KWiSE 9th Annual East Coast Conference was held at the University of Maryland (UMD) College Park Campus on Saturday April 19, 2014. The title of this year’s annual conference was “Reaching out to young scientists,” and was organized by the Greater Washington DC chapter of KWiSE. The meeting was opened by an introductory remark by the current chapter president, Prof. Hey-Kyoung Lee of Johns Hopkins University (JHU). This was followed by an introductory speech from Prof. Eun-Suk Seo of UMD, the president-elect of KWiSE. Prof. Seo outlined the relationship between KWiSE and KSEA, as well as the organization and missions of KWiSE. Prof. Lee then introduced the next chapter president Dr. Eun-Ju Cheong of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), who will be leading the Greater Washington DC chapter from this July.

The conference started by two keynote lectures. The first was given by Dr. Myung-Hee Park, who is a Section Chief at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr. Park presented her life long research on the functional and evolutionary significance of eukaryotic translation factor, eIF5A. The second keynote speaker was Prof. Jung-Youn Lee, who is an Associate Professor of Plant and Soil Sciences at the University of Delaware. She gave an overview of her research examining intercellular signaling between plant cells, and how it relates to developing means to strengthen plant’s resistance to pathogens. Both keynote speakers also gave brief overview of their career paths.

The morning session was followed by lunch, which allowed members to network with each other in an informal setting.

The afternoon session started with Research Highlight Short Talks by younger members of the chapter, who gave brief overview of cutting-edge research on-going at regional institutes. The speakers were Dr. Eunchai Kang at Johns Hopkins Medical Institute (JHMI), Dr. Una Park at the National Institute of Neurological Disorder and Stroke (NINDS), Dr. Ann Choe at JHMI, Dr. Joo-Young Park at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), Ms. Bok-Eum Choi at Georgetown University, and Dr. Jenny Kim a the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

The last session was a panel presentation to introduce the diverse career paths in science. The panel speakers were Dr. Amy K. Flatten (Director of International Affairs, American Physical Society), Dr. Hyun Son (Senior Program Management Officer, Food and Drug Administration), Dr. Jong-in Hahm (Associate Professor of Chemistry, Georgetown University), and Dr. Hee Yong Kim (Laboratory Chief, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, NIH). The panelists outlined diverse career options and various resources that can allow one to evaluate different career options, such as myIDP. The presentation was followed by a question and answer session, where members were able to obtain valuable insights on diverse topics ranging from practical skills needed for different career options to professional difficulties faced by woman scientists.

The KWiSE 9th Annual East Coast Conference was a great success with over 60 participants from regional institutes covering Washington DC, Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. There was a notable increase in the participation of Korean-American undergraduate students (about 20) compared to previous years, which suggests that we met our goal of reaching out to the younger generation of scientists. The conference not only show-cased scientific achievements of local Korean woman scientists, but it also provided networking opportunities between the members. The career development panel was interactive and provided members with valuable information and resources for their career development. Overall, we have achieved our set goal to reach out to young scientists, and received valuable positive feedback as to how to enhance our interaction with local Korean student associations.

Participants of the conference posing for a group photo during lunch break.