The 30th Annual Gail Cassell Microbiology Research Retreat was held Nov. 8-10, 2024, at Joe Wheeler State Park. The event brought together faculty, staff, students, postdoctoral fellows, and alumni for a weekend of scientific collaboration in a relaxing setting.
"After a five-year hiatus, the retreat fulfilled everyone’s expectations," said J. Victor Garcia-Martinez, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Microbiology. "There was great camaraderie, great science, and for the most part, great weather. Having an opportunity to present your work in front of an audience represents a great training tool for our budding scientists, and hearing from our young faculty was terrific. Everyone is doing amazingly interesting work. I look forward to the next one."
Rodney King, Ph.D., served on the retreat planning committee this year. King called this year's retreat a "great success," noting that approximately 80 individuals were in attendance. He added that a highlight for him was the quality of this year's trainee oral and poster presentations, which included 15 oral presentations and 17 posters.
"I’ve always felt that the Microbiology Retreat, more than any other forum, serves to inform trainees about the breadth and quality of research that is conducted within our department," King said. "Because the Department of Microbiology is so diverse, it is easy to become siloed into groups that share research interest and focus. Although the immunology, bacteriology, virology, and structural biology communities each have forums that encourage student presentations and foster collaborative efforts, cross-discipline communication is rarer. And while we faculty may be informed of what our colleagues are up to, the trainees are often not. My hope is that the trainees who attended the retreat have come away with a much better view of the rich resources that the collective department has to offer."
John Kearney, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor and Endowed Professor in Immunology, has attended all but two research retreats since the event was initiated in 1988.
"As a veteran attendee and participator at all but two of the retreats, I was enormously pleased to see that despite the five-year absence of an out-of-town retreat, the excitement and enthusiasm of trainees and faculty has clearly not diminished," Kearney said. "The poster and oral presentations were uniformly outstanding with informative audience-speaker discussions and friendly social after-hours interactions. I was fortunate to read, from the microbiology office, the compilation of retreat venues, the very large list of trainee presentation awards, and the invited distinguished microbiology speakers over the 30 years of the retreat. Taken together this recent retreat and the record of past retreats is a truly impressive testimony to the resiliency and enthusiasm of our trainees and faculty and a credit to our department."
Jessica Lane, Ph.D., graduate student in the lab of Carlos Orihuela, Ph.D., said the retreat was a great experience.
"It was really nice to see the students and faculty outside of our labs and usual department settings," Lane said. "It was a great opportunity to get to know everyone on a more personal level in a relaxed environment."
A highlight, she added, was hearing talks by her fellow graduate students and postdoc that she otherwise would not have had the opportunity to hear.
"A lot of great science is happening in our department," Lane said.
Poster winners
New investigator
Chibuzo Nwokafor
Lucas Lam
Graduate students
Erin Earnhardt
Nicholas Evans
Postdoctoral
Chembikikandy Vipin, Ph.D.
Mohamed Aejazur Rahman, Ph.D.
Other
Chloe Jepson
Manse Kim, Ph.D.
Speech winners
New investigator
Brooke Bengert
Rania Smeltz
Graduate student
Lochlain Corliss
Jessica Lane
Postdoctoral
Rashmi Ravindran Nair, Ph.D.
Amarshi Mukherjee, Ph.D.