Avery Bond, left, and Michael Wilczek. Photo courtesy of the University of Maine

ORONO — Two University of Maine doctorate students, one of them from Jefferson, won first and third place in the college division of the 2021 Bioscience Association of Maine (BioME) Student Showcase.

The annual competition, hosted virtually this year, tasks college and high school students, who participate in separate divisions, with presenting life-science focused research projects to win cash and academic prizes. According to BioME, 10 undergraduate and graduate students, including several from UMaine, delivered three-minute presentations with slides and answered judge questions during the college fast-pitch segment of the contest on April 28 and 29.

Jefferson native Avery Bond, a doctorate student of microbiology, won first place for her presentation titled “Characterizing JC polyomavirus infection to identify potential targets for future therapies.” Marcy, New York native Michael Wilczek, also a doctorate student of microbiology, won third place for his presentation titled “Generating and analyzing large datasets to address questions in biomedical science.”

UMaine associate professor of microbiology Melissa Maginnis advises both students, who work in her lab and are part of the Department of Molecular and Biomedical Sciences.

“These awards highlight the importance of effective scientific communication, and Avery and Michael are skilled presenters that can utilize graphics and oral communication skills to convey complex results to a broad audience,” Maginnis said, according to a news release from UMaine News.

Prior to attending UMaine, Bond earned her bachelor’s degree in biological and biomedical sciences from the University of New England in 2019. She also won the “Best Presentation in Biomedical Sciences by a Graduate Student” award at the 2021 and 2020 UMaine Student Symposium.

“Participating in the BioME competition was an extraordinary experience,” Bond said. “Condensing scientific findings into a short presentation is a challenge, but science communication is arguably the most important and rewarding component of research.”

The goal of the BioME Student Showcase is to support innovation and commercialization of student ideas in Maine. As a result of having to shift the event to a virtual setting because of the coronavirus, the organization opened the college segment of the showcase to the public this year, which allowed industry professionals, mentors and friends to watch online.

To watch their presentations, visit biomaine.org. For more information about UMaine, visit umaine.edu.

Comments are not available on this story.

filed under: