An inactivated protein, MamO (lower left), shepherds iron atoms directly to the growing magnetite crystal (red), which forms inside a membrane compartment (blue). The yellow filaments are proteins that organize the crystals into chains in the cell. The chain of magnets helps the bacteria align with Earth's magnetic field. (David Hershey image, UC Berkeley.)

Riva Bruenn, one of UC Berkeley's outstanding Graduate Student Instructors for 2016, uses games and inclusion to get students engaged and learning from each other.

 

"Involving the whole class in teaching each lesson engages everyone on different levels, and causes students to accept more of the responsibility of learning," said Bruenn. Along with Graduate Student Sydney Glassman she has been named an outstanding Graduate Student Instructor (GSI) for the department and the campus.

 

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PMB Alumna Shannon Greene recently gave a talk on non-traditional paths for graduate students.  (Photo courtesy of Christopher Gee)

On April 4, 2016, the Student and Post-Doc (SPD) Seminar Series was pleased to host Dr. Shannon Greene, who presented on her experience after graduating from PMB in 2012. 

After leaving the lab of Associate Professor Arash Komeili with a newly minted PhD, she pursued opportunities outside the traditional academic path.

Instead of the "usual" post-doctoral research position, her life post-graduation began with a science communication fellowship with the American Society for Microbiology, and then a position as a product manager with the National Center for Biotechnology Information.

Greene described how she eventually sought out new opportunities that would satisfy her desire to be close to the nitty-gritty scientific work, but also allow her be a part of the bigger picture, spurring innovation and producing real-world solutions. She found this in her current position working for the Schafer Corporation in support of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), working in Washington DC to direct DARPA funding to new promising biotechnology projects and managing these contracts as they progress. 

Stepping back, Greene encouraged current grad students and post-docs unsure of the road ahead to assess their skillsets as bench scientists and reimagine them applied in new careers. Finally, her parting advice was to stay flexible and open to new opportunities, since they may very well open doors to unexpected places and rewarding careers in jobs far removed from the bench.

Steven Brenner, a professor in the Department of Plant & Microbial Biology, has been elected a fellow of the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) for his groundbreaking research in computational protein analysis and genomics. Brenner's work is on the cutting edge of computational biology, the science of developing and applying computational approaches to understand biology. 

The ISCB is a scholarly society dedicated to advancing the scientific understanding of living systems through computation, and is the leading professional society in the field.  The group elects fellows that have distinguished themselves through exceptional contributions to the fields of computational biology and bioinformatics. The fellows program began in 2009; 56 members have been conferred with this status to date.

Full article: pmb.berkeley.edu/news/brenner-named-fellow-scientific-society

	Eric Siegel has been appointed the new director of the UC Botanical Garden, effective July 1, 2016.

An outstanding slate of speakers will be featured at the annual Bay Area Symposium on Viruses, a conference that works to bring together the network of scientists in the San Francisco Bay Area working on virology, host-pathogen interactions and control of human and animal viral infections. 

The symposium also serves as the annual meeting for BayViro, the Bay Area Virus Network.