Campus students lead the way, stay connected, share science

Friday, May 22, 2020

Prize winners 2020, Monica Grasty (left), Maia Baskerville (center), and Jake Heinlein (right)Congratulations to the organizers and presenters of the second annual All Points West symposium on a wonderfully successful series of virtual events. Our particular congratulations to the flash talk prize winners: Audience Favorite, Jake Heinlein (right, Hu Lab, Yale Energy Sciences Institute); Second Prize, Monica Grasty (left, Yale Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage); and First Prize winner, Maia Baskerville (middle, Hatzios Lab, Yale Microbial Sciences Institute). Baskerville’s talk focused on “how a cancer-causing microbe destroys host protection against free radicals.”

Over 5 separate lunchtime sessions, trainees from “all points” of Yale’s West Campus presented science flash talks via Zoom to an audience of students, faculty and staff, consistently hitting 70-100 attendees. A panel of judges drawn from across campus selected the winning talks, which were announced by last year’s winner, Eileen Condon, a postdoctoral fellow at the Yale School of Nursing.

In celebration of 50WomenAtYale150, the event culminated with a panel of outstanding West Campus alumnae - Camille Konopnicki-Vincent, Natalie Ma, and Jessica Yuan – who answered audience questions about their career experiences beyond Yale.

All Points West is the only symposium showcasing trainee research across the many scholarly disciplines of Yale’s West Campus. The event epitomizes the collaborative science model that is the foundation of the West Campus. Designed and led by the trainees themselves, the symposium aims to increase research cross-talk, communication, and collaboration among trainees; to practice communicating research in front of a broad audience; to strengthen the West Campus trainee community, and; to connect current scholars to campus alumni.

The event is coordinated by members of the West Campus Student and Postdoc Committee, with support from campus faculty, West Campus Administrartion, the McDougal Center for Student Life, and the Office of Career Strategy.

Our congratulations to Courtney Smith, Chair of APW Planning, who conceived and delivered her idea for a cross-campus trainee symposium for the second year running. Responding to the challenges of recent months, alongside Becky LaCroix, Chair of the West Campus Student and Postdoc Committee, the pair pivoted their efforts to host the 2020 event virtually so that scholars could stay connected and share their science with each other.

Contact jon.atherton@yale.edu