Author: allisonlansverk

The George Washington University Annual Post Doc Appreciation Day went virtual this year on Sept 25^th 2020. Although connecting with others has been difficult, this hugely successful event brought together speakers and post-docs for a one-day event in celebration, appreciation, and education. Post-docs from every George Washington School attended the event from their homes, work offices, and labs throughout the day to share tips to navigate post-doc life and to hear about emerging research topics presented by their expert colleagues. 

            Deans Paul Wahlbeck from CCAS and John Lach from SEAS welcomed and encouraged the Post-Doc community. Invited speakers included Dr. Joshua Weiss (The Global Negotiation Initiative, Harvard University) “The art of negotiation,” Dr. Colin Young (GW Pharmacology/Physiology) on “How to successfully transition from postdoc to PI,” and  Dr. Lauren Ullrich (NINDS, NIH) on “Careers in government and the non-profit sector.” The morning session concluded with a presentation from James Chang (GW Innovation and Entrepreneurship). The highlight of the afternoon session was research talks from 9 post-docs, who spoke on topics ranging from nanoparticle drug delivery to cancer signaling to environmental air pollution inequalities.

            Prizes were awarded for the best research talks of the day, and for mentor of the year. Sharon George won first place for her talk “Sexual dimorphism in the roles of p38 MAPK isoforms in Doxorubicin.” Second place went to Gaige Kerr presenting “Impact of coronavirus lockdowns on air pollution: Successes and challenges for environmental inequality in the US,” and third was awarded to Preethi Bala Balakrishanan for her talk “Nanoparticle-based photothermal therapy combined with agonistic immunotherapy: a novel treatment strategy for aPD-1 non-responder in late-stage melanoma.” Finally, Dr. Erik Rodriguez (GW Chemistry) was presented the mentor of the year award, and provided closing remarks, concluding a very successful Post Doc Appreciation Day.

Guest author: Derek Jones, GW Post-Doctoral Scientist

As with other trainees around the nation, our Institute for Biomedical Science (IBS) PhD students and postdocs have seen their research progress “paused” in light of the pandemic, but they’ve still been very busy. Our senior students have continued their research remotely, pursuing data analysis, figures and manuscripts, mini-reviews, journal clubs, lab and special interest group meetings, and maybe an added virtual happy hour or two. We have also encouraged our second-year students, once their classes are done, to prepare and defend their grant-style qualifier exams so they are prepared for their dissertation work once we return.

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