Anne Villacastin placed first and was also selected as People’s Choice in the Berkeley Lab Research SLAM competition on September 21, 2023. Villacastin, a postdoctoral researcher at the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) and in the Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology (EGSB) Division, detailed her research on sorghum’s potential as a biomanufacturing feedstock.
In its sixth year, the SLAM challenges early career researchers to tell the story of their research to a general audience in just three minutes. Twelve finalists are selected from entries across Berkeley Lab Research Areas.
The top-three finalists of the Berkeley Lab SLAM will again deliver their talks at the Bay Area Research SLAM on October 5, 2023, competing against the finalists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, and SLAC National Laboratory.
Two Sandia-based Biosciences Area affiliates from the Biological Systems and Engineering (BSE) Division will also participate in the Bay Area Research SLAM. Agile BioFoundry’s Karuna Jetty was awarded first place for her talk at the Sandia Technological Showcase, entitled “Microbes at Work: The Magic Behind the Palm Kernel Oil Production.” JBEI’s Valentina Garcia, placed second in the Showcase with her talk, “Taking Off Fueled by Biology: Using Yeast to Make Sustainable Aviation Fuels.”
View the Berkeley Lab SLAM recording.
