As a first time BPS attendee, I was quite excited to see all the cool science, meet a bunch of awesome folks, and I was excited to present for the first time as a graduate student and gain insight on my project.
I started my day attending the Black in Biophysics session. I enjoyed listening to all the presenters (especially Dr. Lisa Jones who represented UCSD, woot-woot!)
But what Dr. Jerelle Joseph said really spoke to me, "Find good mentors and find them early!"
This is sage advice for folks who come from disadvantaged backgrounds, as I myself understood the value of having mentors.
I hope this also helped folks understand the importance of being good mentors too, this is part of the reason why we have such amazing scientists!
After the talks, I went around and spoke with some vendors. I didn't have much time due to my presentation appointment, but I did get the chance to talk to Chroma. They are an optical filter manufacturer for life sciences, microscopy, medical and industrial applications!
They had so many different filters, in various shapes and sizes! Dale, the sales rep, did a great job in taking the time to explain which wavelength each lens filters.
Here is a really cool example!
After that short talk, it was time to present my awesome research to even more awesome people.
I had some colleagues come and visit my poster (I would love to share pictures, but I am restricted due to BPS photo guidelines) and I was able to meet new people. I had some wonderful suggestions offered by folks in other fields, and I made some "appointments" to visit other posters! My favourite part was when my boss, Dr. Tatiana Mishanina and her family visited my poster. To learn more about my research, check out the Mishanina lab's website!
After a long day of talks and presenting, it was dinner time. I signed up for the dinner volunteer, and I hope each group (we made groups of 6) enjoyed the dinner destination of their choice. I went for thai with a group of people, talked about axon potentials in big squid, history museums in Virginia, and other cool science research.
Even though we didn't get dessert, we still had an awesome time.
After a long but eventful day, I took the trolley back to UCSD graduate housing. I look forward to learning more tomorrow, but for now, I wish you all a good night!
May your enzymes be forever functional,
-Jubi