You have three minutes to summarize the intricacies of your biomedical research to a general public unfamiliar with your field of study… Go.
This was the challenge put in front of the nine finalists Tuesday, December 8th at the 3rd annual Postdoc180 competition. Organized and hosted by the the Career & Professional Development team in the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, Postdoc180 is a competition within the Medical School that challenges postdocs to present their scientific research in 180 seconds with one static slide to a non-expert audience.
The Postdoc180 event was held virtually this year, but that didn’t stop the crowd from coming. With over 120 attendees, the pressure was on for our competitors. After welcome messages from Shoba Subramanian, PhD and Maggie Gardner, PhD, the competition was underway. Topics were presented such as “Protein folding problems in diabetes”, “Lose Weight! – No Diet. No Exercise. No Pills!”, and “Biosocial Impact on Black Births (BIBB)”.
This year, we removed the ranking system of 1st-3rd and simplified it to the top three. Still, no one envied the role of the judges. All nine finalists received $150 in professional development funds. An additional $150 were earned by presenters of the top three speeches:
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| Helen Rich, PhD Balancing Immunity: Bacterial Infection During Influenza Microbiology & Immunology PI: Beth Moore |
Isha Verma, PhD PI: Jack Parent |
Ramkumar Mohan, PhD Watch & Learn: To Prevent Diabetes How Synaptotagmins Control the Release of Insulin Pharmacology PI: Arun Anantharam |
OGPS Postdoc Coordinator, Beth Bodiya, led the audience through a voting process for the People’s Choice award. For an event that challenges participants to gain and hold the audiences attention and have them leave with a better understanding of your research – the People’s Choice award is just that. A direct response from the audience you aim to engage. For this reason, the title arguably carries the same weight as the judge’s response. This award also delivers $150 in funding:
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Alejandra Mondino, DVM |
As previously stated, all finalists went home with $150 to put toward professional development. Congratulations to our additional five finalists:
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| Anoop Arunagiri, PhD Metabolism, Endocrinology, & Diabetes “Protein folding problems in diabetes” |
Surbhi Gahlot, PhD Molecular & Integrative Physiology “Lose Weight! – No Diet. No Exercise. No Pills!” |
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| Nadia Saadat, PhD Pediatrics “Biosocial Impact on Black Births (BIBB)” |
Matthew Ostrowski, PhD Microbiology & Immunology “Food Additives and the Microbiome” |
Jitendra Pant, PhD |
Congratulations to all participating postdocs!
Special thanks to our judges during the Postdoc180 Finale:
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Molly Kleinman, PhD |
Bryce Pilz, JD |
Paula Ross, PhD |
The Career and Professional Development team – Beth Bodiya MS, Maggie Gardner, PhD, and Shoba Subramanian, PhD – provides support via a variety of mechanisms to all OGPS affiliated learners and programs.