On Aug. 9, the UNMC Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Anatomy (GCBA) held its fourth annual Student Research Forum.
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From left, Vimla Band, Ph.D., Suravi Pramanik, Kishor Bhakat, Ph.D., Gargi Ghosal, Ph.D., Shannon Buckley, Ph.D., and Andrew Dudley, Ph.D. |
GCBA houses the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Biomedical Sciences (IGPBS) program on Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology (MGCB). The research forum included participation from all the labs in the GCBA department and the MGCB laboratories.
“The event promotes collaboration among labs and encourages cohesiveness within the department and the MGCB program,” said Vimla Band, Ph.D., director of the department.
Additionally, the incoming UNMC graduate students were invited to interact and learn more about potential mentors and research work carried out in the GCBA/MGCB labs.
Keynote speaker Kaleb Michaud, Ph.D., associate professor, UNMC Division of Rheumatology, discussed his journey to becoming a faculty member at UNMC. He gave advice to both students and faculty about maintaining a positive outlook despite the inevitability of roadblocks, and he provided emotional examples from his own life. His key message: Every individual’s definition of success and path to get there will be different.
There were five oral presentations by four graduate students and one post-doctoral fellow. All students and postdoctoral fellows submitted scientific abstracts for oral/poster presentation. A panel of three faculty members outside of the GCBA department reviewed all the abstracts and chose the abstracts for oral presentations. In addition, 22 students and post-doctoral fellows presented posters.
The event concluded with certificate and monetary awards presented by Dr. Band for the outstanding and excellent oral and poster presentations.
Awards included:
- Outstanding Oral Presentation: Megan Perry
- Excellent Oral Presentation: Jared Graham
- Outstanding Poster Presentation: Shrabasti Roychoudhury
- Excellent Poster Presentation: Suravi Pramanik