On October 19th 2018, in in the main lecture hall of the Nalecz Institute of Biocybernetics of Biomedical Engineering, the ceremony for the inauguration of the Academic Year 2018/2019 of the Ochota Biocentre took place. During the ceremony, the directors of individual Institutes presented ‘doctorate cum laude’ awards for the authors of the best doctoral dissertations in the last academic year.

Ochota Biocentre is a consortium of 6 scientific institutes operating on the Ochota Campus: Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, International Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Institute of Biocybernetics and Biomedical Engineering, Mossakowski Medical Research Centre, and Institute of Fundamental Technological Research. The Consortium was established to allow more effective use of significant scientific potential, represented by a large group of experts working in member institutes (www.biocentrumochota.pan.pl).

One of the traditions of the Ochota Biocentre is rewarding the best PhD students with a statuette „doctorate cum laude”. From the Nencki Institute, eight people received the awards: Anna Bot (supervisor: Prof. Katarzyna Łukasiuk), Tomasz Bednarski (supervisor: prof. Paweł Dobrzyń), Agnieszka Góral (supervisor: prof. Anna Filipek), Katarzyna Łepeta (supervisor: prof. Leszek Kaczmarek; co- supervisor: dr hab. Magdalena Dziembowska), Paulina Urbańska (supervisor: prof. Dorota Włoga), Aleksandra Rumińska (supervisor: prof. Agnieszka Dobrzyń), Hanuma Chaitanya Chintaluri (supervisor: prof. Daniel Wójcik), Wenson David Rajan Karunakaran (supervisor: prof. Bożena Kamińska).

During the scientific session selected awardees from each Institute gave short lectures, regarding the topics of their PhD theses. The Nencki Institute was represented by Dr. Agnieszka Góral, who gave a lecture entitled: ”CacyBP/SIP protein: interaction with heat shock protein Hsp90 and role in cellular response to stress factors”.

The inaugural lecture, entitled "Little known successes of Polish scientists in the country for 100 years of independence", was given by prof. Michał Kleiber.

After the scientific part, the "Warszawski Koncept" choir performance took place, and in the evening PhD students participated in the integration meeting in the HYBRYDY Club.