Students Share their Experience at the Volcano Conference

Written by Larissa G. Capella

WWU geology students attended the Volcano Conference from February 23-24. 

First organized by Professor Steve Withers and Professor Michael Gelb in 1991, the Volcano Conference is an annual conference in chemical biology where students, postdocs and faculty share their research. 

During those two days, postdocs and students gave several twenty-minute talks and speed talks, which were much shorter presentations to share their projects’ key-ideas and entertain their audience. Along with a plenary lecture by Dirk Trauner, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Trauner’s research shows the “power of chemical synthesis with challenging target molecules and to use it toward the establishment of synthetic biological pathways.”

This conference is held at Pack Forest, which is located at the foot of Mount Rainier. Groups that attend the conference have the opportunity to do educational science talks while also hiking, walking or simply enjoying the beautiful scenery of the Pacific Northwest. After some talks on the first day, students took the opportunity to go hiking. 

We asked some Western students to tell us more about their experience:

“The Volcano Conference was the first conference I’d ever attended, and I found it to be a unique and priceless opportunity to bond with my labmates. The rustic setting of Pack Forest made hearing about the incredible chemical biology research happening in the PNW even more enjoyable than it would have been on its own!” - Adam Wachsman

“The Volcano Conference was a unique opportunity to network with scientists who originate from a variety of backgrounds. From dozens of research presentations, I learned multitudes about current research being done in the fields of Chemistry, Biology, Neuroscience and Biotechnology in the Pacific Northwest and simultaneously enjoyed a fun weekend at Mt. Rainier with my lab team. After witnessing the diversity of topics covered during every presenter's research, my eyes have been opened further to the mysteries of what currently remains unknown. Watching people present their research is always inspiring to me. Not only does it feed my curiosity, but it also reminds me of the good that can originate from science and its potential to change the way we live for the better, just by knowing more than we previously did about the world.” - Denali Evers