Helloooo Brilliant Bold Beautiful Biologists! 🦠🧬🧫🧪
I hope you all have had a wonderful semester! Welcome to our first… BIOLOGY NEWSLETTER where you can read about BSG/bio events, our seniors, faculty and staff, and news in the biosphere!
A HUGE congratulations to the senior class of 2022 for finishing their theses and for being such a wonderful part of the biology community here at Haverford! You all will be missed and we cannot wait to see all you accomplish after Haverford. Speaking of our wonderful seniors… there is going to be a senior poster session on Tuesday, May 3rd (11-2) at the Bramall Tennis courts. Everyone is invited, so come support all the hard work the class of 2022 did this year!!
Additionally, a big welcome to the new biology majors! Declaring a major is very exciting and we hope you enjoy your time in our biology community!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We are the Biology Student Group (BSG), the bridge between students and faculty and a group of students who are passionate about making the biology community welcome and accessible. So let's continue with a BSG wrap up! We had a few great events this year; keep an eye out for some of these next year.
Pre-registration info session
Lab trick-or-treat (collab with CSG)
Sticker/Button making workshop (with VCAM)
Choose a major event (collab with CSG)
After the Fall 2022 semester, the BSG collected anonymous feedback on Superlab and worked with faculty to integrate student feedback into the next year of Superlab! Next year, our Superlab faculty will implement changes to keep students working between 10-12 hours per week and ensure students do wet lab work at reasonable times as student safety is the first priority. At the beginning of the semester, students and Superlab faculty will work together to create community guidelines to ensure Superlab is a safe space for all. This summer, the BSG, seniors, and faculty will be working collaboratively to create a Superlab basic guide entailing what to expect on Monday lectures, what outside of class work may look like, and other Superlab essentials!
Next year, we hope to continue these newsletters, host more academic and community building events, and most importantly, increase communication, transparency, and accessibility, especially for BIPOC and FGLI students, so keep a lookout for us! :)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We have a visiting professor that will be leaving us next year (sad) for other new and exciting ventures (exciting)! But she wouldn’t dare leave without saying goodbye!! Check out Seol Hee Im’s beautiful goodbye below; you will be incredibly missed.
Hi, all~!
My name is Seol Hee Im, and I am a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Biology at Haverford College. My research is focused on Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms of Pain Modulation using Drosophila melanogaster as the model organism. I was born and grew up in Seoul, Korea. I came to the United States in 2004, received Ph.D. at Washington University in St. Louis (St. Louis, MO), did postdoctoral training at MD Anderson Cancer Center (Houston, TX), and then came to Haverford in 2018. I am a mother of two boys and enjoy spending time together with my family. We have fun baking, cooking, and gardening together. This semester is my last semester at Haverford, and I will be starting a tenure-track position at Cabrini University in August 2022. So, I would like to say a few words of self-reflection on my time at Haverford and say goodbye to you all using this space.
The last four years at Haverford College have been very special to me. I have always been passionate about teaching, but my experience at Haverford further affirmed my passion and made me a better teacher. I was so fortunate to have such wonderful colleagues who care for and support my career success. Teaching with them in BIO201 and Superlab was a great experience, from which I learned tremendously. My happiest memories from Haverford are interactions with students. We spent time together in classrooms, labs, and numerous zoom meetings, discussing biology concepts, research designs, data interpretation, and personal accomplishments and challenges. All those moments will be cherished and will bring a happy smile to my face. I am grateful to know that I was loved by Haverford students, and I will miss all of you. I would like to thank all students who participated in my research lab (too many to name all of you, but you know that I remember your contributions), Nicole Cunningham, Luke Troyon, Joanne Brown, and Beth Liberman for all their support. As Cabrini University is not far from here, I will continue networking and collaborating with Haverford Biology Department, so if any of you would like to reach me, please feel free to send me an email (si7001@cabrini.edu). I wish you all a happy and healthy summer!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We’re going to close off with highlighting a scientist! Dr. Kizzmekia S. Corbett is a Black female immunologist working as an assistant professor of immunology and infectious diseases at Harvard. She has been extremely influential in the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine development; in fact, the vaccine actually incorporates concepts designed by Dr. Corbett’s NIH team, used by Moderna Inc.. Not only is she amazing on the research end, she also works with underserved communities, advocating for STEM education and vaccine awareness! She recently submitted a work for publication about the antibody WS6, which was found to neutralize beta-coronaviruses by recognizing a helical stem supersite! You can read this article here and you can learn more about her here!
Thank you so much for reading, and we hope to see you next time! Good luck on finals everyone!!
With love,
The BSG 💚 xoxo
P.S. Special shoutout to the following BSG seniors! Thank you so much for all your work and we will miss you all so much!
Zakiyyah Winston (Fairman Lab)
Annette Lee (Fairman Lab)
Genevieve Uy (Fairman Lab)
Giancarlo Rendon (Miller Lab)
Roy Simamora (Jain Lab)
Ruanna Small (Jain Lab)
Sharon Nwankpa (Johnson Lab)
Urgyen Wangmo (Jain Lab)
Comments