Schedule

This event is over.

8:00 am Check in | Coat Check Booth

Gatton Student Center, Grand Ballroom (1st floor)

Register and pick up your scavenger hunt and networking bingo package! 

8:00 AM Breakfast | Ballroom A/B

9:00 AM Career Planning Workshop | Ballroom C

Whether you are looking for a faculty job or a career beyond academia, the Career Planning Workshop will help you concretely crystalize your plans for the remainder of your postdoc into a career of your choosing. This concise, hands-on workshop is intended to help postdocs take stock of their accomplishments, and determine their next steps into the future and beyond. Attendees should come prepared to actively participate and exchange with fellow postdocs. 

Director of Postdoctoral Affairs

10:00 AM Coffee break | Ballroom A/B

10:15 AM Introductory remarks | Ballroom C

Acting Dean of the Graduate School

10:30 AM The Future of CRISPR: What’s Ahead for Genome Editing | Ballroom C

Nobel Laureate in Chemistry

Professor of Chemistry and Molecular & Cell Biology at the University of California Berkeley

Please note that Dr. Doudna will be giving her keynote address remotely. This is however NOT a hybrid event and attendance in person is needed to listen to her address. 

11:15 AM Society of Postdoctoral Scholars Annual Address | Ballroom C

2022-2023 SOPS President, Postdoctoral Scholar of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics 

SOPS President address

2023-2024 SOPS Executive Committee Announced

11:30 AM Postdoc Poster Session | Ballroom A/B

The Postdoc Poster Session is an opportunity for postdocs to share their research in a relaxed atmosphere with fellow researchers on campus. Posters are encouraged to be accessible to a broad academic audience including graduate students, postdocs, and faculty from a wide spectrum of disciplines.  

Winners will be selected before the poster session based on abstract quality by the SOPS executive committee. 

Prizes: $200 for 1st place, $150 for 2nd place, $100 for 3rd place, $50 for 4th place

For more details, please visit the Posters page

12:00 PM Lunch | Ballroom A/B

1:00 PM Postdoc Talk Competition | Ballroom C

The Postdoc Talk Competition is an opportunity for postdocs to showcase and present their research or scholarly work to a scientifically diverse and educated audience in 10 minutes

Winners will be selected by a panel of faculty judges based on speaker's proficiency in communication, enthusiasm, language, visuals, and articulation of research. For more details see the scoring rubric here: Postdoc Talk Competition Scoring Rubric

Prizes: $300 for 1st place, $200 for 2nd place

Xiaoyue Yang | Engineering | Biomedical Engineering

Targeted in vivo gene editing for cancer immunotherapy in solid tumors

Prashant Purushottam Damke | Agriculture, Food and Environment | Veterinary Sciences

DNA transfer from Helicobacter pylori to humans

Taraman Kadayat | Pharmacy | Pharmaceutical Sciences

TK-006: Unveiling the Journey of Discovery and Progress in the Fight Against Cancer

Mostafa Khodakarami | Engineering | Mining Engineering

Functionalized aerogels Based on Biopolymers for Wastewater Treatment

Ajoy Aloysius | Arts and Sciences | Biology

Local Heroes of Healing: Tissue Resident Macrophages Impact on Spiny Mice Regeneration

2:00 PM Coffee break | Ballroom A/B

2:30 PM Career Panel | Ballroom C

The career panel is intended to showcase the breadth of careers that PhDs and postdocs choose to pursue and give graduate students and postdocs an opportunity to learn from the career paths of established professionals. To read about our panelists in more detail, please visit the Speakers & Guests page. 

Research Manager for Publications and Communications | Alltech

Senior Scientist | Demeetra AgBio, Inc

Distinguished Scientist in Discovery Chemistry | Merck

Clinical Science Liaison | Millennium Health, LLC

Controls Engineer | Argonne National Laboratory 

3:30 PM Coffee break | Ballroom A/B

4:00 PM Postdoc 3MT Competition  | Ballroom C

The Postdoc 3MT Competition is an opportunity for postdocs to tell an appealing story about their research or scholarly work to a general audience (i.e. non-specialist audience) in 3 minutes or less with a single static slide. The Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) format was developed in 2008 by the University of Queensland in Australia and is now practiced at universities around the globe. It is very different than other academic exercises in research distillation, such as pitches and lightening talks, and is intended to help researchers communicate effectively with a non-specialist audience. 

Winners will be selected by a panel of 3MT experts based on speaker's proficiency in communicating and engaging with a non-specialist audience. For more details see the scoring rubric here: Postdoc 3MT Competition Scoring Rubric

Prizes: $200 for 1st place, $150 for 2nd place, $100 for 3rd place, $50 for 4th place

Abdullah Masud | Pharmacy | Pharmaceutical Sciences

Nano-Targeting in Advancing "Heart Attack" Treatment

Ruiqing Lyu | Agriculture, Food and Environment | KTRDC

Fight against plant viruses

Abhilash Prabhat | Medicine | Physiology

Restricted feeding prevents dim light at night blunting of the daily rhythms in blood pressure, heart rate, and temperature in mice

MD Masud Rana | Arts and Sciences | Mathematics

Mathematics-based machine learning models for drug development

Namrata Anand | Pharmacy | Pharmacy Practice and Science

Identification of target protein molecules in M1 macrophage-based vesicles responsible for M2 to M1 repolarization

Martha Sim | Medicine | Saha Cardiovascular Research Center

Spatial Dynamics in Blood Clotting Regulation

Alec Tewsley-Booth | Arts and Sciences | Physics

Implicit Neural Representations Using Physics-Informed Neural Networks

Zachary Root | Arts and Sciences | Biology

Histological and Transcriptional Features of Programmed Genome Rearrangement in the Sea Lamprey Petromyzon marinus

Shayan Mohammadmoradi | Medicine | Saha Cardiovascular Research Center

Unlocking the Secrets of Platelets: A New Hope in Battling Deadly Aortic Conditions

5:00 PM Closing Remarks | Ballroom C

2022-2023 SOPS President, Postdoctoral Scholar of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics 

Postdoc Poster Session winners announced

Postdoc Talk Competition winners announced

Postdoc Lightning Talk Competition winners announced

5:15 PM Trivia & Reception | Ballroom A/B