The 1st Annual Texas Conference
Hosted by the KWiSE Texas Chapter
On May 7, 2016, KWiSE Texas Chapter held its first Annual Regional Conference at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) in Houston, Texas. On-site registration began at 9:30am, with members introducing each other over breakfast. Texas Chapter President Dr. Sukyeong Lee (BCM) welcomed everyone and introduced Ambassador Joohyeon Baik, Consul General of the Republic of Korea in Houston, who gave the Opening Speech to inaugurate this significant event for our chapter. For the morning session, we had interesting scientific seminars given by Drs. Nayun Kim (UT Houston), Seunghee Yoo (UT Houston), and Se-Jin Kim (BCM), covering a wide range of topics including yeast genetics, circadian rhythms, and breast cancer.
Lunch time was a very entertaining, with Dr. Seol Hee Im (MD Anderson) presiding over group games such as the ABCs of Biology and Bio Pictionary. Team names were based on famous women scientists from history. Small prizes were given to the groups that scored the most points.
For our Career Development Seminar, we invited Dr. Gye Won Han (Bridge Institute @USC), who gave an inspirational keynote speech entitled “My Life in Science, and KWiSE”. She gave a summary of her career trajectory as a basic scientist and shared personal stories of her career choices. Dr. Han was the founder and first president of KWiSE, and her career spans decades of research in structural biology. Currently, she is involved in resolving the structure of various G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs).
Then Dr. Yangjin Bae (BCM) introduced a new Mentoring Program for our chapter. This program sponsored by the Center for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology (WISET) aims to provide a supporting system for all women at various stages in their careers. Our chapter is the first organization outside of Korea to participate in this program.
Finally, the last session was the Data Blitzes, which are a series of 3-5 minute talks aimed at giving a quick overview of various research topics, summarized in just a few number of slides. We had 9 talks and all participants received a gift for their contributions. Notably, even though the majority of the participants had a biomedical background, we were lucky to have a civil engineering expert, Dr. Doeun Choe (Texas A&M), who gave us a fascinating glimpse into her work in structural safety and hazard mitigation.
All in all, our very first regional conference was a great success and set the tone for future meetings to come. Survey questionnaires were filled by attendees to provide feedback for future KWiSE Texas Chapter activities. We hope to have more people attend next year’s meeting!
A link to our photos can be accessed here.