The IUBMB Brian Clark lecture hall in Spetses Island, Greece

The Spetses Summer Schools on Molecular and Cell Biology were started by the late Marianne Grunberg-Manago (former President of IUBMB) and Athanasios Evangelopoulos in 1966 and through their untiring initiative have been kept as a series of well-known lecture courses until to date. Initially, the Spetses Summer Schools were sponsored exclusively by NATO. In recent years, Schools relied on major financial support from FEBS, EMBO and IUBMB. Over the years, over 500 different lecturers came to the island (including more than 15 Nobel laureates) to teach more than 5,000 young pre- and post-doctoral researchers. Schools were initially hosted at the Anargyreios & Korgialenios School of Spetses. However and thanks to the generous donation by the late Brian Clark (former President of IUBMB, participant of the first Summer School and Organizer of several subsequent Schools) and the support of IUBMB the “IUBMB/B. Clark lecture hall” has been established within the Spetses Hotel and hosts Schools since 2012.

With its ideal location on the waterfront and beautiful amenities, The Spetses Hotel, the largest on the island and only 800m from the main port, features 3 conference rooms with audiovisual equipment to stage a perfectly organized convention. Boasting 77 rooms, a restaurant, a bar, and a beach bar, the Spetses Hotel offers a full experience for participants with unique accommodation and ideal scientific work facilities.

IUBMB Brian Clark lecture hall and view from Spetses Hotel