4th Annual Women in Microscopy Conference!

The 4th annual Women in Microscopy conference attracted over 200 attendees from all around the world for the 4th year in a row, all in celebration of International Women’s Day. The opening remarks were given by the conference co-founders, Tirzah Abbott of the NUANCE Center and Stephanie Ribet of the National Center of Electron Microscopy, before handing it over to MSA Student Council President, Andrés Márquez, and NUANCE’s Director, Professor Vinayak Dravid.  

This year had a greater emphasis on biological sciences, including a separate track for the research lightning talks, and a keynote from Dr. Eva Nogales entitled “Cryo-EM in mechanistic studies of human gene regulation”.  Her talk was incredibly detailed in its discussion of the modification of Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2). She emphasized the incredible female teachers she grew up with in Madrid, including physics, math, and biology teachers in high school that impacted her interest in biological sciences. 

The research lighting talks were split into two tracks: one for biological sciences and another for physical sciences. The biological talks included novel techniques used in cryo-EM and 4D-STEM, new advances in understanding hearing loss, and neuron transmission. The physical sciences track focused on nanosized magnets in an artificial spin ice, novel shape memory alloys, sustainable catalytic nanomaterials, and lithium batteries in cryo-EM. It was incredible to listen to such talented researchers from around the world present their recent research in such a short amount of time! 

The event concluded with unrecorded panel talks on navigating different career pathways, amplifying marginalized voices, and the hidden battle of Impostor Syndrome. The panelists were all so insightful about their different experiences within the industry and we greatly appreciate their perspectives. 

Thank you to the MSA Student Council for their continued collaboration on this conference and to the speakers for their incredible presentations. You can view the recorded portion of the conference on our YouTube Channel!

Visit the website for a full list of the speakers and panelists and to learn more!