The annual Celebration of Science at Texas Woman’s University (TWU) will be held on October 17-18 in Denton. The event will take place in the Scientific Research Commons and the Ann Stuart Science Complex. The celebration kicks off on Thursday, October 17, at 4 p.m. with the Dreyfus Public Lecture featuring Dr. Mandë Holford, who will discuss ‘A Venom Trail from Snails to Cephalopods’ in ASSC room 259. Following the lecture, an alumni reception and poster session will be held from 5-7 p.m. at the SRC. Attendees are required to RSVP for this event.
On Friday, October 18, Dr. Holford will deliver a plenary lecture titled ‘Decoding and Visualizing Venom Diversity and Neuronal Control of Envenomation in Cephalopods.’ Dr. Holford is the Anne Welsh McNulty Chair of Science Innovation and Leadership at Hunter College in New York.
The event will also feature a lecture by Dr. Shaina Porter from St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital on ‘CRISPR as a Tool for Genome Engineering’ and a presentation by Dr. Carolyn Young of North Carolina State University titled ‘Diversity Matters: A Fun-gal Journey with Fungal Diversity.’
The symposium is free and open to the public, with a provided lunch that requires RSVP. Dr. Holford, known for her interdisciplinary research on venoms and their applications, holds positions at prestigious institutions like the American Museum of Natural History and Weill Cornell Medicine.
Dr. Porter, a TWU alumna, will be recognized with the Distinguished Alumni Award. Porter’s career includes a magna cum laude graduation from TWU, a PhD from UT Southwestern Medical Center, and significant contributions to cancer research at St. Jude’s.
Dr. Young, formerly with the Noble Research Institute in Oklahoma, is celebrated for her work on fungal endophytes and mentorship at NCSU.
For further details, interested parties can visit the Celebration of Science website.