M A R I N E B I O L O G I C A L L A B O R AT O R Y A F F I L I AT I O N
BSD and MBL retreat focuses on ways to team up for research, education A group of 240 scientists, faculty members and students from the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) and the University of Chicago, including Argonne National Laborator y, explored ideas for joint scientific research and educational programming at a retreat in February on the University campus. Researchers got to know their colleagues through panel sessions, five-minute “lightning talks” on current research, roundtables and spontaneous side sessions. The MBL-UChicago retreat was the largest joint scientific meeting since the two institutions launched their historic affiliation in July 2013. “There is so much energy around the affiliation, and intellectual vigor to make it work,” said Neil Shubin, PhD, the Robert R. Bensley Distinguished Service Professor of Organismal Biology and Anatomy and senior advisor to the president and vice president for research and for national
Victoria Prince, PhD, professor of organismal biology and anatomy at the University of Chicago and associate dean and director of the Office of Graduate Affairs, and Joel Smith, PhD, assistant scientist and associate director of education at the Marine Biological Laboratory, chat before the retreat.
laboratories at UChicago. “It’s wonderful to see the exchange of ideas and exuberance emerge.” The retreat was one step in an ongoing process of discussion and engagement that will result in creating meaningful programs that capitalize on the institutions’ complementary strengths, Shubin said. A second retreat was planned for May at the MBL in Woods Hole, Mass. In March, the University and the MBL announced the first two PHOTO BY ROBERT KOZLOFF recipients of the Frank R. Lillie Research Innovation Awards: University of Utah neuroscientist Erik M. Jorgensen, PhD, and cell biologist Clare Waterman, PhD, of the National Institutes of Health. The grant program, the first formal research opportunity between the University and the MBL since the affiliation, provides funding for novel collaborative projects based at the MBL that will lead to transformative biological discoveries.
M E D I C I N E O N T H E M I D W AY
N AT I O N A L S C I E N C E F O U N D AT I O N
Download the free Medicine on the Midway mobile app
BSD graduate students awarded NSF research fellowships
The new Medicine on the Midway app is available for download in the App Store. • Compatible with iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch • Instant access to the current issue and recent back issues • Zoom and search • Embedded videos and links to web pages, podcasts and social media • Developed by GradMags, a University of Chicago Booth School of Business startup Visit the App Store or use this link: http://bit.ly/16rRYk8.
UChicago Cancer Conversations is a new blog featuring posts from cancer researchers, physicians and clinicians.
Join the conversation at CancerConversations.uchospitals.edu.
uchospitals.edu/midway
F
our graduate students in the Biological Sciences Division and three students in the BSD/PSD biophysical sciences program have been awarded 2014 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships. This prestigious fellowship provides students with stipends and tuition aid for three years. The students are Hector Acaron Ledesma, biophysical sciences; Adam Hardy, integrative biology; Alyssa Harker, biochemistry and molecular biophysics; Joshua Riback, biophysical sciences; Darcy Ross, integrative biology; Joel Smith, ecology and evolution; and Kevin Song, biophysical sciences.
MEDICINE ON THE MIDWAY
SPRING 2014
3