Neurobiology’s Eugene Jen Jin Wins Postdoctoral Association’s Elevator Pitch Competition

July 3, 2024

By Mario Aguilera

Your challenge: Present a clear, concise and impactful summary of your scientific research. You get three minutes, one presentation slide and that’s it.

UC San Diego postdoctoral scholars from across the university described an array of intriguing research studies in short bursts during a recent Elevator Pitch Competition, which was a featured part of the Postdoctoral Association’s (PDA) Research Communication and Outreach Symposium.

Eugene Jen Jin

First place in the competition went to Eugene Jen Jin, a postdoctoral scholar in Professor Yishi Jin’s lab in the Department of Neurobiology (School of Biological Sciences), who presented “How tissues stay connected during animal development.” The speedy summary focused on her work on tiny roundworms (C. elegans) and highlighted the importance of ensuring that skin, muscles and nervous system develop in synchrony.

“I started my scientific journey with an interest in understanding how the brain works. But through the twists and turns of my research training, it reminded me that the nervous system does not exist in isolation in our body,” Jin described during her pitch. “It is surrounded by many neighboring tissues like muscles and skin, and the interaction with these neighboring tissues is important for proper development and function of the nervous system.”

By the time her three minutes was up, Jin had weaved a compact and compelling tale about how her studies finally led her down a path to the skin.

“So now I’m trying to find out what it is about the skin that makes it require it to develop in synchrony with other tissues to make sure that the nervous system develops and functions properly,” she said.

The second- and third-place presenters were Nathaniel Kramer (“Exploring coral microskeletal energy capture using 3D light simulations”) from the Department of Nanoengineering and Van Ninh (“A focal innate immune response with global impact”) from the Department of Medicine.

“The key takeaway for me is that many people outside my research field, and people not in science or academia, are genuinely interested in my research and want to learn more what scientists do,” said Jin. “My neighbors, friends outside lab and even people I met while in line at a grocery store helped me understand what information is important for describing my work in three minutes. I’m very lucky that precious taxpayers’ money and generous donations that support scientific research allow me to do what I love. I want to give back to the community not just in scientific advancements, but by also effectively communicating my research and about science with a broad range of people in our society. The PDA elevator pitch competition helped jumpstart this process for me.”

Jin recommends that other postdoctoral scholars join in future Elevator Pitch competitions. The experience, she said, can be rewarding.

“Postdoc training can be isolating at times, because we don’t have classmates like in grad school,” she said. “This PDA event helped me realize we do have a supportive community even outside our labs and I hope the PDA will continue providing such opportunities for postdocs to connect.”

The co-chairs of the Outreach and Teaching Division of the PDA — Dishary Banerjee and Samantha Ayoub, both postdocs in the Department of Medicine — hosted this event with help from volunteers from the UC San Diego postdoc community and are eager to organize another symposium this year. They are committed to creating more opportunities for postdocs to engage within their community and enhance their research communication skills.