Calendar of events, awards and opportunities

Every week, we update this list with new meetings, awards, scholarships and events to help you get your ducks in a row. If you’d like us to feature something that you’re offering to the bioscience community, email us with the subject line “For calendar.” ASBMB members’ offerings take priority, and we do not promote products/services. Learn how to advertise in ASBMB Today.

Sept. 14: NIH events for young scientists

The National Institutes of Health Office of Intramural Training and Education has a robust schedule of virtual events. On Sept. 14, there are three events: Career Planning for Scientists, Discussion for Building Resilience — Navigating Dual Roles as Researcher and Parent, and Discussion for Building Resilience — Trainees of Color. See the full schedule here.

Sept. 15: Webinar about science and social media

The American Society for Investigative Pathology is hosting a virtual event titled "Promote Yourself and Your Science on Social Media" at 4 p.m. Eastern on Sept. 15. Attendees will learn how to use Twitter, how to promote their own work and findings, and how to use elements of storytelling to communicate science. Register here.

ASBMB advocacy town halls

The ASBMB public affairs team is hosting a series of public forums in September and October. These are meant to be highly interactive events, wherein the most dominant voices will be ASBMB members'. Please consider attending these virtual events and sharing your perspectives.

Sept. 15 | 2–3 p.m. EDT — International collaboration, immigration and the STEM workforce: The U.S. scientific enterprise relies on attracting talent from and collaborating with leading research institutions and universities all over the world. But visa restrictions, travel bans, anti-immigrant rhetoric and violence, and scapegoating have made the U.S. less inviting and less safe for immigrants and have made collaborations more complicated and risky. Discuss your experiences and what sort of policies you think are needed to protect immigrant scientists and foster strong and fruitful international collaborations.

Sept. 29 | 2–3 p.m. EDT — Women in STEM and gendered challenges: Women in STEM face myriad challenges that can prevent them from succeeding in academic research careers. During the COVID-19 pandemic, women have been disproportionately burdened with childcare, elder caregiving and other domestic responsibilities. Early reports indicate that domestic and emotional labor disparities are affecting women scientists’ productivity, which is likely to have long-term effects on their careers. Tell us about your experiences so that we can make the case for policy changes to ensure gender equity in the sciences.

Oct. 6 | 2–3 p.m. EDT — The pandemic's impact on non-COVID research: Non-COVID-19 research has taken a back seat during the pandemic as scientists scramble to better understand the Sars-CoV-2 virus and develop therapies and vaccines. But it remains important for the scientific community to strongly advocate for sustained investment into non-COVID research. Share your experiences and perspectives to help inform our policy solutions to sustain non-COVID-19 research.

Sept. 15: Glycobiology meeting abstracts due

The Society for Glycobiology's annual meeting will be held virtually this year. Regular abstracts are due Sept. 15. Late-breaking abstracts are due Nov. 2. We want to point out one special talk at this meeting: Catherine Costello of the Boston University School of Medicine will give the Molecular & Cellular Proteomics lectureship. (MCP is an ASBMB journal.)

Sept. 16–23: Free virtual science festival

Attendees of all ages are invited to SciFest All Access, produced by the organizers of the annual USA Science & Engineering Festival. There will be more than 100 virtual booths and activities, plus performances, recruiters and a scavenger hunt. Learn more.

ASBMB Lipid Research Division Seminar Series

The ASBMB Lipid Research Division features the work of young investigators at noon Eastern on Wednesdays. If you are interested in presenting, please contact John Burke. Register once to access the whole series.

Sept. 16 — Lipids in autophagy

• Membrane characteristics tune activities of endosomal and autophagic human VPS34 complexes
  Yohei Ohashi, Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology
• A PI3K-WIPI2 positive feedback loop allosterically activates LC3 lipidation in autophagy
  Chunmei Chang, University of California, Berkeley

Sept. 23 — Dynamic roles for lipids at membrane contact sites

• PDZD8 interacts with Protrudin and Rab7 at ER-late endosome membrane contact sites associated with mitochondria
  Yael Alon, University of California, Davis
• Phagolysosome resolution requires contacts with the endoplasmic reticulum and phosphatidylinositol-4-phosphate signalling
  Roni Levin, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto

Sept. 21–22: FASEB Research Conference

The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology has a virtual conference series that culminates with "The Cell Signaling in Cancer Conference: From Mechanisms to Therapy" Sept. 21–22. This conference is being organized by Claus Jorgensen at the University of Manchester, Donita Brady at the University of Pennsylvania and Natalia Jura at the University of California, San Francisco. (Jura recently won the ASBMB's inaugural Early-Career Leadership Award, which was established by the society's Women in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Committee.) 

Sept. 22: Tang Prize lectures

The three winners of the 2020 Tang Prize in Biopharmaceutical Science are Charles Dinarello, Marc Feldmann and Tadamitsu Kishimoto. The Tang Foundation recognized them "for the development of cytokine-targeting biological therapies for treatment of inflammatory diseases." Tang Prize lectures usually take place at the Experimental Biology meeting, at which the ASBMB annual meeting is held. However, the 2020 EB meeting was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. On Sept. 22, the foundation, EB and National Cheng Kung University will co-host a forum featuring the winners. Also, 2014 Tang Prize and 2018 Nobel Prize winners James P. Allison and Tasuku Honjo will participate. Learn more about this event and how to watch the livestream.

Oct. 1: Deadline for IUBMB fellowships

The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology has three fellowship programs — the Wood–Whelan Research Fellowships, the IUBMB Mid-Career Research Fellowships and the Tang Education Fellowships — and funding for educational activities. The deadline to apply for all of them is Oct. 1.

Oct. 5: Deadline for microbiology award

The National Academy of Sciences is accepting nominations for the Selman A. Waksman Award, which recognizes significant contributions to the field of microbiology and carries a $20,000 purse. Learn about the nomination process. 

Sphingolipids in physiology and pathology

Christopher Clarke (Stony Brook Medicine), Giovanni D’Angelo (EPFL) and Liana C. Silva (Universidade de Lisboa) have organized a webinar series focused on sphingolipids, with support from LIPID MAPS and Avanti Polar Lipids. See the full list of webinars and register here. All are scheduled for 11 a.m. Eastern. You can view past webinars here.

Oct. 5: "Homeostatic and pathogenic roles of GM3 ganglioside" by Jin-ichi Inokuchi at Tohoku Medical and Pharmaceutical University

Oct. 19:Talk by Ilya Levental at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

Oct. 19: Talk by Aurélien Roux at the University of Geneva

Oct. 7: Deadline for DOE community college internship

The U.S. Department of Energy's Community College Internship Program places participants at labs at one of 16 agency locations to help kick-start their technical careers. There are three terms: summer, spring and fall. The agency is accepting applications for the spring term through Oct. 7. This is a paid internship. Learn more.

Call for virtual scientific event proposals

The ASBMB provides members with a virtual platform to share scientific research and accomplishments and to discuss emerging topics and technologies with the BMB community.

The ASBMB will manage the technical aspects, market the event to tens of thousands of contacts and present the digital event live to a remote audience. Additional tools such as polling, Q&A, breakout rooms and post event Twitter chats may be used to facilitate maximum engagement.

Seminars are typically one to two hours long. A workshop or conference might be longer and even span several days.

Prospective organizers may submit proposals at any time. Decisions are usually made within four to six weeks. 

Propose an event.