The screening judges review the video presentations initially submitted by postdocs and choose the finalists in the Postdoc Slam contest. A separate panel of final judges will determine the prize winners at the live Postdoc Slam event.
Joseph Bondy-Denomy, PhD is associate professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at UCSF. He started his lab in 2015 as a UCSF Sandler Fellow. Research in the lab focuses on CRISPR-Cas bacterial immune systems in an effort to understand their role in antagonizing viruses called bacteriophages. Joe received his PhD in molecular genetics from the University of Toronto, where he was also a finalist in their Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) competition! Bondy-Denomy received the Bowes Biomedical Investigator Award in 2022 for his discovery of "anti-CRISPRs."
Corey Harwell, PhD is an associate professor in the Department of Neurology at UCSF. He obtained his PhD in neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is also a UCSF postdoc alum, having completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Arnold Kriegstein’s laboratory studying the development and formation of cortical circuits. Research in the Harwell lab is focused on understanding the genetic and epigenetic developmental programs that determine mature neural cell fates.
Bill Lindstaedt, MS is assistant vice chancellor for Career Advancement, International and Postdoctoral Services at UCSF. Previously, he was director of the Office of Career and Professional Development. Bill has been helping scientists and engineers make career decisions for over twenty years. In addition to his leadership responsibilities, his career advising work focuses on helping predoctoral and postdoctoral research scientists with their career and professional development issues. Bill is also a co-author of "myIDP", a popular career development tool hosted by Science magazine's careers site. He holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, and a Master's degree from the joint Counseling Psychology and Higher Education/Student Affairs programs at Indiana University.
Linda Louie, PhD is the program director for Career Exploration, Experiential Learning, and Employer Engagement in the Office of Career and Professional Development at UCSF. Linda provides career counseling, programming, and resources to help trainees explore possible career paths and gain hands-on experience, and she oversees two of UCSF’s established career exploration programs: Graduate Student Internships for Career Exploration (GSICE) and Motivating INformed Decisions (MIND). Previously, Linda worked at UC Berkeley, first as an instructor of French language and literature, and then at Berkeley’s Graduate Division as the professional development resource coordinator. Linda earned her PhD from UC Berkeley in Romance Languages and Literatures.
Robin Marks, MA is a senior public information representative in the UCSF Office of Communications, where she writes about new developments in basic biological research, including neuroscience, cancer, the microbiome, psychiatry, diabetes, computational bioscience, pharmacology, and genomics/proteomics. After many years as a reporter for various NPR stations around the U.S. for Reuters and other news agencies abroad, Robin spent 10 years as a writer and multimedia specialist for the Exploratorium, after which she expanded her freelance career to include designing science curricula, tutoring students, and developing science-themed walking tours. Read her recent article on a newly-discovered brain circuit that helps focus attention on the most relevant environmental stimuli.
Navneet Matharu, PhD, has a joint appointment as an assistant professor and associate researcher in the UCSF School of Pharmacy, where her research focuses on regulating gene expression to treat genetic disorders. She earned her PhD from the Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology at Jawarhalal Nehru University in India, and later did postdoctoral work with mentor Nadav Ahituv here at UCSF. Navneet was People's Choice Award winner in the inaugural UCSF Postdoc Slam in 2016, and has been a Slam advocate and supporter ever since.
Richard Souza, PhD, PT is a professor in the Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science at UCSF, and director of the Rehabilitation Science PhD program. His areas of expertise include lower extremity biomechanics, medical imaging for orthopaedics, running overuse injuries, motion analysis, and osteoarthritis. He received an MPT from Samuel Merritt College in Oakland, a PhD in biokinesiology from the University of Southern California, and he completed a postdoc in biomedical imaging at UCSF. Watch a video about research in his lab.