On Aug. 9, the UNMC Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Anatomy (GCBA) held its 4th annual Student Research Forum at the Field Club of Omaha. This forum, which featured keynote speaker Ramesh Laungani, Ph.D., let faculty and students present and discuss the many different projects that are ongoing in the department.
Dr. Laungani, an associate professor from Doane University, spoke on scientific communication in a presentation titled, “Why going back to middle school was the best part of graduate school: How #SciComm has made me a better scientist.” The presentation focused on the importance of being able to communicate scientific work and concepts to a population that generally has a 7th grade understanding of scientific concepts.
“Developing this skill set will also allow you to better communicate to a scientific audience as well,” he said.
Students in GCBA laboratories come from a wide variety of programs. GCBA houses the Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology (MGCB) program within the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Biomedical Sciences (IGPBS). All committed MGCB students, as well as all IGPBS uncommitted students, were invited to attend the forum and interact with the students and faculty to learn more about potential mentors and students’ experiences within the department.
Andrew Dudley, Ph.D., opened the forum with a short presentation highlighting the successes of the GCBA department and MGCB program related to education. After the introduction, four graduate students gave oral presentations of their ongoing project. These students were chosen based upon evaluation abstracts submitted by all students and postdoctoral research associates who participated in the forum. Three judges scored the oral presentations based on a predetermined rubric.
The forum was completed with 26 participants (both students and postdocs) presenting their work in poster presentations and being judged by faculty members. Certificates and cash awards were presented for both outstanding and excellent oral and poster presentations.
This year’s awardees were:
- Sydney Greer (MGCB graduate student) – Outstanding Oral Presentation
- Hannah Harris (MGCB graduate student) – Excellent Oral Presentation
- Halle Halbkat (GCBA graduate student) – Outstanding Poster Presentation (tie)
- Aniruddha Sarkar (GCBA graduate student) – Outstanding Poster Presentation (tie)
- Donghee Lee (GCBA postdoctoral research associate) – Excellent Poster Presentation.
Congratulations GCBA on promoting effective scientific communication!