Celebration of Science returns Oct. 17-18

October 14, 2024 - DENTON - TWU's annual Celebration of Science will take place Oct. 17-18 in the Scientific Research Commons and the Ann Stuart Science Complex.

This year's Celebration begins Thursday, Oct. 17, at 4 p.m. with the Dreyfus Public Lecture in ASSC room 259. Dr. Mandë Holford will speak on "A Venom Trail from Snails to Cephalopods." The lecture will be followed by the alumni reception and poster session on the first floor of the SRC at 5-7 p.m. Attendees must RSVP for the alumni reception.

On Friday, Oct. 18, the Celebration will feature the plenary lecture by Dr. Holford, the Anne Welsh McNulty Chair of Science Innovation and Leadership at Hunter College, one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York. Holford's lecture is titled, "Decoding and Visualizing Venom Diversity and Neuronal Control of Envenomation in Cephalopods."

Also on Friday, Dr. Shaina Porter of St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital will give a lecture, "CRISPR as a Tool for Genome Engineering."

Dr. Carolyn Young, professor and department head of Entomology and Plant Pathology at North Carolina State, will present "Diversity Matters: A fun-gal journey with fungal diversity."

The symposium is free and open to the public. A lunch will be provided but RSVP is required.

Holford holds scientific appointments at the American Museum of Natural History, Weill Cornell Medicine and the CUNY Graduate Center, joint appointments that reflect her interdisciplinary research. Holford's research focus is chemical and biological diversity, specifically, investigating venoms and venomous animals as agents of change and innovation in evolution and therapeutic development in pain and cancer. She is also cofounder of Killer Snails, LLC, an award-winning EdTech company that uses tabletop, digital and XR games as a conduit to advance scientific learning in K-12 classrooms.

Porter graduated magna cum laude from TWU in 2006 with a BS in Biology with a research emphasis. She then completed her graduate studies at UT Southwestern Medical Center, earning a PhD in cancer biology in 2012. Her post-doctoral training was at Washington University in St. Louis studying leukemia and blood stem cells. In 2017, Porter moved to a research staff position at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. In honor of her numerous contributions to the sciences, Porter was selected for the Celebration of Science 2024 Distinguished Alumni Award.

Young is originally from New Zealand and spent 15 years as a scientist at the Noble Research Institute in Oklahoma before joining the faculty at NCSU. She is internationally recognized for her research on fungal endophytes and their impact on forage systems, and she was the founding editor-in-chief of the Phytobiomes Journal. She is passionate about mentorship and fostering the next generation of scientists.

For more information, visit the Celebration of Science website.

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