In the past several weeks, I've been excited to attend several awesome events on the UGA campus. Our Cellular Biology grad students hosted their first Research In Progress seminar. Members of the Farmer and Muralidharan labs presented and it was a great kickoff for the series. I'm really looking forward to future RIPs and getting to know the students in the department better. The CBIO department has also hosted some really great speakers in our departmental seminar series.
The Regenerative Bioscience Center also hosted its first Connection Series event of the year. These events will be an opportunity for RBC members to discuss current research efforts in an informal and interactive setting. Drs. Peter Kner and P.S. MohanKumar kicked off the series, stimulating great discussion.
The (new) Center for Molecular Medicine at UGA also hosted an inaugural symposium, featuring a slate of fantastic speakers. The talks focused on approaches that can take fantastic basic science and move it toward translational applications. Highlights included Michael Rudnicki talking about the asymmetric cell division of satellite cells in the muscle, Sally Temple presenting her work on regeneration/stem cells in the retinal pigment epithelium, and Jim Wells presenting an overview of his lab's work on organoids. It was a lovely two days of talks at the new CMM building (see photo attached).
On the teaching/science education side, I have really been enjoying the Faculty Learning Community I joined for junior STEM faculty. It is led by the excellent educators Julie Luft and Alice Hunt. I was able to observe some excellent science classes (including Erin Dolan's Biochemistry class). I am really inspired (and excited) to be in a place where I know that my future teaching endeavors will be supported and enriched just as I have a great environment in which to launch my research program.
So a great few weeks of science and science education at UGA!
