Biophysical Society Bulletin | June 2021

Communities

Student Chapter Event Highlights The Structural Biology and Biophysics Club (SBBC) at Purdue University, a newly minted BPS student chapter, hosted the SBBC Inaugural Symposium in preparation for Biophysics Week 2021. The event was hosted on March 18, 2021 in the Hiler Theater of Purdue University, which can accommodate more than 300 people during non-COVID times. This was the community’s first in-person scientific symposium after an entire year without face-to-face interactions, providing the group with some excitement at seeing some light at the end of the tunnel that is the COVID-19 pandemic. In total, more than 70 people attended, with fewer than half of the at- tendees joining via the online option. This symposium highlights the research projects happening in the various biophysics labs across Purdue University. Speakers give either a 20-minute talk or an elevator pitch to allow trainees from different academic timelines to present. There was rep- resentation from three different departments (Biological Sciences, Chemistry, and Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology) and nine different labs. Talks were given by undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows, show-

Chapter President Sebastian Kenny welcoming attendees to the SBBC Inaugural Symposium.

casing Purdue’s strong commitment to their trainees in biophysics. Faculty members served as judges for the program. At the end of the day, three awards were given: Christine Muli (Darci Trader Lab) received the Best Elevator Pitch Award, Caroline Plescia (Rob Stahelin Lab) received the Best Talk by Graduate Student Award, and Jonathan Dickerhoff (Danzhou Yang Lab) received the Best Talk by Post-Doctoral Fellow Award. It was exciting for the SBBC at Purdue to kick off Biophysics Week with this (hybrid) in-person symposium!

Award winners Christine Muli (left), Caroline Plescia (center), and Jonathan Dickerhoff (right) being recognized for oustanding presentations.

Virtual attendees taking advantage of the remote option for the Symposium.

June 2021

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