I am Omkar Joshi, a Doctoral Researcher in the lab of Prof. Johanna Ivaska at the Turku Bioscience Center. I was recently nominated by Technology Academy Finland (TAF) to represent the Ivaska Lab, Turku Bioscience and the University of Turku at the Global Young Scientist Summit (GYSS) 2026, organized by the National Research Foundation (NRF), Singapore. It was a week of fantastic science, brainstorming, interactions with award-winning scientists, exposure to new research areas and a lot of of networking. We were 12 researchers from different parts of Finland, working on very diverse topics ranging from geography and climate science to neuroscience and AI. Getting to know them closely was, in itself, quite an amazing experience.

One of the shiny aspects of GYSS is its rather embellished line-up of speakers including Nobel laureates, Turing award winners, Millennium Technology Prize winners etc. While it is, of course, exciting to hear from these pioneering scientists, what sets GYSS apart is the organizational structure. The event offers plenty of opportunities to interact with them informally, which at a PhD stage is quite transformative. I had the chance to ask many of them about their own scientific journeys, the hurdles they faced and their advice for current PhD students. One piece of advice that has stuck with me, perhaps because I heard it from multiple people working in very different fields, was that things tend to fall into place if we keep doing good science. Amidst all the bureaucracy surrounding a PhD or academia in general, we need to keep our eyes peeled and keep chasing the question(s) that genuinely piques our interest. Often times, this means trudging down an unknown, seemingly empty road for a while. But as Robert Frost elegantly puts in The Road Not Taken “…I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference”, that empty road might just lead us to discovering something remarkably cool.

Meeting and interacting with these renowned scientists is, I must say, only a part of the GYSS experience. The event brings together more than 400 participants representing over 50 countries, exposing me to fascinating science and research done across a wide range of disciplines. And the atmosphere is super friendly. Almost everyone is eager to meet new people and make friends, learn more about others’ work, exchange ideas, and even brainstorm potential avenues for collaborations. Although researchers are frequently portrayed as socially awkward, the GYSS community is a perfect counter-example, and it led to the biggest expansion of my network from a single (science-related) event so far during my PhD. Through interactions with so many folks, it became clear that we can make rapid progress and get profound insights if we combine our expertise and tackle problems together. The road to scientific breakthroughs, as said above, is unknown and uncertain, and navigating that empty road with inputs from multiple experts makes the journey both more productive and more rewarding.

If I haven’t advertised it enough already, the event is held in Singapore, which is a cool place to visit and explore. The food is awesome, and I was impressed by the city’s (/country’s) design, integrating forests and greenery into the urban architecture.

If all of this sounds interesting, I warmly recommend you to apply, and feel free to get in touch if you need any help! Finally, I would like to thank TAF for the nomination, my supervisor Prof. Johanna Ivaska for her encouragement, and Prof. Riitta Lahesmaa (and Turku Bioscience) for supporting my travel.

Writer of the article is Omkar Joshi, Doctoral Researcher from Johanna Ivaska’s research group.