All MCB students—including undergraduates with concentrations in Neuroscience, CPB, and MCB, as well as graduate students and postdocs in MCB labs—are invited to join faculty and staff for a virtual departmental retreat called MCB BIOpalooza. The event will be a celebration of the vibrant and dynamic community of MCB.
Registration beforehand is required and can be completed here.
The virtual retreat will take place over Zoom from Wednesday September 23 through Friday September .
Although the MCB departmental retreat is typically a weekend event, BIOpalooza will take place on weekday afternoons during time slots when few classes are held. The goal is to allow undergraduates and graduate students to participate.
Participants who register by Friday (September 11) will receive a free MCB BIOpalooza t-shirt and an invite to the virtual premiere of the new documentary, Picture a Scientist. The film addresses gender and equity issues in science through interviews with noted scientists.
BIOpalooza attendees will be able to stream the film, which will not be publicly available, starting on September 19 and join a panel discussion about the film on Wednesday, September 23 at noon.
The retreat’s lineup also includes community-building activities, talks by MCB scientists, and the annual MCB Retreat awards.
On Thursday (September 24) and Friday (September 25), MCB researchers will give 3-minute “slam” talks to give students a sampling of research being conducted in the department. This year, incoming graduate students and undergraduates are especially encouraged to tune in for the slam talks and consider which labs they’re interested in joining. Each round of “slam”talks will be followed by a brief breakout session Q&As.
MCB BIOpalooza’s schedule also includes community-building events, which will give incoming graduate students, faculty, and other members of the MCB community the chance to meet each other over Zoom. Although three days of Zoom events is only a start, the hope is that these events will help MCB community members form the personal connections that fuel scientific research, especially during difficult times.
The retreat is the product of many hours of planning and work by the BIOpalooza planning committee, which is comprised of: Nick Bellono (MCB faculty), Jenny Chen (MCB postdoc), Oscar Hernandez Murillo (MCO G4), Craig Hunter (MCB faculty), Polina Kehayova (MCB scientific director), Jessica Manning (MCB executive director), Camila Ossa (MCB staff event planner), Max Prigozhin (MCB faculty), Anastasia Repouliou (MCO G3), Amanda Whipple (MCB faculty), and Pu Zheng (MCO G5).
Thank you to everyone on the BIOpalooza planning committee!
To everyone else, please register for MCB BIOpalooza by this Friday (September 11). We hope to see you there!
Questions about MCB BIOpalooza should be directed to Camila Ossa at camila_ossa@harvard.edu.
