Schedule

September 8, 2025

Gatton Student Center, Grand Ballroom

8:00 AM Check in

Register and pick up your nametag!

8:00 AM Breakfast

8:45 AM Introductory remarks

9:00 AM Postdoc Talk Competition

The Postdoc Talk Competition is an opportunity for postdocs to showcase and present their research or scholarly work to a scientifically diverse and educated audience in 10 minutes.

Winners will be selected by a panel of faculty judges based on speaker's proficiency in communication, enthusiasm, language, visuals, and articulation of research. For more details see the scoring rubric here: Postdoc Talk Competition Scoring Rubric

Prizes: $300 for 1st place, $200 for 2nd place

Jess Bills | Arts and Sciences | Biology

All eyes on the spiny mouse: an emerging model for retinal regeneration

Rachel Washburn | Arts and Sciences | Kentucky Geological Survey

Into the Void We Go: Kentucky Caves and the Search for New Drugs

Jennifer Xu | Health Sciences | Athletic Training and Clinical Nutrition

Movement is Medicine: The Next Steps in Treating Heel Pain

Juan Feng | Agriculture, Food and Environment | Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

Fungi-mediated bioleaching

Bhamiti Sharma | Engineering | Center for Applied Energy Research

Synthetic Graphites from Coal Extracts for Li-Ion Batteries

10:00 AM Coffee break

10:30 AM Postdoc Slam Competition

The Postdoc Slam Competition is an opportunity for postdocs to tell an appealing story about their research or scholarly work to a general audience (i.e. non-specialist audience) in 3 minutes or less with a single static slide. It is very different than other academic exercises in research distillation and is intended to help researchers communicate effectively with a non-specialist audience.

Winners will be selected by a panel of science communicators based on speaker's proficiency in communicating and engaging with a non-specialist audience. For more details see the scoring rubric here: Postdoc Slam Competition Scoring Rubric

Prizes: $200 for 1st place, $150 for 2nd place, $100 for 3rd place, $50 for 4th place

Daniëlle Coenen | Medicine | Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry

Small cells go big: from a simple cut to a complicated skin wound

Deepak Kumar | Engineering | Electrical & Computer Engineering

Beam Me Up, Glow! Polystyrene’s Fluorescent Makeover

Fernando Mosquera Jaramillo | Agriculture, Food and Environment | Veterinary Science

How to prevent high-performance-related injury

Mubashir Hussain | Engineering | Biomedical Engineering

Dye-Free Time-Resolved Laser Speckle Contrast Imaging for Blood Flow Assessment in Rat Skin Flaps

Felicity Hills | Arts and Sciences | Physics & Astronomy

Precision Magnetometry: (Nearly) Everything is Magnetic, So What Do We Do About It?

Mahdi Eskandarian Boroujeni | Medicine | Microbiology, Immunology, & Molecular Genetics

From Viruses to Obesity: How Pregnancy Stressors Rewire the Placenta’s Immune System

Vivek Pandey | Medicine | Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation

Neural Jumpstart: Restoring Autonomic Function After SCI

Dohyo Jeong | Medicine| Internal Medicine

When Overdoses Happen but Help Is Far Away

Abhilash Prabhat | Medicine | Physiology

Heartfelt Timing: Eat Right on Time

11:30 AM - 1:30 PM Postdoc Poster Session

From Textbook to Lab: Postdocs Present to UK Undergraduate Aspiring Scientists

The Postdoc Poster Session is an opportunity for postdocs to share their research in a relaxed atmosphere with fellow researchers on campus. Posters are encouraged to be accessible to a broad academic audience including graduate students, postdocs, and faculty from a wide spectrum of disciplines.

The theme this year is From Textbook to Lab: Postdocs Present to UK Undergraduate Aspiring Scientists which is why winners will be selected by undergraduate research ambassadors based on quality of content, display, and oral presentation. For more details see the scoring rubric here: Postdoc Poster Competition Scoring Rubric