West Campus trainees reset the bar for collaborative research
The West Campus community was in celebratory mood June 1st and 2nd for the 4th Annual All Points West Symposium – only the second to take place in person since the event began in 2019.
The trainee-led symposium is now established as one of the campus highlights, bringing together trainees, faculty and staff from across the West Campus to present and share the latest research.
“We often hear that our trainees are the “engines” or “drivers” of our research endeavor,” said Mike Crair, opening the 2022 event, “but here is proof that you’re also the next leaders of what we aspire to be as a campus.”
Science at the West Campus is defined by collaborative research projects that connect neighbors from different labs, institutes, and across numerous fields.
Crair, who is Vice Provost for Research with responsibility for Yale’s West Campus, cited the trainees’ commitment to collaboration and the kind of “real scientific collisions” that would result in new and important discoveries.
Masterminded by trainee coordinators Caroline Brown, Iman Mousavi, and Zheng Wei, this year’s symposium featured research talks by scholars representing each of the West Campus research pillars – health science, energy science and cultural heritage conservation - as well as a special diversity forum led by Josie Jacob-Dolan, Jennifer Troiano, and Uzoji Nwanaji-Enwerem, Fellows of the Office of Graduate Student Development & Diversity.
Congratulations go to all the symposium organizers and presenters, and particularly prize winners Josie Jacob-Dolan, grad student in the Brudvig Lab, Nata Dudkina, grad student in the Crawford Lab, and to undergrad members of the Yale iGem Team, working with the Isaacs lab.
Complimenting their excellence in science, the trainees enjoyed plenty of social time over the two-day event, with ever-popular West Campus trivia, happy hours and networking opportunities interspersed between research talks.
“The All Points West symposium is like no other!” concluded organizer Iman Mousavi.
“It’s a symposium for us, the whole Yale West Campus Family.”