Last week, I attended the American Chemical Society (ACS) National Meeting in New Orleans and presented my research at the Biochemistry poster session. The conference was five days long and there were talks and poster sessions everyday, almost non-stop from 8am to 9pm. Unlike smaller conferences, ACS National Meetings are huge and very diverse in terms of the events and sessions hosted there.

I mostly attended the Analytical and Biological Chemistry Sessions and I sat through some really great talks given by Graduate students, Postdoctoral researchers and Principal Investigators. Attending these sessions gave me an idea of where the field is heading with the current research. Some of the interesting talks included topics like the allosteric inhibition of Zika virus helicase, the anti-cancer effects of polyphenols from blueberry and the use of cannabinoids (from cannabis) as anti-cancer agents. I also attended a few talks at the Chemistry Education Session where researchers and educators talked about ways to improve critical thinking and learning (emphasis on Organic Chemistry) among college students through active learning. Along with these talks, there were many social events for networking like the Career Expo (that offered a lot of games and freebies), SciMix and meet-up sessions for undergraduate students. There was also a session called “Science of Sexual Harassment” that included a panel discussion about how the chemistry departments are addressing the issue of Sexual Harassment and what are some ways to stop it in Chemistry. This reminded me of the discussion we had in class about how harassment should be addressed in the Scientific Community.

Attending a scientific conference as an undergraduate can be intimidating and I was definitely nervous for my poster session after I attended so many wonderful talks. However, my poster session ended up being one of my favorite times at the conference. As Dr. Varmus mentioned, there is this carnival-like atmosphere at the poster sessions where everyone is socializing and enjoying snacks with beer while talking about their research and career goals along with establishing relationships for potential future collaborations. My poster attracted many foreign scientists (mostly Japanese) who asked me about the methodology of my work as well as explained how it related to their current work.

Five days of talks can seem incredibly long, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t get bored at some points. Luckily, I was there with Mitasha and we spent some time exploring New Orleans museums (The National World War II Museum and BloodyMary Museum were interesting), walking by the Mississippi River, eating beignets, trying out the local food places and of course shopping. The best thing about NOLA was the warm weather, which did not make me miss NYC at all!

Top: Sana and Mitasha with their posters at the ACS Poster Session
Bottom Right: The National World War II Museum
Bottom Left: NOLA Tricentennial Sculpture