Hello to my Nebraska INBRE Family,
I can only imagine how happy we all are as our lives return to normal as the COVID-19 pandemic slowly comes to an end! This summer, for the first time in two years, our research faculty at Creighton, UNL, and UNMC had their laboratories available to accept new scholars for the summer 10-week program. On another bright note, the NE-INBRE Annual Conference will take place in Nebraska City from August 7-9.
The agenda includes poster presentations by INBRE DRPP faculty from the PUIs; poster presentations by each core facility, oral presentations by first year scholars, poster presentations by second year scholars, a keynote speaker from a scientific theme; and presentations from former scholars (finished his/her PhD). Notably, this session indicates the maturity and success of the NE-INBRE Scholars Program and has become a highlight of the meeting.
We also arrange scholar focus groups (facilitated by the External Advisory Committee and our external evaluation team, DMD Consulting), panel discussions on career development for scholars, discussions between PUI faculty and scholars regarding research opportunities (during the academic year), and a closing banquet and awards ceremony.
We have extended this meeting to include any of our INBRE Scholar who recently graduated as they did not have an opportunity to attend the conference. I am proud of our 2020 Scholars. While I understand their general sentiment, put well by one Scholar "I think that our cohort just got kind of messed up because of Covid, and that is honestly no one’s fault, but still it was like I wonder where we would be at now if we’d gotten the full experience," they persevered as indicated by their immediate plans following graduation.
- 9 Scholars plan to attend graduate school
- 3 Scholars plan to purse a professional program (medicine, veterinary, or dental)
- 3 Scholars plan to seek employment in a science-related field
- 3 Scholars will take a gap year
I would like to thank our NE-INBRE faculty for their excellent mentoring and guidance in making our 2020 Scholar class so successful! Talking about our NE-INBRE faculty, Dustin Slivka (University of Nebraska at Omaha), Ben Brandsen (Creighton University), and Brett Schofield (Doane University) will be leaving our INBRE family at the end of this summer. They each have been valued member of the Nebraska INBRE and we wish them all the success in their future.
Finally, in 2019, we initiated "The James Turpen INBRE Scholar Excellence Award" in honor of our former NE-INBRE PI. This cash award ($500) goes to our top graduating Scholar (grades, publications, awards, etc.) that is attending graduate school. I am pleased to announce that this year’s winner is Ms. Isioma Akwanamnye, a graduate of Chadron State College.
Isioma will be attending graduate school at Case Western University. She is interested in working on cancer immunotherapy. Eventually, she would like to return to her native Nigeria to help improve science research in her country. Ann Buchman, her mentor, said "Isioma is a smart, dedicated, enthusiastic and hard-working individual who has the desire and drive to make a real difference in the scientific world both here and in Nigeria." Good luck to her and all our graduating scholars.
Enjoy the rest of the summer and I look forward to seeing everyone in Nebraska City!