2024 Blavatnik Science Symposium: Advancing STEM
From penguins in Antarctica to black holes, accomplished scientists from across the globe shared their innovative research during the 2024 Blavatnik Science Symposium.
Published August 14, 2024
By Kamala Murthy
Senior Manager, Communications
On July 15th and 16th, 2024, The New York Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with the Blavatnik Family Foundation, hosted the 2024 Blavatnik Science Symposium, an exciting interdisciplinary scientific two-day meeting, convening honorees from the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists from all around the world in the fields of Life Sciences, Chemical Sciences, and Physical Sciences and Engineering. Because of the global COVID-19 pandemic, this was the first time in five years that the Academy hosted the conference at the Academy’s new home at 115 Broadway in lower Manhattan.
The symposium convenes the community of Blavatnik scholars to nurture scientific collaborations and discourse through networking, talks, and discussions focused on the latest cutting-edge research. Over 50 distinguished past Blavatnik Awards honorees from the USA, UK, and Israel joined, including 20 who gave presentations over the two days.
Networking Leads to Research Collaborations
Sonya Dougal, Senior Vice President of Scientific Programs and Awards, opened the Symposium by featuring notable collaborations that were started at past symposia where attendees had “meaningful conversations during coffee breaks and over meals that continued after these scientists returned to their labs.” She encouraged attendees to take advantage of the opportunity to meet other scientists from within the Blavatnik Awards community across all four programs and from vastly different scientific fields.
She highlighted one notable partnership that was incubated at a previous Blavatnik Science Symposium — between Szabolcs Márka, a 2011 Regional Winner and experimental physicist from Columbia University, and Jonathan Kagan, a pediatric gastroenterology researcher from Boston’s Children’s Hospital, and 2014 and 2015 National Finalist. Together, they published a paper in Cell Host & Microbe, exploring how environmental stresses exacerbate viral infections.
Nicholas B. Dirks, President and CEO of The New York Academy of Sciences, discussed the power of convening and collaborating to address society’s most significant challenges. Dirks highlighted how many honorees have grown professionally since being recognized by the Blavatnik Awards, receiving promotions to tenure-track positions and advancements to senior leadership in their institutions. “On the economic front, the discoveries that caught the eyes of the Blavatnik Awards jury eventually drew attention from the investment community, taking ideas from the lab to start-up to IPO.”
Day 1: Climate Change, Biomolecules, Neural Networks, and New Frontiers in Physics
Day one began with a session entitled “Mitigating the Impact of Human-made Climate and Environmental Change.” Heather Lynch from Stony Brook University highlighted her research monitoring penguin populations in Antarctica, Seth Murry presented on breeding better crops, specifically corn, using temporal field phenomics at Texas A&M, and Christy Haynes shared her cutting-edge use of nutrient-enriched nanoparticles to improve agriculture from her lab at the University of Minnesota.
This session was followed by “Assembly of Biomolecules in Health and Disease,” in Session II, with presentations by Neal K. Devaraj from the University of California San Diego on the assembly of biomolecules. Devaraj shared his research understanding how lipid membranes self-assemble into artificial cells. Brittany White-Matthieu from the University of New Hampshire presented new chemical methods to image lipid molecules in cellular membranes. Cigall Kadoch from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School discussed her research in chromatin remodeling complexes in human health and disease.
Photos by Nick Fetty/The New York Academy of Sciences.
Session III, entitled “Neural Networks to Navigate Space and Time,” was dedicated to new research in neuroscience. Rachel I. Wilson of Harvard Medical School & Howard Hughes Medical Institute presented on how neural networks allow animals to orient themselves in space, and Antonio Fernandez-Ruiz of Cornell University spoke about how neural circuits store memories and make predictions.
The last session of the first day, “Technology to Illuminate the Universe,” featured an array of topics across physics. Shirley Ho of the Flatiron Institute & New York University spoke about the “Polymathic AI Initiative” to accelerate the development of AI models specifically tailored to solve scientific problems. Adam Overvig from the Stevens Institute of Technology shared his research on light manipulation with geometric symmetries to invent, design, and develop new devices using novel and emerging physical phenomena. Ido Kaminer, from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, presented his latest research into the unifying features of mathematical constants. The day ended with a lecture on theoretical physics–Netta Engelhardt from MIT presented on black holes and quantum gravity.
Day 2: Advancing Sustainability, Designing New Materials, and Improving Treatment of Disease
Day two of the symposium began with Blavatnik scholars who are “Applying Chemistry for a Green Future.” Shannon W. Boettcher from the University of California, Berkeley, shared exciting research on using his water electrolyzer technology to make cheaper, greener hydrogen, a clean-burning fuel. Garret M. Miyake from Colorado State University presented research on new plastic materials that can be chemically recycled back to the fundamental building blocks for recovery and repolymerization.
Session IV focused on “Engineering Materials with Novel Functions” with talks from our Blavatnik Awards engineering scholars. From the University of California San Diego, Sheng Xu presented his new research on next-generation wearable deep-tissue ultrasound technologies, which have tremendous promise for enhancing patient monitoring, early diagnosis, and general human health management. Daniel B. Straus from Tulane University presented new research in chiral self-assembly. Elena Meirzadeh, from the Weizmann Institute of Science, shared new research on the semiconducting properties of graphullerene, a recently discovered two-dimensional arrangement of carbon.
Photos by Nick Fetty/The New York Academy of Sciences.
The Blavatnik Science Symposium’s final session was dedicated to human health in “Cells, Tissues and the Microbiome in Balance.” Nicholas McGranahan from University College London Cancer Institute presented on tumor evolution and its impact on cancer treatment. Shruti Naik from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai shared new epithelial research on “Immune-mediated Mechanisms of Tissue Adaptation and Maladaptation,” and Emily Balskus of Harvard University & Howard Hughes Medical Institute, who studies the chemistry of the human microbiome, shared new research on the vaginal microbiome.
You can watch a brief highlights reel featuring interviews with the 2024 Blavatnik Science Symposium attendees here:
