The second annual Emory University — Laney Graduate School STEM Research and Career Symposium March 26-28 will welcome to the Emory campus nearly 100 undergraduate and graduate students, along with 30 of their mentors and program directors, from universities across the nation.

These students, more than 80 percent from underrepresented groups, intend to pursue PhD or MD/PhD degrees or seek postdoctoral opportunities in disciplines known as STEM: science, technology, engineering and mathematics. While they are here, the students will present their research and engage with more than 100 Emory faculty and graduate students.

This year's symposium is co-chaired by Edward Morgan, Molecular and Systems Pharmacology — Graduate Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences and James Kindt, Chemistry, and is organized in partnership with the School of Medicine, Emory College of Arts and Sciences, the Rollins School of Public Health, the Office of Postdoctoral Education and the Office of the Provost. 

It is part of a larger Laney Graduate School effort to build and enhance recruitment networks that attract greater number of students from underrepresented groups to Emory for graduate and postdoctoral education.

The symposium, held at the Emory Conference Center Hotel (ECCH), will kick off on the evening of March 26 with a welcome reception.

Sessions on Thursday, March 27, will open with remarks by keynote speaker and Emory alumna Althea Grant, Chief of Epidemiology and Surveillance Branch in the Division of Blood Disorders of the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Following Grant's keynote, students will deliver oral and poster presentations on their research:

• Oral presentations: 10-11:15 a.m. and 4-5:15 p.m., ECCH Emory Amphitheatre
• Poster sessions: 11:45 a.m. -12:45 p.m. and 2:45-3:45 p.m., Salons 1-3

The day will close with remarks by James Gavin III, Emory alumnus, member of the Emory Board of Trustees and Chief Medical Officer and Chief Executive Officer of Healing Our Village.  

On March 28, the final day of the symposium, students will participate in professional development breakout sessions that cover topics relevant to students at this stage of their careers, including:

• Life of a postdoc
• Succeeding in a graduate program
• Life after graduate school
• Developing a career plan

Students will also have opportunities to tour campus facilities and meet with Emory faculty.