2019 Postdoc Research Day

Tuesday, September 17th, 2019

1:00 – 6:00 PM   Academic Rotunda

The third annual UConn Health / Jackson Laboratory Postdoc Research Day, a part of the National Postdoc Appreciation Week (NPAW) celebration, will be held at the UConn Health Academic Rotunda in Farmington, CT.

Our full agenda will include:

  • Keynote address by Dr. Steven N. Austad, Distinguished Professor & Chair, Department of Biology, University of Alabama at Birmingham
  • Speak4Science Postdoc Talks (4-minute, big picture talks)
  • Postdoc poster session

Keynote address: Dr. Steven N. Austad-“Busting the Bestiary: Why Worms, Flies, and Mice Are Not Enough for Aging Research”

Dr. Steven N. Austad is Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Biology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and also Scientific Director of the American Federation for Aging Research.

With an undergraduate degree in English literature and experience ranging from New York City taxi driver to lion trainer for the film industry, he receiving his PhD degree in evolutionary ecology from Purdue University in 1981.  He had had faculty positions at Harvard University, the University of Idaho, and the Barshop Institute for Longevity & Aging Studies at the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio in San Antonio, Texas before moving to his current position in 2014.

His research encompasses many aspects of the biology of aging from the molecular to the population level.  His research specialty is the identification and study of nontraditional species – particularly exceptionally long-lived species – for insight into processes of slow aging.

Dr. Austad’s research has won multiple awards, including the Geron Corporation-Samuel Goldstein Distinguished Publication Award, the Nathan A. Shock Award, the Robert W. Kleemeier Award, the Purdue Outstanding Alumnus Award, the Fondation IPSEN Longevity Prize, and the Irving S. Wright Award of Distinction.  He maintains a keen interest in communicating science to the general public and in that capacity has served on the Science Advisory Board of National Public Radio and has been a consultant to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, the Perot of Nature and Science, and the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

He has written popular science articles for numerous publications including Natural History magazine, Scientific American, National Wildlife, and International Wildlife. His trade book, Why We Age (1997), has been translated into nine languages.   He has also written more than 150 newspaper columns on science and aging. His current book, Methuselah’s Zoo: the Natural History of Exceptional Longevity (MIT Press) is due out in fall 2019.

 

Our organizing committee for questions/concerns:

 

View the Program Book here.

Speak4Science Winners:

First Prize: Wojciech Rosikiewicz

Second Prize: Hakimeh Ebrahimi-Nik

Third Prize: Joyshree Biswas