Life Sciences Symposium 2
2025: Fostering Continued Connections
2025 saw the Life Sciences Symposium grow into a key event for the Life Sciences Institute at UBC. We saw attendance grow by 50% to over 350 attendees, and had representatives from over one dozen departments at UBC represented in the day’s programming.
We implemented new and inspiring programming, in addition to adding additional trainee talks to the programming. This included science communication workshops, panel discussions on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in the Sciences, and captivating keynote and UBC faculty talks by Dr. James Burke of UF Scripps and Dr. Brett Finlay of UBC, respectively.
Keynote Speaker
Dr. James Burker, UF Scripps
RNA Biology During Viral Infection
UBC Faculty Speaker
Dr. Bretty Finlay, UBC M&I
The Microbiome in Health and Disease
Panel Discussion
Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in the Life Sciences and Beyond
Hosts: Dr. Liz Rideout and Dr. Rachael E. Sullivan of the University of British Columbia
Scientific Communication Workshop
“Building Effective Visual Abstracts”
Martin Krzywinksky
Data Visualization Expert & Staff Scientist Canada’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre at BC Cancer
Life Sciences Symposium Beginnings
2024: Accelerating Our Research
The first Life Sciences Symposium, brought to life by Hannah Shariati and Maddie Goldstein, brought together trainees and researchers across the life sciences in a completely student-organized event. Their vision brought about new collaborations, knowledge translation, and engaged discussion across life science disciplines.
The 2024 Life Sciences Symposium included student talks, a career workshop, faculty talks by Dr. Anna Blakney and Dr. Seth Parker, as well as a keynote by Dr. Jason Shepherd of the University of Utah. Exceptional interest and attendance at this event solidified it as a yearly occurrence at the Life Sciences Institute of UBC.
