EMBO Practical Course
Scientific Programming and Data Visualization for Structural Biology
EMBL Heidelberg, Germany

Wednesday 5 May - Friday 7 May 2010

Deadline for registration is 17 January 2010.

The Practical Course on Scientific Programming and Data Visualization was developed at Harvard where it was offered for the last two years. In 2010, for the first time, it will move to Heidelberg, allowing 45 European students to participate. The course is designed primarily for structural biologists, but scientists from other disciplines are welcome to apply. The goals of the course are to to allow students to learn and master computational skills that are frequently required in less routine projects and to learn methods of data visualization. Joint lecture sessions and three parallel tutorial tracks will be offered: Scientific Programming with Python, OSX Programming and Molecular Visualization with Maya. As part of the course, we ask students to prepare a project proposal that is relevant for their own research area.

Confirmed Speakers

Alexander Griekspoor, mekentosj.com, United Kingdom

Bernhard Lohkamp, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden

Kathryn Loving, Schrodinger, United Kingdom

John McGee, The Renaissance Computing Institute, United Kingdom

Gaël McGill, Digizyme and Harvard Medical School, United Kingdom

Piotr Sliz, Harvard Medical School, United Kingdom

Ian Stokes-Rees, Harvard Medical School, United Kingdom

Registration and Payment

Please register online.


Deadline for registration is 17 January 2010.


This course has 45 places. There will be a two stage application process involving entering your contact data and then a letter of motivation. You should decide at the point of application which group you would like to be part of:

1. Python: As a part of the application, we ask students to prepare a short statement (no more than 2000 characters) detailing the main applications they currently use for their research, the programs they use to process and analyze data, and a proposal for new tools that they would like to develop using Python, which would address an outstanding need.


2. Maya: As a part of the application, we ask students to prepare a short proposal (no more than 2000 characters) that outlines how they would like to use Maya for their scientific research.


3. OSX: As a part of the application, we ask students to prepare a short statement (no more than 2000 characters) detailing their current programming proficiency, what they know about OSX programming, and what they expect to learn and be able to accomplish after taking this course.

The cost of the course is 250 EUR including 3 nights accommodation in the ISG hotel, course material and food during the course.