The purpose of this award is to provide partial support for US-based students, postdoctoral associates and young professionals who will attend the first AfroBiotech conference which will be held October 27-29, 2019. The venue for the inaugural AfroBiotech conference is Atlanta, home of the emerging Georgia biotech corridor. The conference will focus on discoveries, innovations, and achievements from African-American scientists and engineers in biotechnology. It will highlight the contributions of this underrepresented group to solving current problems and demonstrate the power of a diverse engineering community. By organizing African-American scientific talent from across the U.S. at a single event, the conference will to enable diverse professionals to choose the right career paths, inspire organizers of other scientific conferences to invite diverse speakers, and inspire the next generation of diverse students and scholars to join this community. The conference will provide a venue for a new generation of diverse biotechnology professionals. It will include scientific presentations from a diverse group of leading biology, chemistry, mathematics and engineering researchers and highlight achievements of African Americans in biotechnology. It will encourage active participation and networking of Ph.D. students and postdoctoral researchers, who represent the future of biotechnology and will encourage interdisciplinary dialogue among professionals working in numerous fields.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
