Blogs

Both the Austin Community College Biotech program and the Bioscience Incubator were featured in a news report from KXAN on the city's growing bioscience industry.

The main topic of the article is a life science hackathon, called LifeSciHack, where 70 people will collaborate over a weekend to see how bioscience companies can share information.

For me, the interesting part of the story is the footage from the ACC Bioincubator and the interviews with David Blackwell, a lab manager from Celling Biosciences, one of the ACC Bioincubator's tenants and... Read more

What did I learn at the meeting? The first panel had representatives from all over Texas talking about what is happening in their areas. From El Paso to Houston to the Central Texas Area to Dallas, strategic partnerships area, and Cancer Prevention and Research Institute (CPRIT) funding is making a positive difference. For example, Emma Schwarz, President and Executive Director, Medical Center of the Americas in El Paso talked about how they are partnering with the biotech industry in Juarez, Mexico. Wayne Roberts, CEO of CPRIT, presented on the positive impacts of the institute. It is amazing what funding from... Read more

Erin Dolan sent me this notification and I thought this may be of interest to the community!

The American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) is piloting regional meetings to promote professional development and networking among life science educators who don’t have the time or funds to travel to national meetings.

I’m excited to announce that the first of these meetings is Teaching Tomorrow’s Scientists: An ASCB Regional Meeting, which is a day-long meeting is designed for a teaching-intensive audience of life scientists and will be held on May 31, 2019, at the University of Georgia... Read more

Co-written with Sandra Porter, PhD

How do human resource professionals determine if a job candidate has the skills they need to perform well in a certain job?

Imagine you're working in a company and it's your job to hire people for the lab. What if you've never worked in a lab? How do you choose the best person?

Human resources personnel use a variety of methods to determine if a candidate's resume provides evidence that they have the right skills. One achievement that helps is a college degree, but it's not always enough. In some... Read more

Algae is becoming an important organism in biotechnology for the producing multiple products and cleaning up wastewater. Learn about companies that focus on algae and education initiatives to help students learn how to work with micro-algae species. Read more

The 2018 Texas ASM Fall meeting was hosted by the Texas A&M University and co-hosted by Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, November 8-10th. Both faculty and students gave oral presentations, on topics that ranged across microbiology, as well as molecular and cellular biology. The conference also had an afternoon dedicated to undergraduate and graduate student poster presentations and with prizes awarded for the best talks and posters in each category.

Dr. Daisy Zhang and Dr. John Robert Hatherill from Del Mar College organized the judging and award ceremonies. Dr. Linnea Fletcher and Dr. Daisy Zhang organized and co-chaired... Read more

The Coalition of State Bioscience Institutes (CSBI) released the 2018 Life Sciences Workforce Trends Report June 5, 2018 at the BIO International Convention held in Boston, Massachusetts June 4-7. The report provides a national snapshot of the current and anticipated talent needs of the nation’s dynamic life science industry.

The biotech industry continues to be a leading driver of employment across the country, providing 1.73 million jobs in 85,000 companies. In 2017, employers listed almost 264,000 postings for life science positions.

Building on the success of its three prior reports, the 2018 CSBI Workforce Trends Report... Read more

We had over 500 people attend the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) Science Saturday Event this past weekend! Please consider examining the following video (it's only about 60 seconds long) to see a sampling of the exciting things that took place at this AC2 science outreach event for our community.

Thanks!

https://www.facebook.com/SACNASDelMar/videos/247399352495468/?hc_ref=ARS... Read more

Joseph Oleniczak has been awarded a Fulbright Distinguished Award in Teaching
Program Grant through the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural
Affairs and the Institute of International Education. This grant is competitively selected
for award by the Presidentially-appointed J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board
and made possible through funds that are appropriated annually by the U.S. Congress.
The purpose of the Fulbright Award in Teaching Program is to provide K-12 teachers
with the opportunity to take a leave of absence from their regular teaching duties... Read more

The Biology Field of Study (FOS) meeting took place on January 8 & 9, 2018 in Austin, Texas. The report will soon for open for 30 days for public comment. I will update with a link for comment when I get it.

The meeting opened with the charge of the committee and election of the chair and vice chair. Our charge was to identify the courses that should be included in the Biology FOS and to address the TX30X60 Mandate set forth by the state legislature ( http://www.thecb.state.tx.us/reports/PDF/9306.PDF?CFID=72966565&CFTOKEN=78411272 ). The mandate states that colleges and universities should... Read more