Come to the COMPASS Open Forum at the ASCB/IFCB Annual Meeting!

What are the biggest challenges that young scientists face? What can the ASCB do to help?

Please join us at the COMPASS Open Forum at the ASCB Annual Meeting! COMPASS is the ASCB Committee for Postdocs and Students, and is focused specifically on issues of importance to trainees. This year, we’ll be trying something new with the open forum. We’ll start off with about 10 minutes of introductions so participants can learn what COMPASS is all about. Then we’ll use the rest of the time to run a fast-paced, interactive brainstorming session. The purpose is to get feedback from young ASCB members on the biggest challenges facing grad students and postdocs today, and how ASCB can help.

Participants will write down their ideas, and then we will invite everyone to help us categorize and summarize them. We’ll use these ideas to help shape our activities for the year to come.

This forum will be an opportunity to meet and network with other students and postdocs, a chance to find out about involvement in COMPASS, and an opportunity to have your voice heard as we discuss the future of training in biomedical research. The influence of students and postdocs is growing! To enact change, we have to educate ourselves about issues in research, and we must participate in the discussion. This is a way for YOU to give your input and to bring important issues to the table. We hope to see you there!

Monday December 8, 10:00 am-11:00 am in Room 126B


COMPASS Events at the ASCB Annual Meeting

December 6-10, 2014

COMPASS members are organizing a variety of scientific, career development, and social activities at the Annual Meeting. We’ll be highlighting these events in the blog in the weeks leading up to the meeting. Please join us!

COMPASS Open Forum: Following a brief introduction about COMPASS, we will have an interactive brainstorming session about challenges for young scientists. This session will guide the initiatives of COMPASS over the next year. (Monday, 10:00 am-11:00 am, Room 126B)

ePoster Sessions: COMPASS members will moderate these scientific sessions that highlight significant contributions in research in a dynamic, interactive forum. (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, 12:00 pm-4:00 pm, ASCB Learning Center).

Career Panels: Panel discussions featuring representatives from a variety of scientific careers. (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, 3:00 pm-3:50 pm, Room 119 A/B).

Career Chats: Informal, hour-long roundtables for students & postdocs to meet with reps from various nonacademic careers and talk about their career paths, job prospects, industry culture, etc. (Check the meeting app or the Career Center for dates and times.)

Networking Happy Hour: Cash bar happy hour to allow students & postdocs to mingle with industry reps and each other to discuss career options (Career Center on Monday from 5:00 pm-7:00 pm)

One-on-One CV review: 30-minute mentoring sessions for students & postdocs to meet one-on-one with either academics or industry reps and hone their CVs. (Sign-ups are available 9:30 am-5:00 pm, Sunday-Tuesday at the Career Center).

CellDance Premier & Elevator Speech Contest Winners, plus COMPASS Comic Contest Winners (Tuesday, 3:00 pm-4:00 pm, ASCB Learning Center, Theater 1).

CellSlam: The Public Information Committee’s stand-up science slam with a $1,000 prize for the winner (any meeting attendee can perform). For those who want to watch, it will offer a variety of wit, music, and outrageously amusing competition plus free popcorn and a cash bar. (Monday, 6:45 pm, Room 114).

About the Author:


Gina Razidlo is a cancer biologist by training, and is interested in the mechanisms underlying tumor cell migration and invasion. She earned her PhD at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, NE, and is now in the laboratory of Mark McNiven at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.