Trainee Corner | June 2017

Electing your SfRBM representatives is one way to get your voice heard and give feedback on the performance of the current Trainee Council. The Trainee Council aims to communicate the needs of the trainees to the Society leadership while preparing activities and sessions during SfRBM events. One example is the Meet and Mingle event on the opening night of the SfRBM Annual Meeting. By electing your representatives, you are contributing to the success of our Society. Congratulations to our newly elected Trainee Council members Laura Corrales-Diaz Pomatto, Madelyn Espinosa-Cotton, and Justin Quiles, and thank you to all those that participated in the voting process.

We would also like to have your nominations for the 2017 Mentoring Excellence Award. Excellent mentors are crucial in motivating and supporting their mentees, and their efforts should be highlighted. First, because they deserve recognition, but more importantly, it sets an excellent example for group leaders, junior and senior, of how to create a supportive and motivating environment for their group members. All in all, it's a process that improves our working conditions and consequently the quality of science we produce. So please take some time to nominate mentors that are deserving of the award. The deadline for nominations is August 31, 2017 (Additional info can be found here).

Last but not least, the Trainee Council organized two sessions of "Trainee Radical Data Blitz" at the Regional Redox Symposium hosted by the University of Alabama at Birmingham this past March. The sessions showcased the research of 20 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. These "Data Blitz" talks allowed the presenter 3 minutes to present their research, with another 3 minutes to field questions. Linda Zhang, a Vanderbilt University postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Sean Davies' lab, was one of the trainees selected to give a Data Blitz talk had this to say about the session: "[The Data-Blitz presentation] gave my work exposure, which invited students and faculty to my poster for further discussion. I would recommend all trainees to take advantage of any opportunity to present in a Research Blitz." This session format was well received by many of the faculty in attendance at the symposium as well. The Trainee Council is looking forward to seeing these types of talks at SfRBM events in the future.