Ishmail Abdus-Saboor
@IshmailSaboor
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We study the skin-brain axis for pleasure & pain | Associate Professor @Zuckermanbrain @Columbia_Bio | Freeman Hrabowski Scholar @HHMINEWS
NC A&T/UPenn/Cornell/Columbia
Joined April 2016
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Pinned Tweet
Excited to share my lab’s new paper out today
@CellCellPress
.
"Touch neurons underlying dopaminergic pleasurable touch and sexual receptivity"
Congratulations to this amazing team of scientists.
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Well my 8yr old finally asked whats going on and I tried to explain things for an 8yr old. Then he said, "daddy are we going back to being slaves?" This has been a tough week.
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Today's Nobel is a reminder to focus on the work and not the journal. The key publications cited by the committee were published in Immunity, Molecular Therapy, and Nucleic Acids Research. Respectable journals, but not the Big 3. The discoveries are what's important, not a name.
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Didnt take long to happen to me. Coming in lab today stopped by woman asking if I was here to pick up boxes. Then she repeatedly says I cant come in. Show her my ID and said Im a professor and Im going to my office. She is not security. I belong here too. When will this end?
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Good morning from this bird staring into our living room as he eats a smaller bird on top of our wall A/C unit. He must be welcoming us to the City.
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I’m excited to announce that I will begin as a tenure-track faculty member in the Biology Department at UPenn this summer. My lab will be housed in the beautiful and historic Leidy laboratories. I have funded positions available for postdocs, PhD students, and a lab technician.
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More thoughts on the demise of disruptive science.
Take Fred Sanger, 2x Nobel Prize winner. Sydney Brenner wrote about him in an obituary that multiple times in Fred's career, he went 10+ years without publishing as he was working on 'disruptive' science.
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Happy to share that I am moving to the
@ZuckermanBrain
at Columbia University as a Principal Investigator and a faculty member in
@Columbia_Bio
. Looking forward to this next chapter for my lab and digging deep into the brain to explore neural circuits for pain and social touch.
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A reminder of the trajectory of Nobel Laureate Katalin Kariko. Passed over for a tenured position, grants rejected, ideas shunned and overlooked. She was just too far ahead of the curve and not savvy at playing the traditional scientific game. Now look!
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This photo is Einstein lecturing at historically Black college Lincoln University, which is 1hr outside of Philly. My grandfather was a student there during the time of this photo. Lincoln continues to educate amazing Black students and Philly area schools should recruit here.
Albert Einstein giving a lecture on relativity in 1946 (after the war, before the civil rights movement). His peers criticized this appearance. The press purposefully didn't cover it. He simply wanted to inspire young minds with the beauty and power of science.
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Recently at a conference a good-intentioned professor asked me, “Shouldn’t we just lower our standards if we want to diversify our faculty?” If we are honest with ourselves, this thinking is widespread. Allies can help by combating the idea that diversity=lowering of quality.
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52 of us Black science faculty came together to discuss Juneteenth and how we can use this holiday to reflect on the ongoing barriers Black scientists face and how we can come together as a biomedical enterprise to tackle these challenges.
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Hi everyone, I’m Ishmail Abdus-Saboor, a newly minted Associate Professor
@ZuckermanBrain
@Columbia_Bio
and
@HHMINEWS
Freeman Hrabowski Scholar. Tune in on Thursday to hear about my journey in neuroscience and the research my lab works on.
#BlackInNeuroRollCall
@BlackInNeuro
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Make no mistakes about it - America only emerged as a scientific world power in the 20th century because she opened her doors to immigrants. But economics and prestige aside, lets not lose sight of the humanity of immigrants, and the hopes and dreams that may now be crushed.
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I am extremely humbled and excited to be named
@HHMINEWS
Freeman Hrabowski Scholar. This substantial long-term investment will allow me to push boundaries in our research while I continue to support the careers of the next generation of scientists from all backgrounds.
HHMI is proud to announce our inaugural class of Freeman Hrabowski Scholars, outstanding early career faculty in science who have potential to become leaders in their research fields and to create diverse and inclusive lab environments. 1/3
#FHScholars
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In this season of good news and as we celebrate the 5yr anniversary of my lab, I am happy to share that I have been promoted to Associate Professor at
@Columbia_Bio
@ZuckermanBrain
. Grateful to my lab (current + past), family and friends, collaborators, and mentors.
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Hi everyone. I'm beginning year 4 as PI at Columbia University's
@ZuckermanBrain
.
My lab is studying neural circuits for rewarding social touch and stress resilience, genetics of pain, central representations of itch, and developing mouse pain scales.
#BlackInNeuroRollCall
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At the beginning of this decade I was a 4th year PhD student at Penn going through the ups & downs of grad school. Could not have imagined then, that by the end of this decade I would have my own lab as a faculty member at Penn. So grateful to be living my dream.
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What an incredible honor, especially considering all of the award winners to come before me. Grateful to my mentors, lab members, collaborators, family and friends.
Congrats to HHMI Freeman Hrabowski Scholar Ishmail Abdus-Saboor (
@IshmailSaboor
) on receiving the Young Investigator Award from the Society for Neuroscience! (
@SfNtweets
) 👏
More:
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It was time. Yay for CRISPR! Yay for two women only!
BREAKING NEWS:
The 2020
#NobelPrize
in Chemistry has been awarded to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna “for the development of a method for genome editing.”
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When your friend
@KizzyPhD
is leading the scientific team at NIH for development of a coronavirus vaccine.
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Day1 of me teaching Cell & Molecular Neurobiology in this classroom to 160 Columbia undegrads. Can someone remind me, whats an action potential🤣
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Black academics and trainees are a little more vocal these days on this platform. Are we preaching to the choir, like the women in science events I go to where only women attend? We need our colleagues to take some of these ideas and champion them at the right tables.
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Thank you
@NatureBiotech
. I aspire to be a role model to the young Ishmails, who need to see someone who looks like them excelling in science.
To celebrate
#BlackHistoryMonth
we’re highlighting outstanding Black researchers around the US. Today, we recognize Ishmail Abdus-Saboor, assistant professor of biology at Penn
#BHM
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Preparing for the next chapter for the Abdus-Saboor lab.
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I am honored to receive this recognition and grateful to my lab members, mentors, and friends. Looking forward to joining the community of Pew scholars.
22 researchers join the Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences to investigate questions surrounding human health and disease.
This year’s class will explore infectious diseases, a universal vaccine, how the brain processes pain, and more.
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Dr. Katalin says in this interview, “ten years ago I was kicked out of Penn”
This is the ultimate redemption story of our generation.
“Ten years ago I was kicked out and forced to retire.”
Our new medicine laureate Katalin Karikó (
@kkariko
) told us how much it means to be awarded the Nobel Prize after a scientific career that has been full of challenges.
Ten years ago, Karikó was still doing all her…
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Black in Neuro grad students (look at all this talent, wow)
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NoA Day!
Thanks
@NINDSnews
for funding my DP2 New Innovator Award. We're excited to get going on this work.
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Just a reminder that we are now halfway through the month of Ramadan, a special time for 1/4 of the world’s population. This likely means that you have observant colleagues like myself as faculty, postdocs, and students who abstain from all food and water from sunrise to sunset.
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Snapping pictures and waiting for the movers to come upstairs. New, bright, beginnings
@ZuckermanBrain
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I have suffered countless racial indignities in my academic career. But when they happen to your trainees, this brings about a new level of frustration, sadness, and anger.
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#BlackNeuroRollCall
I'm Ishmail Abdus-Saboor, and my lab
@Penn
lies at the interface between technology development and basic science, with the goal of increasing our understanding of pain and touch neural circuits. It's not lost on me that BLACK WOMEN are leading
#BlackInNeuro
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Excited to share my lab’s new paper. Leah's thesis work is finally together! Why does a hug feel good or caressing touch facilitate sexual receptivity?
Identification of touch neurons underlying dopaminergic pleasurable touch and sexual receptivity
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"A Fred Sanger would not survive today's world of science.He would be labeled as unproductive, and his modest personal support would be denied. We no longer have a culture that allows individuals to embark on long-term and what would be considered today extremely risky—projects."
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Please take a few minutes to read. “Too many senior white academics still resist recognizing racism”
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My tears of suspense and horror just turned into tears of joy. Guilty Guilty Guilty!
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Grateful for recognition from my peers and support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for our research. We are excited to determine how pain and somatosensory behaviors are represented in the brain and governed by the genome.
We are pleased to announce the 2021 cohort of the Sloan Research Fellows. These extraordinary early career researchers represent some of the most exciting young minds working today! We are so thrilled to be able to support your work!
#sloanfellow
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After 2.5 years on the faculty I assumed people know who I am in my building?🤔
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Us Black academics are imaging scenarios? Overreacting? Misinterpreting the situation? Not considering the other side? Where are all my White colleagues who are stopped at entrances to their buildings from staff and told to leave?
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I am extremely proud to present Dr.Melanie Schaffler
@MDSchaffler
who just successfully defended her PhD thesis
@PennNGG
.
The graduation of my first two PhD students has been the most rewarding two days of my 3.5-4 years of running a lab. Check out Melanie’s work on bioRxiv.
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Paper out from my lab
@eLife
- automated pain scale using fast imaging, computational approaches, and our new software package. Fun collaboration w/ the labs of J.Plotkin, G.Corder, M.Murthy. Work led by 2 techs in my lab Jess Jones and Will Foster.
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Know what this Black PI learned this week by opening space to discuss race in our lab meeting? Last summer the Black interns in my lab were racially profiled by Penn police on their way into my lab. As we all begin tough conversations locally, wonder what else we may learn?
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@PracheeAC
For underrepresented minority scientists, whose accomplishments have been downplayed and ignored (go watch Hidden Figures), celebrating our victories on this platform is democratizing. It allows us to inspire one another, the next generation, and to show that we are indeed here.
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Now is also the time to commit to bringing in Black graduate students. Cant find any? There are literally ~100 colleges with Black in the name (HBCUs). I went to one of them and only because Ed Marshal at Penn recruited me as a then college student, did I make it to Penn.
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I am honored to be named a McKnight Scholar and to join an amazing cohort of current and past scholars. This award supports our work studying social touch - from molecules to neural circuits and behavior.
📢Announcing the 2023 McKnight Scholar Awards🧠
These 10 scholars are committed to solving the most fundamental problems in neuroscience. Learn more about these incredible neuroscientists and the McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience 👇
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The dream has become reality
@ZuckermanBrain
. PhD student
@RyanWSchwark
in the lab is set to embark on some cool experiments. We have a colony of 50 naked mole rats, and the breeding male is 21 years old and the queen is 14 years old.
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Looking forward to virtually delivering the inaugural “Juneteeth” lecture at
@UVA
Neuroscience. Hope this idea spreads around the nation to showcase Black scholars.
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If we subtract your effort and the paper no longer stands, that means you deserve authorship regardless of career stage.
What is your lab policy on authorship? Specifically regarding including undergrads as coauthors.
#AcademicTwitter
#phdchat
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Hi friends. My 10 year old daughter Maryam is a budding scientist and business woman. She’s started a slime business. Here are some of her homemade creations. They are $8 and she’ll ship them. DM if interested.
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Grateful for support from the Rita Allen Foundation for our work, and honored to be amongst a stellar group of current and former Scholars.
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At my lab meeting yesterday we spent the first hour discussing sexual, racial, and gender harassment and how we can all serve as agents of change within our small circles of influence. Although many often feel powerless, and countless careers derailed, hope is on the horizon.
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Huge congratulations to PhD student in my lab
@MDSchaffler
on the NoA of her F31 NRSA grant from NIH. Melanie has identified a role for touch neurons in stress resilience and is currently testing a therapeutic role for touch. (Photo right after Melanie passed prelim 2 years ago)
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I have been
@Penn
for most of the last 15 yrs. I am grateful for all that I have accomplished here and all those who supported me. However, when the same things keep happening to you since 2006, you begin to suspect that more than coincidence or misunderstanding is at play.
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I agree, dont pick people for talks, awards, or positions to check an identity box. However, I strongly believe you can have a diverse representation of speakers without sacrificing merit. In fact, if the speaker list is homogenous, you have likely sacrificed merit.
3/4 Selecting speakers based on identity politics instead of merit will greatly reduce the quality of any conference. I’ve known
@kurtilaszlo
for years. He loves his students, is very well respected in the field, and is one of the fairest and most honest people I know.
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Thanks to CBS and Stephanie Stahl for profiling me and my new lab. Maybe its ironic that I missed this when it aired live on TV tonight because I was in the lab.
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Universities are tripping over each to recruit Black and Brown talent. We are in a “racial awakening” writ large in America, and specifically in academia. Pause.Breathe. Reflect. We have to come to terms with WHY our institutions have been so recalcitrant to diversity/inclusion.
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In 2015
@BWFUND
invested in me and
@davidvanvalen
as postdocs through PDEP program to increase diversity in science. We met at the new investigator meeting and have supported each other since.
Now, we’re
@Columbia
and
@Caltech
in our own labs making good on their investment.
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How lucky am I to be able to lead this team of amazing scientists and people?
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If you see Black people in your research buildings, why not assume we also work there? I mean, do we really have a problem of random Black people walking into research labs and doing experiments?
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Congratulations are in order for Dr. Leah Middleton Elias
@leahthePhDya
, my lab’s first PhD student to defend. Check out Leah’s work on bioRxiv and stay tuned for the paper that we are currently revising. Next stop for Leah is a postdoc with
@SethBlackshaw
at Hopkins.
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Woke up ready for
@BlkInEngineerng
week, only to see yet another video of unarmed black man shot in the back and murdered by police (in front of his kids). My mother will call soon and say son please be safe walking to and from your lab today.
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Just a few senior citizen neuroscientists in Brooklyn winning two pickup games against some high school basketball players. Where’s the epsom salt?
@ColumboAhmed
@iaahmed123
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This. I have been harassed and racially profiled by Penn police on campus. Was told I fit the description of a suspect.
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Wonderful day at a symposium at Rockefeller only to deal with a racist driver on my way back uptown. No matter who I may be in academia, still a Black man in America.
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Getting ready to deliver my first in person seminar today since the pandemic began at Harvard Neurobiology on touch and pain. Just wow, Ardem and David! All of us in the field stand a little taller today.
#nobelprize2021
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Inheriting behavior boxes from Eric Kandel and wondering what experiments to do with these🤔
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She received her PhD in my dpt
@PennBiology
. Cant wait to see her depicted on our walls.
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Our lab was awarded an EE Just Postdoctoral Fellowship from
@UNCF
, and we are looking for a postdoc candidate for this award. Very competitive salary and independent research budget for the fellow. If you, or someone you know is interested and eligible, get in touch ASAP.
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Before and after receiving the Young Investigator Award from
@SfNtweets
. Deeply grateful to my lab, mentors, collaborators, friends, my parents, and my beautiful wife and kids.
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Excited to reopen my lab today at 20% capacity after a ~3month closure. Wishing everyone safety, peace of mind, and productivity.
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And my kids are now double vaccinated. Thanks Science!
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On the other side of this, what if universities cluster hired talented and qualified black faculty? I’ve heard stranger ideas.
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Trying hard to numb myself and focus on writing these two grants, read papers, and kid’s virtual schooling. But its tough with the loud helicopters above our house all morning here in West Philly in response to another police killing of a Black man.
#WalterWallace
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Gene editing without DNA cutting. OMG!
Drag-and-drop genome insertion without DNA cleavage with CRISPR-directed integrases
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Planning your seminar series, conferences, symposia for post-covid? Any black speakers? Or same black speakers from elite University X being recycled? Or maybe instead of faculty invites, could be some talented black grad students or postdocs that could give excellent talks.
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This was terrifying, but as I got going, it became fun. Thanks
@SfNtweets
for the invitation.
What a great lecture to kick off
#SfN2023
! Grateful for this lab and this VERY exciting work :)
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Grateful to
@cziscience
and
@theNASEM
for supporting our research and efforts to mentor the next generation of diverse scientists. I am also honored to join this cohort of amazing scholars, many of whom are already friends and colleagues.
Science should be by and for everyone. In partnership with
@theNASEM
, we’re excited to welcome 25 Science Diversity Leadership grantees who are diversifying biomedicine through research + mentorship 🙌🏽🙌🏿🙌🏾
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Thanks
@NeuroCellPress
for interviewing me and letting me ruminate on dream experiments, role models, inspiration, and diversity in science.
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It’s difficult for me lecturing to our students in lecture halls filled with paintings of old white men. Wonder how our non-white 18-22 year olds feel in class? Anyone asked? Any momentum at our universities these days to maybe add some people of color to the walls?
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Happy to share a new paper from my lab
@ScienceAdvances
in collaboration with the groups of
@WimmerLab
@NeuronNate
.
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I run a neuroscience research lab, have neuroscience PhD students, and I have never taken a neuroscience class in my life.
I just got my first R01 research grant in computational neuroscience to study learning and memory. In college I got a D on a computational neuroscience midterm, and got C's in Learning & Memory and Neuroscience Lab classes.
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Could not be more proud of
@IsabellaSucci
and
@Will__Foster
, who will both begin their PhD
@Columbia
this fall. Each worked in my lab for 2-3 years as techs, yet indistinguishable from graduate students. My lab opened summer 2018 and these two have been foundational pillars.
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I’ve been listening to this my entire life. It was funny to hear this when I was an HBCU student, and black excellence surrounded me. I still hear this in academia, although we are training increasing numbers of black grad students and postdocs. Seems more myth than reality.
Wells Fargo CEO: "While it might sound like an excuse, the unfortunate reality is that there is a very limited pool of black talent to recruit from."
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The urban centers of America, with large Black voters, are saving the nation.
Ben Jealous: "Black voters could be the difference in almost every battleground state."
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@PracheeAC
She writes, "When has anyone ever felt good about other people getting something that they, too, desire?"
I literally do all the time, honestly. Many junior faculty awards I havn't won (yet, I hope), but I am super happy for the winners - even more so when they're my friends.
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Excited to share our new pre-print where we discover behavior signatures of eusociality and social touch in the East African naked mole-rat. 1/6
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When I attended
@OptoGRC
in 2016 as a postdoc,
@KafuiDzirasa
was the only Black speaker. We actually kept getting confused. This year, Kaf returned as a keynote speaker, and four other Black PIs, including myself, gave well received talks:
@doctorpoe
@bjmarlin
@KhaliqLab
.
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Raising Black children is hard. Sure, I’ve built up some reserve for the barrage of racism I face, but when your kids feel it’s ugly fangs, which are so deep rooted in our society and education system that it becomes invisible - this, is a different kind of evil.
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Celebrating
@DeBroski1
lab postdoc Dr. Ray Saunders on his new faculty position at Lincoln University, the nation’s first HBCU.
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Today bumped into a freshmen at the dpt printer trying to do a last minute print. I offered to assist her and she thought I also was a Penn undergrad. After telling her who I was we walked and talked to my office and I printed her paper for her & now she wants to join the lab.😀
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