by Bill Snyder
The Vanderbilt Institute for Infection, Immunology and Inflammation (VI4) held its third annual symposium last week as a virtual, online event to preserve social distancing during COVID-19.
VI4 Director Eric Skaar, PhD, MPH, moderated the event, which was attended by more than 300 people. Skaar holds the Ernest W. Goodpasture Chair in Pathology and is vice chair for Research in the Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology (PMI).
Speakers included Emily Davenport, PhD, from Pennsylvania State University, Ansuman Satpathy, MD, PhD, from Stanford University, and Maayan Levy, PhD, from the University of Pennsylvania.
The Student of the Year Award was presented to Jacob Steenwyk, a graduate student in the lab of Antonis Rokas, PhD, Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair in Biological Sciences, and Professor of Biomedical Informatics.
The Postdoc of the Year Award went to Michael Sheedlo, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Borden Lacy, PhD, Edward and Nancy Fody Proffessor of Pathology and professor of Biochemistry.
Winners of the Junior Faculty Citation Awards for papers that have been cited frequently in subsequent publications were:
- First Place — Dawn Newcomb, PhD, assistant professor of Medicine and PMI;
- Second place — Mary Philip, PhD, assistant professor of Medicine and PMI; and
- Third place — Manuel Ascano, Jr., PhD, assistant professor of Biochemistry and PMI.