UFHCC Education Programs Go Virtual
Overcoming the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
The UF Health Cancer Center has been taking unprecedented precautionary measures to ensure the safety of our Cancer Center community of faculty, students, trainees, and staff during the pandemic.
Here are some of the plans the UF Health Cancer Center’s Research Career Enhancement Core is implementing to offer virtual programs due to the pandemic:
UFHCC University Scholars Program
At a time when many of our labs were not yet fully operational and recognizing that the rules of social distancing required within our research space have necessitated some of our investigators to adopt plans to have their employees work in shifts, it was important for the UF Health Cancer Center to continue to offer cancer research opportunities for our undergraduate students.
Our UFHCC Education Committee, comprising graduate students working in our cancer research labs, have created a virtual “Core Concepts of Cancer Research Course” for the 12 scholars who joined our University Scholars Program in September 2020. This comprehensive curriculum, comprised of a weekly series of lectures on fundamental topics in cancer research, coupled with required background literature reading, quizzes, and reports, will offer our scholars an extensive and wide-ranging background in cancer research that will better prepare them for the hands-on laboratory experience phase of our program, anticipated to begin in the Spring 2021 semester.
2020 Virtual Research Symposium
Although the impact of the pandemic remains uncertain and it is not feasible to organize an in-person event at this time, the UF Health Cancer Center recognizes the importance of providing a forum for our trainees to showcase your research. As a result, we are excited to welcome you to our 2020 Virtual Research Symposium, taking place Dec. 8-10. This virtual symposium will include:
Dec. 8, 4-6 p.m. — Poster Session
This virtual format will challenge our students and trainees to not only make a poster, but to also make a short video presentation. Chat boxes on our virtual symposium platform will allow participants and poster judges to ask questions and comment on your work. In keeping with the center’s mission to foster education and training and to build research collaborations, trainee prizes will be awarded. Faculty are welcome to submit an abstract to showcase current research; however, faculty posters will not be judged.
Abstract deadline: Oct. 12
Limit one poster per presenter
Dec. 9, 12-1 p.m. — Keynote Speaker: Robert Winn, M.D.
Making Impact: Cancer Centers in the 21st Century
Robert Winn, M.D., is the newly appointed director of the Massey Cancer Center at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. He previously served as the director of the University of Illinois Cancer Center in Chicago and as associate vice chancellor of health affairs for community-based practice at the University of Illinois Hospital and Health Science System. Dr. Winn is an expert in lung cancer and community-based health care.
Dec. 10, 4-5:30 p.m. — Trainee Award Presentations: Celebrating our 2019/2020 UFHCC Awardees
The UF Health Cancer Center awards up to five graduate students every year with $10,000 to recognize and support outstanding predoctoral candidates who are conducting innovative cancer research. This Special Research Seminar will feature three-minute thesis presentations by our 2019 & 2020 Predoctoral Awardees. The 2020 poster winners will also be announced. Applications for the 2020 UFHCC Predoctoral Awards are now being accepted.
Application deadline: Oct. 23, 2020