The 2021 Life Sciences Symposium was our first virtual symposium held in Gather.town. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic we couldn’t meet in-person, but we didn’t want to lose this opportunity for interdisciplinary collaboration and science communication. Our two keynote speakers, Drs. Una Fitzgerald and Adele Turzillo, spoke about sustainability in laboratory practices and the importance of good science communication. We also heard about interesting science from Huck students, with 12 oral presentations, 53 poster presentations, and six videos from students explaining their research. This year’s symposium was unique, but still managed to deliver the same quality and opportunities as an in-person event.
Click here for the Schedule of Events
Keynote Speakers
Dr. Una Fitzgerald
How fair is our labware? Reducing environmental impact in laboratory practices
May 18 at 11AM | Watch online
Dr. Una FitzGerald completed her B.S. in Industrial Engineering and MS.c. in Biotechnology at the National University of Ireland, Galway. Later, she worked in the pharmaceutical sector for five years in France and in the UK before embarking on a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. After a brief stint researching cancer for Prof. Sue Barnett at Glasgow University, Dr. Fitzgerald discovered her true passion for neurological disorders like multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease. Since returning to the University in Galway, Ireland, Dr. FitzGerald has established a track record in research multiple sclerosis. Currently, she is a funded investigator in CÚRAM and the SFI Centre for Research on Medical Devices, and was the previous director of the Galway Neuroscience Centre (2019-2020). Dr. Fitzgerald is the lead PI and Coordinator of a €3.9M E.U.-funded Innovative Training Network that trains 15 Ph.D. students across Europe. This training network aims to develop a novel device for treating the progressive phase of multiple sclerosis. In 2019, she led the initiative that earned CÚRAM lab a Green Lab Certification from My Green Lab, making it the first in Europe. She is now the chair of a national working group on sustainable public sector labs.
Dr. Adele Turzillo
The role of science in decision making: How interpretation and communication of scientific results impact our personal choices and public policy
May 19 at 11AM | Watch online
Dr. Turzillo earned her B.S. in biological sciences and a Ph.D. in physiology, both from Cornell University. She continued on to become a postdoctoral fellow at Colorado State University. As an assistant professor of physiology and animal science at the University of Arizona from 1998-2004 she studied ovarian function in dairy cattle. Dr. Turzillo went on to work as a physiologist at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Veterinary Medicine for the next several years. She then began her work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) from 2008 to 2013. As the national program leader for animal production systems, she developed priorities and led the peer review process for several USDA-NIFA’s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative grants. For more than six years, Dr. Turzillo provided leadership, planning, and oversight for programs in animal health and production with approximately $100 million annual budgets. In 2019, Dr. Turzillo became senior adviser for animal health, production, and animal products in the USDA’s Office of the Chief Scientist. Currently, Dr. Turzillo resides as the vice president for animal agriculture systems at the World Wildlife Fund and has been named head of the Department of Animal Science in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences.
Click here for Student Poster &
Oral Presentation Abstracts
“My Research” Video Contest
