These preliminary judges will review the video presentations submitted by students and choose the finalists for the Grad Slam contest in 2023. A different set of final judges will choose the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prize winners at the live event on April 4.
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.
Aimee Medeiros, PhD is associate professor and program director for UCSF's History of Health Sciences PhD program. Her research focuses on the reciprocity between diagnoses, preventive care measures, and societal expectations of the body in medicine. She is the author of Heightened Expectations: The Rise of the Human Growth Hormone Industry in America, and co-editor of Pink and Blue: Gender, Culture, and the Health of Children. Aimee is associate director of the Anti-Oppression Curriculum Initiative in the School of Medicine, and a steering committee member of the REPAIR Project.
Deepto Mozumdar, PhD is a postdoctoral scholar at UCSF, where he works in the Bondy-Denomy and Agard labs to study the molecular underpinnings of the most potent anti-immune mechanism used by jumbo-phages to thwart bacterial defenses. He earned a PhD in Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Yale University, where he was also active in science outreach and communications activities. Deepto was 2nd prize winner at UCSF's 2022 Postdoc Slam, where he shared his fascination with phages in his talk Slaying Deadly Bacteria With Giant Viruses.
Thi Nguyen, PhD is associate director, training communities for iBiology. She is an educator, instructional designer, and career coach who supports learning communities and facilitates discussions for iBiology courses. She draws on training in neuroscience and psychology, and her background, to create supportive and inclusive learning environments. Thi earned a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Texas Southwestern and completed a postdoc at the Gladstone Institutes. She is also a national speaker on inclusive and strategic leadership, and adjunct assistant professor at Rush University.
Jon VanLeeuwen, PhD is a neuroscientist who works at the intersection of science, medicine and policy. In his current roles at UCSF, he serves as director, Strategic Initiatives, for the Weill Institute for Neurosciences and as an assistant adjunct professor in the Department of Neurology. Jon holds a PhD in Neuroscience from Northwestern University, where he investigated the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying synaptic plasticity in aging and disease. He was also a postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern and received training at the Kellogg School of Management. He first began working in science and health policy at the U.S. Department of State and later at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Lauren Weiss, PhD is a professor in residence in the Department of Psychiatry at UCSF. Research in her lab focuses on understanding the genetic architecture of autism. Her long term goals are to use genetic tools to improve understanding, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of autism and related traits. Weiss received a PhD in human genetics at the University of Chicago, and did her postdoc at Massachusetts General Hospital/Broad Institute (Harvard/MIT). Outside the lab, she can sometimes be found rock climbing, hiking, glass blowing, attending book clubs, baking, or playing Bananagrams.
Shelley Wong, MFA is a communications specialist in the office of the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost, where her work includes feature writing and content management for the ReSearch ReSource newsletter. She has also served as coordinator of the UCSF Communicators Network. Shelley is the author of the poetry collection As She Appears (YesYes Books), winner of the Pamet River Prize and longlisted for the 2022 National Book Award. Her poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Best American Poetry, Kenyon Review, New England Review, and The New Republic. She was an affiliate artist at Headlands Center for the Arts, and has taught creative writing in various venues. She earned an MFA from the Ohio State University.
