UCSF Postdoc Slam 2025 is a wrap, but you can still view the competition below!
UCSF Postdoc Slam 2025
Wednesday, September 17
4 p.m. PDT
#UCSFPostdocSlam
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About Postdoc Slam
At Postdoc Slam, the annual research communications contest presented by the Division of Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs, ten postdoc finalists present their research in three minutes or less, in language accessible to a general audience. It's a celebration not only of the finalists and contest winner, but also of postdoctoral research at UCSF and of scientific inquiry.
Postdoc Slam challenges postdocs in a range of disciplines to present a compelling presentation of their research in three minutes or less, using language that not only their peers but also non-specialists will understand. The intention of Postdoc Slam is not to dumb-down or trivialize research; rather, it is meant to incentivize postdocs to clarify their ideas and to help others appreciate and understand their work.
Postdoc Slam is the centerpiece of UCSF's celebration of National Postdoc Appreciation Week, September 15 to 20.
Cash prizes of $4,000, $2,000, and $1,000 are awarded to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prize winners chosen by the judges. And the live and remote audiences vote for the "People's Choice" winner, who will receive $750. Finalists not awarded a cash prize each receive a $100 gift card.
Congratulations to the prize winners and all of the finalists for an impressive showing:
Prize Winners
First Prize
Atreya Dey, PhD
Andrej Sali, PhD, and
Ignacia Echeverria Riesco, PhD, faculty mentors
Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences
A Theory of 100,000 Grandmas
Second Prize
Jarin Tusnim, PhD
Xianhua Piao, MD, PhD, faculty mentor
Department of Pediatrics, Division of Neonatology
Breaking the Silence: How Astrocytic GPR56 Can Protect the Alzheimer’s Brain
Third Prize & People's Choice Award
Rabab Rangwala, PhD, CCC-SLP
Srikantan Nagarajan, PhD, faculty mentor
Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging
Where There’s a Swallow, There’s a Synchrony
Finalists
Logan Leak, PhD
Trever Bivona, MD, PhD, faculty mentor
Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology
When Worlds Collide: Oncogenic Fusion Proteins in Lung Cancer
Weicheng Li, PhD
Jonathan Ostrem, MD, PhD, faculty mentor
Department of Medicine
Rewriting the Rules of Cellular Quality Control
Lea Lortal, PhD
Hiten Madhani, MD, PhD, faculty mentor
Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics
Cracking the Genetic Code of a Deadly Fungus
Jack Moen, PhD
Nevan Krogan, PhD, faculty mentor
Quantitative Biosciences Institute
From Beast to Bedside: Animal Biology That Heals
Sangeeta Niranjan, PhD
Daniel Minor, Jr., PhD, faculty mentor
Cardiovascular Research Institute
From Hide-and-Seek to Spotlight: Nanobodies Expose Calcium Channel Secrets
Ritwik Vatsyayan, PhD
Prasad Shirvalkar, MD, PhD, faculty mentor
Department of Neurological Surgery
Chronic Pain: Is it All in the Brain?
Da Zhang, PhD, MSc
Jon Kleen, MD, PhD, faculty mentor
Department of Neurology, Weill Institute for Neurosciences
AI-Powered Epilepsy Detection: Bridging Gaps in Care