.

If you are a PhD student or postdoc at IIMCB, CeNT, IBB, Nencki, or anywhere else in Warsaw, join the team. You choose the speakers. We will help with invitations and logistics, and stay out of the way. Shoot us a message.

Meeting format

How a Do Science! evening works

  1. 18:00
    Lecture and discussionThe speaker's science, for a broad life-science audience. Students and postdocs ask first.
  2. 19:15
    Career adviceHow the speaker got where they are, and what they would do differently.
  3. ~19:45
    Coffee or beer with the speakerAt a place near the campus, such as Mam Ochotę or Jeleń na Rykowisku.

Suggest a speaker

Who would you like to hear? Send a name, a sentence on why, and any connection you have to them. Invitations for guests from abroad are easier when they coincide with a visit to Warsaw.

m.magnus@cent.uw.edu.pl

Hosted laureates

Three Nobel laureates on the Ochota Campus

Robert Huber Chemistry 1988

Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Martinsried

Brian Kobilka Chemistry 2012

Opening of the 2013/14 academic year, with Gottfried Schatz and Ineke Braakman

Venki Ramakrishnan Chemistry 2009

MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge · “Meet the Ribosome”

Meetings

Every meeting so far

Newest first. Talks in 2020 and 2021 were held online. Numbers follow the original meeting numbering. Filter by year or search for a speaker, institute or topic.

SciEvents

Bioscience in Warsaw, in one calendar

SciEvents is a community calendar of seminars, lectures, workshops and conferences across Warsaw's life-science institutes. Anyone can subscribe, and anyone can send in an event.

Subscribe by email

Mailing list

Send an empty email to this address to join the Google Group.

do-science-scievents+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Add an event

SciEvents inbox

Send the title, date, time, place and a link. We add it to the shared calendar.

m.magnus@cent.uw.edu.pl
Calendar and news

Google Calendar and Facebook

The calendar has an iCal export for Outlook or Apple Calendar. Announcements go out on Facebook.

Calendar on the current site
facebook.com/DoScience

Organisers

The Do Science Team

PhD students and postdocs of IIMCB and Biocentrum Ochota. The team changes as people graduate and move on; new organisers are always welcome, and it is a good way to meet speakers you would not otherwise talk to.

m.magnus@cent.uw.edu.pl

Location

Biocentrum Ochota

Most meetings take place at the International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology in Warsaw (IIMCB), ul. Księcia Trojdena 4, on the Ochota Campus. Rooms vary; each announcement gives the exact one.

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