Erik Nordquist

Erik Nordquist

Postdoctoral Research Fellow Alex MacKerell Group University of Maryland, Baltimore

Awarded CBI Fellowship

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The Chemistry Biology Interface (CBI) is a competitive NIH-funded fellowship designed “to train students with diverse scientific backgrounds for productive research at the interface between chemistry and biology” at UMass.”

A few cool things I did:

  • Science communication to a broad audience:
    • Chalk talks: short presentations (10-20 min) to a very broad audience of students and faculty.
    • Student Seminar: short presentations (~25 min) to other CBI fellows in disciplines such as Chemical Engineering, Biochemistry, Molecular biology, Cellular biology, Biophysics, Chemistry, Polymer science
  • Laboratory training modules:
    • Computational modeling and simulation
    • Genomics / bioinformatics
    • 3D printing
    • NMR
  • Ethics in science module
  • Drug Design course - many important and interesting speakers in the field, including Chris Lipinski, Pat Walters, and Woody Sherman.
  • Lots of professional development, mostly focused on teaching

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Best of Biophysical Journal 2023!

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PhD Dissertation Defense

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I gave my final PhD dissertation defense on Monday, June 5th 2023. This was a very special day, and week, to reflect on the work I’ve done and the progress I’ve made as a scientist, and to share that progress with my family, friends, and the academic community here in Amherst. It’s been a wonderful and challenging expeirence. Read more