iSci Synthesis
story originally posted in the April 2024 edition of Science Matters newsletter
Over the past three years, Bianca Mammarella’s clocked more than 500 hours as the volunteer chair of Synthesis: The Integrated Science Student Symposium.
The end-of-year symposium isn’t a one-day affair. It spans seven days because every first to fourth-year student’s invited to present their projects and research and network with peers, profs, alumni and sponsors. For first-year students, the symposium offers a preview of what they can do, contribute and achieve over their next three years in the program. For everyone else, the conference is a way to take stock and celebrate their progress and development.
Bianca was elected to chair the symposium in 2022, 2023 and 2024. The conference wunderkind’s pulled off this feat while taking a full course load, co-founding two student groups, offering peer support for students experiencing disability and working part-time as both a pharmacy assistant and a research assistant in the fields of resuscitation and electrophysiology.
What has Bianca meant to the conference? She’s been the conference for the past three years, professor Sarah Symons said after the closing ceremonies. Sarah was among the faculty and staff team who created Symposium in 2012. “Bianca’s put everything into Synthesis. She’s an incredible motivator and organizer. Total success and doing something that benefits the entire student community has always been her goal. That’s what she aims for. I honestly don’t know how she manages all that she achieves.”
This year’s symposium was a record-setter, with more than 150 presenters, 30 peer reviewers and 35 volunteer committee members. It’s worth noting the organizers don’t start pulling together the conference until the start of the winter term. Bianca says Sarah, associate professor Chad Harvey and instructional assistant Devon Jones were once again a huge help this year. “They supported and challenged me to learn and grow.”
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