The Korean-American Scientists and Engineers Association (KSEA) and Korean Federation of Science & Technology Societies (KOFST) co-hosted the young generation leadership training program from August 15-20, 2022, at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City, Arlington, VA. The aim of this program was to provide young generations with the opportunity to build networking and learn about career development from professionals from the academic, industry, and national laboratories.
Five graduate students with varying majors including neuroscience and environmental engineering attended this year. They participated in three main events of this program including; visiting an academic research institution (University of Maryland, College park), visiting an industrial research laboratory (Astrazeneca) and attending networking events including SEED workshop and UKC.
The first day of the KOFST YG program was to visit the University of Maryland, College Park. Participants toured the beautiful campus with student tour guides. Then they visited the lab of Dr. Eun-Suk Seo in the Physics department at University of Maryland. Dr. Seo introduced her leading project, CREAM (the Cosmic Ray Energetics and Mass Experiment), which is designed to measure the cosmic ray composition. Dr. Seo also gave the participants a lab tour of her lab space, showing various equipment in the lab and explaining how they are used in her research.
Next day, the participants visited an industry research institute – Astrazeneca’s laboratory in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Dr. YeonJin Kim and her colleagues in Astrazeneca introduced the main research projects in Astrazeneca. The participants learned the basic concept of immunology for vaccine development through OX games and toured the research lab.
The participants also attended the SEED workshop and UKC to build networking with the researchers in the US and to learn career development. At the SEED workshop, the participants attended plenary talks and panel discussions, which were great opportunities to learn about leadership, networking, and research. At UKC, the participants presented their research and/or attended the technical group sessions depending on their own major, having a network with other participants.
All participants were satisfied with this program this year as they learned many things about career development and builded valuable relationships, which was the main purpose of this program. We hope to see this program keep helping the young generation in their career development and networks.
Organizing committee
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