E3S Eurosense Student Pieter Punter Award 2024 – Claudia Rorandelli
First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the European Sensory Science Society (E3S) for having honoured me with the Pieter Punter E3S Student Award. Receiving such a prestigious recognition for my contribution as a Young Researcher in the field of Sensory Science it is truly an unexpected and greatly satisfying experience! This award represents a great acknowledgement for the efforts and the dedication I have invested in my PhD research.
Eurosense 2024 was the second one I attended in person, but it was the first in which I had the opportunity to orally present some results of my PhD project ‘Taste alterations in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy: methodological aspects and risk factors for their development’, in such an esteemed setting. I truly appreciate the dedicated session on ‘Sensory in sickness and in health’, which allowed me to exchange knowledge and insights with other students and researchers working in the same area. It was also a great pleasure to finally meet in person some of the prominent figures I had only known through literature!
This year’s theme, ‘A Sense of Global Culture’, highlighted the significance of global collaboration to address the rapid societal changes and lifestyle shifts that have become even more evident following the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, advanced digital technologies have made global connections much easier, bringing us all closer together. I really appreciate to see how researchers worldwide are contributing to this collective effort, from integrating vulnerable populations – who have historically been underrepresented in research – into studies, to striving for the development of new and standardized methodologies to be used in the Sensory Science field.
I also found the keynote speakers’ presentations highly inspiring, and I thoroughly enjoyed the workshops, which once again underscored the essential role of a worldwide collaboration in research.
Eurosense 2024 was my last conference as a PhD Student, and I could not have imagined a more fulfilling experience! I look forward to continuing my journey into the fascinating field of Sensory Science and to following the advancements in this discipline by attending future Eurosense conferences!