Events

We invite you to celebrate the research and scholarly accomplishments of Columbia University postdocs at the 2019 Columbia University Postdoc Research Symposium, occurring on Friday, October 4, 2019 in the Milstein Heart Conference Center on the CUIMC campus. 

Schedule

1:00 – 3:00 PM:         Poster Session 1

3:30 – 5:00 PM:         Keynote Speaker: Nina Tandon (introduced by Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic)

5:00 – 7:00 PM:         Poster Session 2 and Reception

7:00 – 7:30 PM:         Awards Ceremony

To RSVP to this important event, please click the following hyperlink:

https://cumc.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3xZmNDoBfAzwJSt

The link will also allow interested postdocs to submit an abstract for the symposium. The abstract submission deadline for postdocs is Friday, September 13 at 11:59 PM, and we are asking faculty to encourage their postdocs to participate. Several $500 poster prizes will be awarded at the symposium to top posters. Faculty are also encouraged to attend the symposium in support of their postdocs. There are also opportunities for faculty to serve on the poster judging committee, if interested.

Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic is a professor of Biomedical Engineering and Medicine at The Mikati Foundation. Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic and her research team have made great advancements in bone tissue engineering, especially in respect to facial reconstruction surgery to repair injuries, disease, or birth defects.

NINA TANDON is at the cutting edge of science where sci-fi meets reality. She works on growing artificial hearts and bones that can be put into the body, and studies the new frontier of biotech: homes, textiles, and videogames made of cells. Named one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business, and one of Foreign Policy’s 100 Leading Global Thinkers, Tandon speaks on the future of healthcare and technology. 

Nina Tandon is leading the charge of biology’s industrial revolution. She is the founder and CEO of EpiBone, the world’s first company growing living human bone for skeletal reconstruction. The benefits of this revolutionary stem cell technology, which has already been approved by the FDA for clinical trial, include simplified surgery, improved bone formation, and shorter recovery times for patients. “Being able to use your own cells means you’re empowered to heal yourself as well,” says Tandon, who also co-authored Super Cells: Building with Biology, a book cataloguing the latest biotech inventions “using nature’s building block: the cell.”

A TED Senior Fellow (she’s spoken at three different TED conferences) and Adjunct Professor of Electrical Engineering at the Cooper Union, Tandon has a Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering from the Cooper Union, a Master’s in Bioelectrical Engineering from MIT, a PhD in Biomedical Engineering, and an MBA from Columbia University. Her PhD research focused on studying electrical signaling in the context of tissue engineering, and has worked with cardiac, skin, bone, and neural tissue.

After completing her PhD, she consulted at McKinsey and Company, but since 2010 she has continued her work in tissue engineering. She has been published in Nature Protocols and Lab on a Chip and has been featured on CNN, in WIRED, the Guardian, and others. Tandon was named one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company, a Crain’s 40 under 40 people who have achieved success in business before turning 40, and a World Economic Forum Tech Pioneer.