Course Instructors
Dr Anthony Fratiello Physical
Sciences 620 (afratie@calstatela.edu; 343-2326)
Dr Scott Grover Physical
Sciences 530 (sgrover@calstatela.edu; 343-2339)
Dr. Raymond Garcia Physical
Sciences 516 (rgarcia@calstatela.edu; 343-2144)
Dr. Carlos G. Gutierrez Physical
Sciences 603 (cgutier@calstatela.edu;
343-2356)
Prof. Vicki Kubo-Anderson Physical Sciences 622 (vkuboan@calstatela.edu; 343-2324)
Dr. Robert Vellanoweth Physical
Sciences 517 (vllnwth@calstatela.edu;
343-2148)
The goal of this course is to develop studentsÕ listening
and critical skills so they become active participants in dialogues with
seminar presenters. Research
seminars are an important medium for presentation of new scientific results,
frequently before they have been published. The intent here is that the student will learn to critically
evaluate new information presented in the seminar format, and participate in
the give-and-take of scientific discourse.
This weekly seminar series is by design multidisciplinary,
and provides opportunities to broaden studentsÕ scientific perspectives. These seminars cover the work of
academic and industrial biomedical, behavioral, and mathematical
scientists. There are also
opportunities for students to develop their own communication skills through
presentation in poster sessions and oral talks. The course is a developmental activity that requires the
studentsÕ active participation.
The seminar series
schedule is listed at
http://www.calstatela.edu/centers/moreprograms/biomed_sem.htm, the MORE
ProgramsÕ website. Clicking on a
seminar title links you to an abstract provided by the speaker, and
bibliographic reference to pertinent publications. Clicking on the speakerÕs name connects you to the speakerÕs
website. Clicking on the
presenterÕs department links you to the speakerÕs departmental webpage. Plan to come to each seminar prepared
to participate. Please check this
website throughout the quarter. It will be updated as missing information (such
as seminar abstracts, titles) is received.
January 6 ÒSensing Chemical Signals at Cell Membrane
Surfaces During the Immune ResponseÓ
Dr. Joseph J. Falke, Department of
Chemistry & Biochemistry, University of Colorado
January 13 ÒThe
exciting life of free radicals: Imaging chemical reactionsÓ
Dr.
Hanna Reisler, Department of Chemistry, University of Southern California
January 20 ÒNutrient
Control of Gastrointestinal Transit-a Bench-to-Bedside StoryÓ
Dr.
Henry Lin, Department of Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of
Southern California
January 27 ÒProtein-Polymer
Conjugates in Solution and on SurfacesÓ
Dr.
Heather Maynard, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and California
NanoSystems Institute, University of California, Los Angeles
February 3 ÒStudent
Poster SessionÓ
*February 10 Lloyd
N. Ferguson Symposium (Golden Eagle Ballroom 12:00 PM)
ÒIt's a
Wonderful LifeÓ
Dr. Donald
Darensbourg, Department of Chemistry, Texas A & M University
February 17 Student
Presentations
ÒRole of Mus81-Eme1 During
Homologous Recombination in Schizosaccharomyces pombeÓ
Sandra Alvarez, MARC U*STAR
Scholar
ÒExamining
the processes occurring in thunderstorms that affect soluble, reactive species
(chemical reservoir species)Ó
Marco Orozco, MARC U*STAR Scholar
*February
24 CSULA
Research Symposium
March 3 Student Presentations
ÒRegulation of Telomerase
Activity by Epstein-BarrVirus in Burkitt LymphomaÓ
Marjannie Eloi, MBRS-RISE MS to
PhD Fellow
ÒCharacterizing
the Mechanism by which Human Neutrophil a-Defensin 4 (HNP4) Inhibits HIV-1 ReplicationÓ
Mark Rivera,
Beckman Scholar
March 10 Student
Presentations
ÒLipogenesis
in mice containing a targeted disruption in SREBP-1a geneÓ
Rayshonda
Williams, MARC U*STAR Scholar
ÒX-Ray Photoelectron
Spectroscopic Studies of Crystalline Silicon Surfaces: Toward Acetylation with
FerroceniumÓ
Ana Gamboa, MBRS-RISE MS to PhD Fellow
*Change
in Time and Location
Administrative Notes
These seminars are opportunities for you to interact with a broad range of academic and industrial biomedical scientists, and their work. Some speakers also serve as graduate school recruiters, and can provide an initial contact between you and prospective graduate programs. The University provides some funds for students to join seminar speakers for lunch just before the seminar. Please contact Lisa Bautista, MORE Programs Grant Project Administration Coordinator (lbautis3@calstatela.edu; 343-2395) a week in advance if you are interested in taking advantage of this opportunity to further interact with a particular speaker.
Every seminar is critiqued as a developmental
activity. Each session, you will
receive a form (a sample is attached to this syllabus). The completed critique form, including
your signature, is the official attendance document, and record of your
development as an active listener.
Please be sure to turn it in at the conclusion of the seminar to get
credit for your participation in that seminar (it will not be accepted at any
other time). If there are multiple speakers, a critique form will be provided
for each.
The seminars start at 1 PM. Please plan to be there on time,
particularly as a courtesy to the speaker.
Cell Phones: Please put your cell
phones on ÒvibrateÓ mode or turn them off during seminar. If you receive a call during seminar
that you must take, discreetly exit the
lecture hall.
Your
role in the Biomedical Sciences Seminar Series is not as part of a passive
audience but rather as an
active participant. Indeed in its best result, the seminar
is a dialog between the presenter and the participants. You are expected to be actively
involved extracting information from the seminar and contributing to the
dialog. Look at seminars as
occasions to explore (hopefully) interesting topics in a more active and
satisfying way than either reading or listening to lectures. Research on
learning shows that we remember far more of what is orally discussed than what
is passively listened to or read.
To get
something out of a seminar, be prepared to put something in:
a) Do prior
reading. Background information on the
seminar - an abstract provided by the seminar speaker, and bibliographic
references to pertinent publications - is available to you in advance by
clicking on the seminar title on the MORE Programs Biomedical Sciences Seminar
web page (http://www.calstatela.edu/centers/moreprograms/biomed_sem.htm). If you have no background at the time
you come to the seminar, you will be unprepared to be part of the discussion
that is the essence and purpose of the seminar.
b) Listen
carefully. An important, and obvious, requisite for success in getting
a lot out of a seminar is active listening. Stay focused on the topic.
c) Take
notes - particularly with a view to points
on which you would like to get further clarification or support. An article on
taking effective seminar note is attached to this syllabus: Walker, J.H.
ÒTaking notes in seminars - a new improved methodÓ Biochemical Education 1999, 27, 211-213. You
may wish to start keeping a journal of your seminar notes.
d) Ask questions. Be
prepared to make your views known. You may feel ill-informed or not entirely
comfortable with the topic, but what you ask may prompt someone else to speak,
and then someone else. Through
this process, you and your colleagues, will begin to become better-informed.
e) Present a Poster. Each
quarter one third of program participants will present a poster at the MORE
programs Poster Session. This is detailed later in this syllabus.
f) Present a Seminar. If you are a graduating senior or second
year MS/MA student, plan on presenting your work in the Spring Quarter. Students that spent the summer
off-campus present in the Winter or Spring Quarters.
g) Suggest. We welcome suggestions for
speakers or topics for future seminars. Please send these to Dr. Donald Paulson at
dpaulso@calstatela.edu. We also
welcome suggestions for improvement of the series. Contact any of the course instructors, or alternatively use
the ÒComments or SuggestionsÓ box on the seminar webpage
http://www.calstatela.edu/centers/moreprograms/biomed_sem.htm to send your
suggestions.
The University provides a small fund for interested students to go to lunch with the seminar speaker. The intent here is to give students who are particularly interested in the seminar speakerÕs research topic, or the speakerÕs institution for PhD study, the opportunity to meet and interact with the speaker in an informal setting. If you are interested in going to lunch with a particular speaker, please let Lisa Bautista know (lbautis3@calstatela.edu) not later than one week prior to the seminar.
Participating students manage the seminars. A student will be asked to be the official host for the speaker. We will try to match the student hostÕs interest with the seminar speakerÕs research area. The student host will organize the group of interested students that take the seminar speaker to lunch (the MORE Programs Office will provide the funds for lunch). The student host introduces the speaker before the seminar, and manages the question and answer session. The student host gives preference to student questions, allowing faculty members to ask questions after student questions are exhausted. If you are interested in serving as host to a particular off-campus speaker, let Lisa Bautista know (lbautis3@calstatela.edu) as soon as possible, but not later than one two weeks prior to the presentation of the seminar. Student hosts for on-campus speakers will be selected from the presenterÕs research group.
To give
students an opportunity to develop skills presenting their research results in
a poster format, and to give all participants in the broad MORE programs a
sense of the breadth of research conducted by their colleagues, we will devote
one seminar period each quarter to a poster session. All students will
participate in this activity each quarter, either as a poster presenter, or as
a critic of the presentations.
If
you are scheduled to present this
quarter on February 3. You were
notified by your Coordinator last quarter if you are to present this term. All
students will present a poster on their research results on a schedule where
the most experienced third of students present in the Fall, the next more
experienced in the Winter quarter, and the newest students in the Spring. Only
those individuals who have just joined their research group as a freshman, and
other individuals who have been in the MORE Programs less than two quarters,
will have their presentations delayed until next academic year. Plan to have your poster printed on our
large-format printer well in advance, as there will surely be a rush (by 20-25
of your colleagues) on its use close to the October 21 poster session
date. Please contact Iris Cruz (chapis411@yahoo.com)
or Berna Lepe (jblepe@sbcglobal.net) as soon as
possible to arrange for printing, since they also have other responsibilities
and are not always available. The
cost for printing these posters (FredÕs/IrisÕ/BernaÕs time and materials) will
be covered by the MORE Programs.
We are unable to pay for printing by other parties.
Be sure
your poster is up in its assigned space in the lobby of the Physical Sciences
Building by 12:30PM and that you are there ready to discuss your work and
answer questions at 1PM.
You may want to visit the following URLs that have tips on preparing effective research posters.
http://www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/cpurrin1/posteradvice.htm
Advise
for Constructing Scientific Posters Dr. Colin Purrington, Swarthmore
University
http://depts.washington.edu/mphpract/ppposter.html
Creating
a Poster Using MS PowerPoint University of Washington School
of Public Health and Community Medicine
http://www.ncsu.edu/project/posters/IndexStart.html
Creating
Effective Poster Presentations George R. Hess (NC State
University) and Leon H. Liegel (Oregon State University). Includes several
examples incorporating various design features along with additional
presentation and design resources.
http://www.lcsc.edu/ss150/poster.htm
Creating
Posters for Humanities & Social Sciences Lewis-Clark State College. Suggestions
on poster design and presentation.
http://www.wfubmc.edu/biomed/tipsheets/ppt_poster.html
Creating
Large Format Posters Using PowerPoint,
Department of Biomedical Communications, Wake Forest University School of
Medicine
http://www.scifor.com/Guidelines.htm
Guidelines
for Preparing Scientific Posters in the Digital Age, SciFor Inc. -- some good design ideas from an online
service that offers poster preparation and printing services. Their Poster
Gallery offers some good design examples
http://ssrl.brown.edu/support/design/large_posters
Creating
a Large-Format Poster in PowerPoint,
Social Science Research Lab, Brown University
If you ARE NOT scheduled to present this quarter, you are required to do on-the-spot brief critiques of two posters, and a more detailed analysis of a third poster. Instructions for the brief critiques, and for the more detailed analysis of posters are available on the Biomedical Sciences Seminar Series webpage < http://www.calstatela.edu/centers/moreprograms/biomed_sem.htm >. The two critiques are due immediately after the poster session on February 3. The Analysis of the third is due a week later, after the seminar on February 10.
The course is graded Credit/No Credit (Cr/NC) based on your participation, which is evaluated by:
1)
The degree of your
involvement as gauged by the quality of your answers to the seminar critique
form (sample attached to this syllabus).
This is a developmental activity: graduate students are expected to
provide more sophisticated answers than undergrads; those that have been in the
MORE Programs a while are expected to write better answers than newer student
participants.
2)
Attendance. To participate, you must be present.
Please schedule your other commitments, including conducting research so that
it does not conflict with your participation in the seminar course. Attendance is measured only by your
turning in a completed critique form.
Missing more than one seminar unexcused will result in a NC grade. There are, of course, several
situations that are reasonable for missing a seminar, such as medical
emergencies, and travel to professional meetings. If you plan to be absent and
seek to be excused, please contact your coordinator (listed below) before the seminar. Only these individuals are authorized to
excuse an absence.
MARC U*STAR Scholars Prof.
Vicki- Kubo-Anderson (vkuboan@calstatela.edu;
343-2324)
Beckman Scholars Prof.
Vicki- Kubo-Anderson (vkuboan@calstatela.edu;
343-2324)
Junior/Senior MBRS RISE Scholars Dr. Scott Grover (sgrover@calstatela.edu;
343-2339)
Frosh/Soph MBRS RISE Scholars Prof.
Vicki- Kubo-Anderson (vkuboan@calstatela.edu;
343-2324)
MBRS RISE MS-to-PhD Scholars Dr. Raymond
Garcia (rgarcia@calstatela.edu;
343-2144)
Bridges to the PhD Scholars Dr.
Robert Vellanoweth (vllnwth@calstatela.edu; 343-2148)
Biomed PREP Scholars Dr.
Raymond Garcia (rgarcia@calstatela.edu;
343-2144)
Other Students Dr.
Anthony Fratiello (afratie@calstatela.edu;
343-2326)
Please do not make your request to the MORE Programs Office
Staff; they are not authorized for this.
3) Interaction with the speaker: asking questions at the
seminar, going to lunch; meeting with him/her before or after the seminar.
We encourage you to attend the weekly departmental seminar series of your major department at Cal State LA. The website for these series is presented below:
Chemistry & Biochemistry http://www.calstatela.edu/dept/chem/seminar.htm
Biological Sciences http://www.calstatela.edu/academic/biol/bio510.htm
In addition, major research institutions in Southern California offer outstanding seminars in a broad range of biomedically-related disciplines. Below are webpages to many of these. If you are aware of other seminar
series that should be listed, please inform your coordinator with the URL, and we will add it to the list.
Chemistry
http://www.chem.uci.edu/seminars/
School
of Biological Sciences http://www.bio.uci.edu/events/
Developmental
and Cell Biology http://devcell.bio.uci.edu/SEMINARS/SeminarPage.htm
Ecology
and Evolutionary Biology http://ecoevo.bio.uci.edu/seminar%20Fall%202003.htm
Molecular
Biology and Biochemistry http://www.bio.uci.edu/events/mbb.cfm
Cognitive
Sciences
http://www.cogsci.uci.edu/colloquia/
Psychology
and Social Behavior http://www.seweb.uci.edu/psb/calendar/bb/winter2004.uci
Biological Chemistry http://www.biolchem.ucla.edu/Symposia/symposia.htm
Biomathematics/Computational Biology http://www.biomath.medsch.ucla.edu/seminars/
Biostatistics
http://www.ph.ucla.edu/biostat/course/seminars/seminars.htm#current
Bioinformatics http://www.bioinformatics.ucla.edu/seminars/seminars.htm
Chemistry & Biochemistry http://www.chem.ucla.edu/dir/twic.html
Human Genetics http://www.genetics.ucla.edu/home/guest.htm
Microbiology Immunology, and Molecular genetics
http://www.mimg.ucla.edu/events.html
Molecular Biology http://www.mbi.ucla.edu/Events/nextweek.php
Chemistry http://chem.usc.edu/dept/events.html
Pharmaceutical Sciences http://www.usc.edu/calendar/events/19630.html
Neuroscience Graduate Program http://www.usc.edu/dept/nbio/ngp/courses/seminars.shtml
Biology http://biosci.usc.edu/seminars/
Chemistry and Biochemistry http://www-chem.ucsd.edu/Seminars/
Biological Sciences http://www.biology.ucsd.edu/events/A.html
Psychology http://psy.ucsd.edu/pages/events/index.html
Caltech
lists all of its seminars on its Calendar at
http://today.caltech.edu/calendar/
Chemistry
http://www.chem.ucr.edu/seminars/seminars.html
Biology
http://www.biology.ucr.edu/index.php?content=seminars/seminars.html
Psychology
http://www.events.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/display.cgi?key=thismonth&unit=49
Cell Biology and Neuroscience
Biomolecular Science and Engineering http://www.bmse.ucsb.edu/seminars/seminars.php
Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology http://www.lifesci.ucsb.edu/mcdb/events/events.html
Chemistry and Biochemistry http://www.chem.ucsb.edu/department/calendar.php
Bioengineering
http://www.chem.ucsb.edu/%7Ebioengr/page3.htm
Psychology http://www.psych.ucsb.edu/news/seminars.php
Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology http://www.lifesci.ucsb.edu/eemb/calendar/calendar.html