Events

2017 Achievement Rewards for College Scientists Scientist of the Year Dinner

Honoring Dr. Karen E. Nelson, President J. Craig Venter Institute, And Benefitting 2017-2018 ARCS Scholars

Friday, April 28, 2017 - 6:00 – 9:30 PM

Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina, Harbor Island

Dr. Nelson is the current president of the J. Craig Venter Institute, a nonprofit institute located in San Diego and Rockville, Maryland, which conducts genomics research.  She also heads the Microbiome group at Human Longevity Inc., in La Jolla. Dr. Nelson received her undergraduate degree from the University of the West Indies, and her Ph.D. from Cornell University.  Known for her work in human microbiome research, Dr. Nelson conducted research which discovered the existence of Horizontal Gene Transfer (HGT) across the archael and bacterial domains, an important factor in the evolution of many organisms.   Additional ongoing studies in her group include metagenomic approaches to study the ecology of the gastrointestinal tract of humans and animals, studies on the relationship between the microbiome and various human and animal disease conditions, reference genome sequencing and analysis primarily for the human body, and other -omics studies.

Dr. Nelson has published more than 160 peer-reviewed papers in the field, edited three books and in 2015 was recognized by Scientific American as one of technology’s “leading lights” in its “The Worldview 100”.   She assisted with President Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative. Dr. Nelson is Editor in Chief of the journal Microbial Ecology and serves on the board of several other journals including BMC Genomics, GigaScience, and the Central European Journal of Biology and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences Board of Life Sciences, a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, an Honorary Professor at the University of the West Indies and a Helmholtz International Fellow.  She serves on the NIH-NIAID council. Her outstanding contributions to her field are recognized worldwide.   

The event, also benefitting ARCS Scholars, included poster sessions presented by a selection of the 2016-2017 ARCS Scholars pursuing graduate studies in Science, Technology, Engineering, & Math (STEM) fields at Kellogg School of Science and Technology at The Scripps Research Institute; San Diego State University; University of California, San Diego, including Scripps Institution of Oceanography; and Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science at the University of San Diego.

2017 Scientist of the Year Dinner Sponsors:

Diamond Sponsors

Gold Sponsor

Silver Sponsors

 

 

 

  Bronze Sponsor