Annual Student Symposium 2016

On Wednesday and Thursday June 22-23, the Environmental Toxicology Graduate Program held its annual student symposium at the UCR Botanical Gardens.  It was an impressive event with 43 very good presentations - 7 from new students, 33 from continuing students and 3 from NIEHS predoctoral and postdoctoral trainees. The award winners this year were:  Ming Huang who won the Fukuto award; Nicole Williams, Lauren Walker and Yichong Fan were recognized as honorable mentions.  Sarah Vliet and Gwendolyn Gonzalez were selected for the best 1st year student presentations and Nicole Sparks was recognized with the students choice award.  Jason Cheng was selected for the outstanding mentor award.  Below are pictures from the event.

 Director Yinsheng Wang with the award winners Ming, Lichong, Nicole, Gwendolyn, Sarah and Lauren

Nicole Sparks receiving the Student's Choice award

Jason Cheng's students receiving the Outstanding Faculty Award on his behalf

The first year students

Our student affairs officer, Dawn Loyola, receiving a thank you gift from the students

 The symposium planning commitee

 

The program with the student-designed cover

 A group shot of most of those attending the symposium

Positions at EPA

Heidi Bethel contacted me with information on a job opportunity for recent B.S. level or higher graduates at the US EPA.  While graduates from various majors are welcomed, the focus is on chemistry majors as there is a requirement for completion of 30 semester hours of chemistry (plus 6 semester hours of physics as well as differential and integral calculus).  The closing date is June 20.  More information on applying can be found here.     

News from Naomi Rodriguez and Maik Schuler

Below is a message and picture received from Naomi Rodriguez and Maik Schuler. 

Maik is still working for Pfizer, Inc in Connecticut. It has been 16 years now and he still loves working for Pfizer and living in CT. Naomi is still volunteering for their son's school, active in local politics and serves as a Justice of the Peace. Aidan is now 13 years old and is in the 8th grade. He receives excellent grades and plays soccer (Maik is the coach). Aidan also plays golf, swims, plays drums and electric guitar. Life is good and we are happy. Please feel free to visit us, you are all welcome to stay in our home.

Note: While too modest to mention it, it is my understanding that Maik was recognized with one of the top awards given by Pfizer last year.  Our congratulations to Maik an impressive achievement. 

News from Alumna Wendy Hwang-Verslues

With the upcoming annual student symposium, we are hearing from alumni and friends of the Program.  Below is a message and picture received from Wendy Hwang-Verslues.

Hi from Taiwan! Two months after sharing my research in the E-Tox seminar last March, I came to Taiwan for an interview in the Genomics Research Center in Academia Sinica. Finally! After working as a postdoc and research scientist for a long time, I can run my own lab and have some lab rats to work on my research ideas.

Dexter (now 5) and Chase (now 2) have been adjusted their "St. Louis" life style to "Taipei" life style. It took a while, but now Dex can speak fluent Chinese and understand some Taiwanese. As for Chase, he is still speaking his alien language but respond to both English and Chinese. The kids language ability obviously is a big stimuli to their Dad, Paul, who now is taking a language class offered by Sinica and has Dex as his private tutor. We all enjoy the busy but convenient life style here although sometimes we miss the good old time in the US.

Etox and UCR are getting better and bigger! I sincerely wish you all a great symposium and a wonderful summer!

ORISE Fellowship in Food Safety at FDA

The Office of Food Additive Safety within the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition is searching for a recent MS or PhD recipient interested in conducting toxicological evaluations of food ingredients/contaminants.  According to Dan Levy who sent me the information "CFSAN recently announced that we will be updated our Redbook guidance which describes in detail the tests which need to be conducted in premarket safety submissions.  Off-site contractors are doing literature reviews and drafting  chapters which need to be reviewed by FDA staff. The Fellow will be working with the team of staff members coordinating this effort.  Fellowships are often renewed for additional years and fellows occasionally end up in more permanent positions at FDA."  For more information, please contact:  Jeremiah Fasano, Office of Food Additive Safety, HFS-255 jeremiah.fasano@fda.hhs.gov 240-402-1173.  

Lauren Walker's Article on Huffington Post

 

Lauren Walker, a current Environmental Toxicology graduate student working in Dr. Nicole zur Nieden's lab, has recently published an article on the Huffington Post Science blog entitled, "Making Peace with Bacteria - for Good Health".  The article discusses antibiotic resistance, beneficial aspects of bacteria, and advocates for the wise and judicious use of antibiotics.  Kudos to Lauren for reaching out to the public to call attention to this important issue.