Graduate Student Symposium

Every other year the graduate students organize a symposium on a topic chosen by the students. It provides an unusual opportunity for graduate students to run a symposium and to have extensive contact with leading scientists. The symposium generally lasts three days, and leaders in the field are invited to speak. The students have been extremely successful in attracting all-star groups of speakers to these symposia. Local industrial and institutional sponsors help to provide funding.

Some past topics:

• Sex Determination
• RNA Molecules as Mediators of Cellular Events
• Pathogen Strategies: Evasion and Suppression of the Immune System
• Life at the Edge: From Prebiotic Chemistry to Extraterrestrial Biology
• Zen and the Art of Cell Cycle Maintenance
• Evolution from the Inside
• The Self-Wiring Machine: Development and Functional Organ Systems
• The Human Genome
• Self vs. Nonself: Modes of Organismal Recognition and Defense
• Pattern & Polarity: Establishing Difference in Development
• Chromatin Structure and Gene Expression: Beyond the Double Helix
• The Molecular Mechanisms of Cellular Motility
• Programmed Cell Death: Making a Graceful Exit
• Astrobiology
• Genomics and Beyond: DNA Tells All?
• Cancer Biology
• Host-Pathogens Interactions: Going where no one has gone before- and washing our hands afterward