Previous Postdoc Slam Competitions
Click on a Postdoc Slam event to see details of that year's competition.
Postdoc Slam 2022
September 21, 2022 — Genentech Hall + Live Stream
Read the news story: Cellular Whodunnit Nabs Top Prize at 2022 Postdoc Slam
Watch video of the full 2022 event
Prize Winners:
- Grand Prize: Elise Marsan, PhD (Eric Huang, faculty mentor) - Who Killed the Neurons?
- Second Prize: Deepto Mozumdar, PhD (Joe Bondy-Denomy and David Agard, faculty mentors) - Slaying Deadly Bacteria With Giant Viruses
- Third Prize: Sophie Huddart, PhD (Adithya Cattamanchi, faculty mentor) - Cracking the Cough Code: Acoustic Epidemiology for Tuberculosis Diagnosis
- People's Choice: Sangeetha Kandoi, PhD (Deepak A. Lamba, faculty mentor) - Can't You See Well? This Squirrel Could Help You!
Finalists:
- Huong Kratochvil, PhD (William DeGrado, faculty mentor) - Going With the Flow: Protons on the Move
- Jianlong Li, PhD (Sarah Knox, faculty mentor) - Nerve Against Gray Hair
- Amanda McQuade, PhD (Martin Kampmann, faculty mentor) - Interfering With Interferon
- David Moses, PhD (Edward Chang, faculty mentor) - Restoring Lost Words: Building a Brain Implant to Help Patients Speak Again
- Irene Ojeda Naharros, PhD (Maxence Nachury, faculty mentor) - One Hair to Rule Them All
- Neha Pincha Shroff, PhD (Ophir Klein, faculty mentor) - The Mechanics of Growth – May the Pressure Be With You
Event Judges:
- Peter Chin-Hong, MD, associate dean and professor in the School of Medicine, and infectious disease expert
- Sona Chowdhury, PhD, specialist in the Department of Medicine at UCSF, and top prize winner in the 2018 UCSF Postdoc Slam
- Mina Kim, award-winning reporter and anchor, and host of the 10 a.m. statewide hour of KQED public radio's Forum program
- Renee Navarro, MD, PharmD, vice chancellor of Diversity and Outreach, and professor of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care
- Katherine Nielsen, MS, MA, director of UCSF's Science and Health Education Partnership (SEP), and co-founder of the Bay Area Science Festival
Postdoc Slam 2019
September 19, 2019 — Genentech Hall
Read the news story: "One-Eyed Sheep" Talk Takes Top Prize at 2019 Postdoc Slam
Watch video of the full 2019 event
Prize Winners:
- Grand Prize: Ishan Deshpande, PhD (Aashish Manglik, faculty mentor) - From One-eyed Sheep to Anti-cancer Drugs
- Second Prize: Aparna Bhaduri, PhD (Arnold Kriegstein, faculty mentor) - The Jumping Cells of Brain Cancer
- Third Prize: Brian Chiou, PhD (Xianhua Piao, faculty mentor) - Myelin: Getting on My Nerves
- People's Choice: Ziyang Zhang, PhD (Kevan Shokat, faculty mentor) - Always on My Mind – Guiding Drugs Into the Brain
Finalists:
- Danielle Carroll, MD (Aenor Sawyer, faculty mentor) - Rocket Surgery: The Future of Medicine on the Moon and on Mars
- Lisa Chesner, PhD (Felix Feng, faculty mentor) - How Do Prostate Cancer Cells Hide from the Immune System?
- Joel Finbloom, PhD (Tejal Desai, faculty mentor) - Storming Bacterial Biofilm Fortresses with Nanotechnology
- Sasha Gorrell, PhD (Daniel Le Grange and Linda Pfiffner, faculty mentors) - Eating Disorders and Exercise: Are You Running to Win or Get Thin?
- Jessica Kotov, PhD (Jason Cyster, faculty mentor) - Plasma Cells: To Stay or Not to Stay
- Nina Serwas, PhD (Matthew Krummel, faculty mentor) - Tasting the Difference: Big Eaters in the Immune System
Event Judges:
- Eric Evans, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer, Myriad Women's Health
- B. Joseph Guglielmo, PharmD, Dean, UCSF School of Pharmacy
- Moira Gunn, PhD, Associate Professor, University of San Franisco, and host of NPR’s Tech Nation
- Sara Kenkare-Mitra, PhD, Senior Vice President of Development Sciences, Genentech
- Francesca Vega, Vice Chancellor, Community and Government Relations, UCSF
Postdoc Slam 2018
September 26, 2018 — Genentech Hall
Read the news story: Talk on "Butt Cancer" Tackles Taboo with Humor to Win 2018 Postdoc Slam
Watch video of the full 2018 event
Prize Winners:
- Grand Prize: Sona Chowdhury, PhD (Joel Palefsky, faculty mentor) - But, the "Butt Cancer" that No One Talks About
- Second Prize: Will Schuerman, PhD (Edward Chang and Matthew Leonard, faculty mentors) - Sparking Neural Plasticity
- Third Prize: Lyndsay Murrow, PhD (Zev Gartner, faculty mentor) - Mapping Breast Cancer Risk
- People's Choice: Sona Chowdhury, PhD
Finalists:
- Ivan Osokine, MD, PhD (Adrian Erlebacher, faculty mentor) - How Mom's Uterine Tissue Promotes a Healthy Pregnancy
- Homa Majd, PhD (Faranak Fattahi, faculty mentor) - A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Neurons Go Down
- Douglas Totten, PhD (Karunesh Ganguly, faculty mentor) - Coordinating Stroke Recovery: A Stimulating Approach
- Melinda Barkhuizen, PhD (Dena Dubal, faculty mentor) - The X-factor in Parkinson's Disease
- Erin Vogel, PhD (Daniel Ramo, faculty mentor) - Comparing and Despairing: How Social Media Affects Us and What We Can Do About It
- Lydia Le Page, PhD (Myriam Chaumeil, faculty mentor) - Fuel for Thought
- Colleen Carpenter, PhD (Scott Baraban, faculty mentor) - Zebrafish Tales: An Aquarium-to-Bedside Approach for Epilepsy
Event Judges:
- Daniel Lowenstein, MD, UCSF Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost
- Michael Penn, MD, PhD, Director of Diversity in Basic Science Faculty, UCSF Office of Diversity & Outreach
- Ann Reid, Executive Director, National Center for Science Education
- Chris Shaffer, MS, UCSF University Librarian and Assistant Vice Chancellor for Academic Information Management
- Evelyn Strauss, PhD, Freelance Science Writer and Editor
Postdoc Slam 2017
September 19, 2017 — Genentech Hall
Read the news story: "Mighty Tooth" Talk Wins Second Annual Postdoc Slam Competition
Watch video of the full 2017 event
Prize Winners:
- Grand Prize: Sarah Engelberth, PhD (Stefan Habelitz, faculty mentor) - The Tooth: Small But Mighty
- Runner Up: Christy Sheehy, PhD (Ari Green, faculty mentor) - The Eye: A Window Into Our Brain
- People's Choice: Christy Sheehy, PhD
Finalists:
- Selim Boudoukha, PhD (Hiten Madhani, faculty mentor) - When a Loose Thread Becomes a Threat!
- Sol Fereres-Rapoport, PhD (Tom Kornberg, faculty mentor) - Don't Talk to Your Neighbor
- Leonardo Ferreira, PhD (Jeff Bluestone and Qizhi Tang, faculty mentors) - How to Cure Type 1 Diabetes Using Immunology
- Aaron Hardin, PhD (Nadav Ahituv, faculty mentor) - Why Are Your Nipples There?
- Yue Leng, PhD (Kristine Yaffe, faculty mentor) - Sleep to Save the Aging Brain
- Melanie Morrison, PhD (Janine Lupo, faculty mentor) - Pediatric Brain Cancer and Radiation Therapy: The Good the Bad and the Ugly
- Ana Ruiz-Saenz, PhD (Mark Moasser, faculty mentor) - Finding a New Achilles' Heel in Cancer
- Yvette van der Eijk, PhD (Stella Bialous and Stan Glantz, faculty mentors) - Tobacco Control and Free Choice: An Oxymoron?
Event Judges:
- Daniel Lowenstein, MD, UCSF Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost
- Pete Farley, Director of Communications for Research and Education, UCSF University Relations
- Kishore Hari, Director, Bay Area Science Festival
- Lesley McClurg, Science Correspondent for KQED and NPR
- Jacob Ward, Writer and Television Correspondent
Postdoc Slam 2016
September 22, 2016 — Genentech Hall
Read the news story: Smoking Cessation Talk Wins Inaugural UCSF Postdoc Slam Competition
Watch video of the full 2016 event
Prize Winners:
- Grand Prize: Jin Kim, PhD (Janice Tsoh, faculty mentor) - Promoting Smoking Cessation by Addressing Food Insecurity
- Runner Up: Navneet Matharu, PhD (Nadav Ahituv, faculty mentor) - How to Balance Your Satiety: From Sim(1) to Slim
- People's Choice: Navneet Matharu, PhD
Finalists:
- Alba Gonzalez Junca, PhD (Mary Helen Barcellos-Hoff, faculty mentor), Why Do Astronauts Have Increased Risk of Cancer?
- Burcu Hasdemir, PhD (Aditi Bhargava, faculty mentor) - Relaxed or Stressed? The Placenta Foretells the Fetal Future
- Samantha Hindle, PhD (Roland Bainton, faculty mentor) - Controlling Hormonal Behavior of Flies, Mice and Men
- Elena Minones-Moyano, PhD (Dena Dubal, faculty mentor) - We Could All Use a Bit More of Our X Chromosome
- Jeremiah Osteen, PhD (David Julius, faculty mentor) - Painful Lessons: What a Tarantula Bite Teaches Us about Chronic Pain
- Travis Ruch, PhD (Joanne Engel, faculty mentor) - Molecular Compass
- Ana Ruiz-Saenz, PhD (Mark Moasser, faculty mentor) - Overcoming Resistance to Anti-Cancer Therapies
- Anthony Rush, PhD (Michael Fischbach, faculty mentor) - Equipping Your Inner Pharmacist
Event Judges
- Teaster Baird, PhD, Associate Professor, chemistry and biochemistry, San Francisco State University (and UCSF postdoc alum)
- Sylvain Cases, PhD, Senior Director and head of External Science and Partnering for Sanofi US West in San Francisco (and UCSF/Gladstone postdoc alum)
- Mark Dresser, PhD, head of Development Sciences at Denali Therapeutics (and UCSF PhD alum)
- Jennifer O'Brien, Assistant Vice Chancellor of Public Affairs at UCSF
- Clifton Poodry, PhD, Senior Fellow for science education at Howard Hughes Medical Institute