Memories from ISS R&D 2024
Last week's ISS Research & Development Conference was a blast 🚀 for our Genes in Space Finalist teams! These incredible students, their parents and teachers, and their graduate student mentors traveled to Boston, MA for four action-packed days that culminated with the announcement of our 2024 winner on Thursday, August 1st. You can relive the conference with us in the photos below:
Monday's Offsite Event at New England Biolabs
Starting on Monday, the student teams arrived at the conference and took part in a full-day offsite event at New England Biolabs. There, they participated in a "whodunnit" mystery lab experiment, attended a career panel with NEB scientists, and enjoyed a dinner with speeches from Sara Rommel of the NASA JSC Microbiology Laboratory and 2023 Genes in Space winner Isabel Jiang. The 2024 Hatch Prize for Mentorship was presented to Dr. Ana Karla Cepeda Diaz, and awards and recognitions were presented.
Keynote Speech from Sara Rommel outlining the history of molecular biology research in space
Finalists and Mentors being recognized for their achievements
On Tuesday, the conference was in full swing, and Genes in Space was busy with multiple presentations and panels. The students attended talks on space science and STEM education and spent time in the Expo Hall. That afternoon, four Genes in Space Alumni participated in the "Genes in Space - Where are they now?" panel on the conference main stage, discussing how their involvement in STEM opportunities like Genes in Space and ISSRDC impacted their perceptions of scientific collaboration and influenced their career trajectories.
Finalists Sean Lee and Vedant Mehta at the Genes in Space booth
The Genes in Space Alumni Panel featuring Aarthi Vijayakumar, Kaylie Hausknecht, Jonathan Chang, and Anna-Sophia Boguraev
Finalists Aarush Tutiki and Dhruv Grandhe delivering their presentation to our panel of judges
Wednesday's student presentations were the highlight of the week! The Finalists, who worked with their mentors for ten weeks over the summer, finally presented their experiments to our panel of judges. Each was thrilling and offered a unique approach to addressing a biological challenge of space exploration. Astronaut James Pawelczyk addressed the group, and shared some inspiring words to the young scientists regarding the work that he did for Spacelab aboard Space Shuttle Columbia. Following the presentations, our judges deliberated and came to a difficult decision.
Our five Finalist Teams appeared on stage for the announcement of this year's winner
Thursday's STEM Awards marked the end of the week for Genes in Space participants, and the end of the ISS Research & Development Conference. The program's Co-Founders, Scott Copeland and Kevin Foley from Boeing, as well as Sebastian Kraves and Zeke Alvarez-Saavedra from miniPCR bio, recognized all of this year's incredible participants and announced this year's winning team.
Genes in Space winners Julia Gross and Isabelle Chuang with astronaut Steve Bowen and the Genes in Space Co-Founders
This week was chalk-full of fun moments. Check out the gallery below for more pictures from ISSRDC!
