 Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Really. This is such an amazing pleasure by any standard all gatherings It's always wonderful on campus and here to actually see people in person is extraordinary And we're so glad to have so many of you here see see familiar faces. Not quite as familiar behind a mask But really really lovely. I'm David Ackerly Dean of Rouser College of Natural Resources And we are here to welcome you to a long overdue 30th anniversary celebration for the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology. I do want to pause before we continue and Acknowledge that for many many people today is also an anniversary the 20th anniversary of the 9-11 Attacks and many people are Marking today in a much more somber way than we are and I actually want to pause for a brief moment to acknowledge and recognize that and When we think about our role and our role at Berkeley and our role in academia These are not unconnected events because the world is a much more divided place than it was 20 years ago both within the country and around the world and if I think all of us know that one of the things we do in the university is We are part of a global community and we are one of the really important ways that people bridge across nations across cultures and I know it's a shared commitment by all to be part of trying to bring the world closer together and heal some of those divides So technically speaking this is the 32nd year of PMB We were we were going to celebrate a year ago Which was even then technically a year late, but that's okay because really we're here to celebrate the future and look forward to many more decades ahead PMB as you all know is one of five departments in Rouser College and it has a long and distinguished and remarkable history and a history of extremely distinguished faculty and extraordinary research which continues and is Going full steam as we speak I'm I'm definitely a fan of history and I was not actually at Berkeley in the 80s when we saw so many reorganizations but under Dick Malkin a nucleus of faculty came together from botany from Self-ysiology entomology and addict genetics plant pathology departments that none of us Hear about today because those are all gone and they came together to form plant biology and Under the leadership then of Sydney Custoo actually would customer Custoo. That's the question Thank you and Bob Buchanan who has been a key part of today's celebration another group came together to form the division of Microbiology and then the two together made PMB in its modern form as plant and microbial biology Now as I said, we would have started these celebrations some time ago Or a year ago, but in the meantime PMB was very active in getting some events going public events via zoom on our you know The many talks we were all celebrating together and starting last year It was actually a Brit Gossinger gave one of the first of these of virulent viruses and reservoir hosts Which some of you may have seen at the time and it's still available But of course in this moment PMB's Focus on microbial biology was as relevant as ever and maybe even more so as old as one of my colleagues said Before last March, there were five like five virologists on this campus and about a month later They're about 200 apparently and everyone found themselves having an interest in this So I do encourage you if you haven't seen it to go and look at some of the events that have been made up the ongoing anniversary celebration Before we go any further. I want to give my personal thanks to a Very active committee that put together all of today's events and actually ask all of them to stand up If you were on the organizing committee in any fashion, please stand. I know John David So maybe already be standing Catherine and Cassie Kareen. Thank you Russ Cheng. Yeah, thank you all as in my role as dean I want to especially express again my thanks to John Coates who served as chair for during my first three years With shing as vice chair and now thank shing stepping up as chair and Britt Glossinger as vice chair of the department It's been an enormous pleasure Working with them and leadership and I can assure you your interests are well represented in the dean's office So I think without further ado, I will turn it over to John Coates who has been chairing this effort and who will then introduce our panel. Thank you very much for being here Well, good afternoon everybody. Thank you David for that Introductory speech. We greatly appreciate your comments Welcome to this long awaited gathering to celebrate our 30th anniversary and I Just want to thank everybody for making the effort to come here today. It means an awful lot to us As David mentioned, my name is John Coates and I just ended my term as chair of the department and I'll be the emcee for this afternoon. So by the end of the afternoon, you'll probably be sick and tired of hearing my voice Hopefully you've already seen the excellent posters that we have had showing here and you've had a chance to mingle and Re-ignite your previous relationships and Have planned some events for later on today I Want to thank the students and the faculty for these posters and the effort that goes into putting them together And in particular, I'd like to recognize My colleague Professor Karine Gibbs for leading the effort in facilitating these activities and serving on both the PMB annual retreat committee and The 30th anniversary celebration committee to ensure the coordination. Karine. Can you please stand up and take a bow? Thank you. Thank you, Karine And I should emphasize that Karine is a new faculty in our department So it was quite a remarkable undertaking for somebody who's only been here for a year. So thank you again, Karine At this point, I'd also like to invite the members of our retreat committee. As you know, this is the Last day of our retreat I'd like to invite the members of our retreat committee. Joanne Strawley the PMB administrative officer Professor Ben Blackman Professor Ceci Martin as Gomez our postdoctoral fellow Monica Fisher graduate student Cullen Barber The graduate advisor PMB's graduate advisor Lynn Rivera and The department coordinator Rachel Colette if you guys could all stand up Please and take a bow and be recognized for your hard work. Thank you guys. It's greatly appreciated so the PMB retreat is an annual event and The goal of it is really to introduce the incoming graduate students to life in our department and to meet their faculty and peers and Needless to say this year's retreat really has special meaning for us all as this is the first departmental-wide in-person event since the Beginning of the pandemic So we're not only welcome the new 2021 cohort of graduate students today But we also recognized the 2020 cohort of graduate students who spent much of their first year in isolation We really congratulate you and and we appreciate your patience and resilience During this very difficult time You were truly not the forgotten cohort like I've heard you describe yourselves in the past. So congratulations guys Okay, in a few minutes, we'll enjoy a keynote presentation by PMB alumnus professors Jingwen Ding of Peking University And then we'll move on to a special panel discussion that offers really some insight into PMB's Contributions to the shaping of our modern world, but before we do that. I'd like to reflect on a few things myself The last 18 months have really been quite extraordinary for us all and they've really been a true test of our resilience So I want to take a moment here to really acknowledge the PMB community and to extend our warmest welcomes to everybody here today On behalf of the planning committee and to thank you for accepting the retreat at the invitation to this event It really is a great honor to see everybody here and we hope that all of you alumni colleagues students Parents and friends enjoy yourselves and please know you're all most welcome Our goal with this event was really to celebrate 30 30 years of achievements of the department And as David mentioned, this is really our 32nd year We had fully intended to do a big in-person event last this time last year but Then the university Closed down as a result of the pandemic So the committee actually began working on this over two years ago and the committee met on a bi-weekly base For the last 18 months to plan a very Various things now we obviously because of the pandemic We had to do a rapid pivot and move everything to an online and as David mentioned We've had saw a great series of online events Programs to mark the special departmental lives milestone So I hope that you'll check out these if you haven't had a chance to you'll check out these events They are all archived online on our departmental website PMB dot Berkeley dot edu So please do check them out if you get a chance These events were developed in a fireside chat forum and focused on highly relevant topics Including the one David mentioned virulent viruses And but we also had an event on genome editing and sustainable agriculture We had an event on the role of social media and science communication and we had a walking event if you want of the fascinating world of fungi and their role in health and nutrition and We wrapped up this series then last May with a career panel which was composed of 9 p.m B alumni from a diversity of career fields who answered many questions and From attending graduate students and postdocs regarding job opportunities in their various fields So right now what I'd like to do is to thank the various faculty student and alumni Panelists who played a role in these various offense over the last 18 months and particularly I'd like to call out Professor Brick Glossinger Professor Brian Staskowitz Professor Pam Ronald Dr. Cat Adams Professor Arash Kamali Professor Cameron Thrash Dr. Iman Sylvain Professor John Taylor Professor Tom Bruns and Dean Ackerley as well So thank you all for your efforts and your help in these events So I really want to particularly welcome the amazing students and postdocs and to remind you guys You are truly the basis of this department and have been throughout the entire history of this department I really am delighted that we can share this event with you today And we look forward to continued interactions with you in the future. I also want to welcome our alumni and Let you guys know that watching you flourish in your various careers has been a great pride of the department We are nothing if We can't watch that your success is our success and every measure of Our success is based on your achievements And we hope that today represents the continuation of a long engagement into the future And obviously to my colleagues both past and present your expertise your energy and scientific Endever is very much appreciated and truly is the core of this department and has been throughout its history and will be into the future On behalf of the PMB community We want to offer you thanks for all the wonderful professional and personal contributions you make to the daily On a daily basis to the research and educational mission of our department and the university And finally then I'd like to welcome our many new PMB faculty Who have joined us during the most difficult of times over the last 18 months and who this is really their first Visual representation of the department as a whole So please join me in welcoming Professor Rachel Brem Professor Ben Williams, Professor Corrine Gibbs, Professor Ceci Martinez-Gomez and Professor Patrick Shea if you guys can stand up and Accept a round of applause These individuals moved to Berkeley in the last 18 months and set up their labs during really the most extremely challenging of circumstances and I personally want to thank them as chair for working with me And they're patient showing great patience as we work through the difficult logistics of relocating them from their various places to come to Berkeley and Then finally, I would like to Congratulate our many retiring members of the faculty so Professor Pat Zimbreski Professor Shawna Somerville Professor Peter Quayle, Professor Stephen Linda Professor Tom Bruns, Professor John Taylor and Professor Norman Terry Congratulations. Thank you for everything you've done for our department throughout its history And thank you for your willingness to continue to be engaged in the department into the future We really appreciate everything you do and are looking forward to Continuing to work with you. So again, let's give them a round of applause And now I'm truly honored and thrilled to hand over to my colleague and the new chair of our department Professor Sheng Luan Sheng Thanks, John and Hello everyone for those of you. I haven't met before I'm Sheng Luan a professor of plant biology for how many years 27. It's been a while, right? I'm as John also said, of course, I'm also the new chair of PMB Working with John in the past three years as a social chair. I Thought I figured out everything about being department chair. So I stepped up. It turned out. That's was not the case. I Was wrong in the past two months. It just right. I was constantly Feeling that I'm a new kid on the block Learning new things every day and challenged by new situations But that's what we all do, right? Learning new things all the time That's also why our university has been in business for more than 150 years Since its funding as an institution of a higher learning so we realize actually we're in the Business that we're playing an infinite a game here There's no finish line because learning has no limit So like our great university PMB has been doing great as you heard from John and David I'm not going to repeat all those achievements and Appreciation for our community But one thing for sure The new faculty we recruited during the past few years Will immensely balance our faculty structure together with outstanding grad students postdoc and staff support I'm sure PMB will continue its legacy of excellence into the future As a department in the past a few years, so we've been through a number of Crisis including the pandemic but through this crisis we become a more tighter and more tight community right will be a grow and developed stronger bond among the community members So I really think the community PMB has become a community with a lot of common goals and values to become a Place for all of us to thrive in pursuing excellence in research and education while fostering a very diverse and inclusive culture So how to measure excellence in the research and education for research? It might be easier, right? So that's measured or determined by the discoveries and innovations Right here on campus, but quality of education is a little more complex It's determined not only by our students on campus But also depends how well they do after they graduate and become our alumni As John said when they succeed we get the credit right when we when PMB is ranked as a top word leading program That means we have been training world leaders in our field As we celebrate our 30th anniversary today So we're so proud to see so many of our alumni Becoming a world leading figures in whatever they do So now it's my honor to introduce one of such outstanding alumni Professor Qing Wang Deng Who received a both PhD and a postdoc training here in our department 30 years ago actually exactly? That set a foundation for his extraordinary successful faculty career at Yale University His research transformed our understanding how plants respond to light Just like we don't like light, you know, there's this too strong So you can imagine that there's so many things in common between animal and a plant and His discovery actually also shaped our knowledge how animal do their signal of transduction mechanism, so we really kind of Didn't realize you know animal and a plant share so much in common before his work and He received a numerous award including being elected to the National Academy of Science and He is currently a founding director of Beijing University Institute of Advanced Agriculture We invite him as a keynote speaker for today's event But unfortunately he cannot be with us in person because of travel restrictions associated with the pandemic Instead he sent us a short video to serve as an opening remark for our celebration Please watch. I hope you enjoyed Dear members of a user Berkeley plant and microbial biology community and a student guest greetings It is my distinct honor to be addressing to you today and providing some welcome remarks For what is our now now awaited in person celebration the PMB's 30th anniversary My name is Xinhuang Deng I'm the director of the School of Advanced Agricultural Sciences at the Peking University and Luminon of the department have been started the PhD program in the fall over 1985 and received my PhD from UCB in 1989 and Notting the irony that my remarks for this in-person celebration are pre-recorded due to the traveling restrictions caused by the pandemic Or not me to say how great it is to be with you on this special day today As I said I received my doctorate from Carl in 89 After four fantastic years learning and a growing professionally and a personally as part of a PMB's community of a scientist Berkeley 1989 it was such a happy time in my life Not only was I learning from the dedicated fellow students and expert professors in fact Professor grusen was my mentor and a doctorate advisor And a dick marking was my PhD committee member and as well as the director of a graduate study. Thank you, dick But I was also married to my wife dr. Ninh Wei a fellow PhD students of the program 1989 what was happening after that year I went to switch to a few PPT slides for sharing with you all I went to Introduce a few PPT slides are talking about what happened in after 1989 Where am I so as I said I Complete my PhD or 89 Afterwards, I went to the plan gene expression to USDA Berkeley Joint venture For postdoc. So this not until the end of 1991 In January of 92 I went to Yale University joined the faculty there Working through the assistant professor social professor for professor and eventually end with an adult professorship in April 2013 I was in next to the Academy of a US Academy of Sciences and after that July 1st 2014 a Resign resigned from the Yale and joined the faculty of a Peking University So why is this happening that I That's has to do where I was from This is picture showing the hometown where I grew up the house here and the View from the front porch. So it is evident that this is a small Mountain village where I grew up. So I has very passionate about the countryside the village the farmers and I Always wanted to do something to improve and change the situation there the Memories of my home village These are the the things that I was in condominium was young the Plotting the night planting the rice and a short short of things hurt the ships and doing all the routine Farm duties the childhood pictures So so I wanted to do something that would improve and help the farmers the village so the first thing I came to Peking University was to Do to suggest and get approved to set up a school of advanced agricultural sciences Peking University. This was founded October 14 2014. So about three months. I joined the faculty the two disciplines that Was actively set up in the last seven years or so was the agricultural economics and the policy studies and The agri-byte technology and the plant molecular genetics. This is the area that I'm interested and educate for One idea that coming up doing that only time is that the research and development Need to be done In the forefront of agriculture. So after I joined the Peking University and just a year after that date in July 23rd 2015 Visited we found of a sandstone province and I'm looking for the a new site for set up a new research Institute and Indeed, I find this is the right place because it's a sandstone is the biggest agricultural related province and we found is the leading city in that area So this is just a perfect place. So starting there and until the June of 2018 Several years. We went through a serious discussion involving we found sandstone province Ted V University Peking University Eventually agreed up to build up a new campus for the Institute and Also get the approval of annual budget for the Institute the construction began in 18 in 2018 June 15 2018 and Excitement it was down in three years and we moved in July 10 2021 So this is just about two months ago. So this is great new place I'm to show you This is just in the process one the negotiation and agreement signing events. This is the government of the sandstone province then This is me Representing Peking University scientists collaboration. So where is the site? The site is in sandstone province in China was no side of China in sandstone province is the we found District of we found is one of the big area in the we found so this we we find this a big neck On the very north side of the neck of this is the seated we found and we Find the location. So so this is a little peninsula Okay, right here on the north side of Lake and we find the peninsula is the perfect location And this is before the constructing start. So it's just a Wideness line over there. And as those are the Then the location where they are instituted are going to be located So it's a perfect looking the waterfront with a small heels on the back This is what it looks today. So it's a waterfront as a very nice campus of 80 acres or so and the This is here on the backside and this is the high here the highest Mountain in the Sha San area. This is the Sha San mountain. Okay, so this is a beautiful beautiful place and The Institute is getting green quickly We our goal is have 20 to 30 laboratories without about 500 staff members and currently we already Achieving 17 labs by the end of this month. So September So we actually has a great bunch of the PIs the scientists myself and the Shin Pin Zhang and one game There's two senior members coming from the International C companies and those new guys are the Susan Chen and Huawei John those Susan from the UC Davis Huawei from the Chinese Academy of Science. Those are excellent brilliant young PIs. I Hope you all like the PPD photos and the short videos This is the new location where I spent most of my time. No days One nation I have taken away from those 18 months or so is The world is a small village good science conduct by good people for the public good is not only Borders it is our best way forward and the way I say our best way forward and referring to our entire planet Our scientists have shown and continue to show time and time again The value of doing strong science of doing the right thing science as international diplomacy I'm so proud to be part of the community that is always asking how and who we it can help Who can we empower today so that our scientists champions can do more to advance the public good tomorrow? So I invite you dear friends to raise a glass Or wave a napkin or just clap your hands and a share a smile with person next to you Invite you to celebrate PNP's glorious 30s years history while envision the next 30 glorious years as our community of a global scientist our Scientist ambassadors continue to link hands minds and test tube No doubt to us in by brave and exciting and inclusive new world Thank you and enjoy the rest of your special day. Thank you Thank you shang and thank you professor Deng for that wonderful presentation So we'll now move on to the panel discussion event for this afternoon And I have the pleasure of introducing our moderator who will then introduce the panelists Today, I'm pleased to welcome professor rich lions Who the professor and former dean of the Haas School of Business in? 2020 rich became Berkley's first chief innovative and entrepreneurship officer and While he continues to hold the William and Janet Cronk chair in innovative leadership in in Haas Rich is truly at the forefront of applied biological sciences and entrepreneurial activities here on campus And he recently oversaw the creation of the new Baker bio ingenuity hall our hub Which is a full-service small business incubator? This facility is housed in the Wu Han Fei Hall, which the former home of the University Art Museum over on the other side of campus Rich is very engaged across campus on scientific innovation and application to the benefit of society and Rich is one of the primary reasons for why UC Berkeley was recently ranked the number two school in the world for entrepreneurs by pitch book in their 2020 University rankings Today, I have the great pleasure and pride to Introduce rich who will moderate our panel discussion Entitled fermenting change the PMB way from lab to living room rich Thank You John and thanks to the whole department It's a pleasure for me to be here and I do get to introduce this remarkable panel just a couple quick comments before I do though You know, I was an undergrad here at Berkeley and I wish I had seen what you've seen all of you have seen Some of you really just getting started so I'm an economist that was the field I chose the field you chose and are choosing those of you that are just getting started is Obviously a world-changing Field it is a future-making field that it is exciting for me now in my current role sort of stepping out of my Economics role to be playing as John mentioned this innovation and entrepreneurship role on campus because it plugs me into The science that's going on the science that you are doing and of course others are doing and I couldn't be more excited about it And you all have read the same kinds of things that I have about this next decade If not the next few decades are going to be defined by fields just like you that's exciting for me So thank you for for bringing me on today One quick comment for those of you that are that are maybe just arriving as postdocs or new faculty if I could Just give you one suggestion and that is there's a website called begin at Berkeley begin Berkeley edu our innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem as they call it is It's head spinning. It's so involved if you go to that website It's all about what resources can you use? How can you navigate the whole campus and obviously more specifically around your field enough said about that? Let me introduce the panel on the topic here because that's why I'm here fermenting change The PMB way from lab to living room. That's our topic for this panel We have three absolutely extraordinary panelists that I get to introduce here So I will go ahead and get started, you know, I think it would help to have the panelists come up now so if Louise glass would come up Uwe Wong and Chris Nioge would if you'd come up now that would be great as we can get started and I'll introduce them That way you can be looking at them as I tell you just a little bit about what they're doing Now many of you know these three people. They're very well-known people But I but it is important for me to give you a little bit of background so you know where they're coming from Louise Louise glass is a professor in PMB here at Berkeley. Come on up. Thank you And a senior faculty scientist in the environmental genomics and systems biology division at Lawrence Berkeley lab She received her PhD from UC Davis and plant pathology and performed her post-doctoral work at the University of Wisconsin Unfungal genetics and molecular biology recruited to Berkeley 1999 from the University of British Columbia. It was their biotechnology lab Louise's work has been focused on dissecting transcriptional regulatory networks in filamentous fungi associated with nutrient acquisition and plant biomass Deconstruction using systems biology approaches this work has applications to industrial industrially relevant fungi for bioenergy For industrial enzyme and protein production production and many other areas professor glass is an international leader in systems biology approaches to fungal genetics genomics and applications of Fungi to bio Energy biofuels and the environment as well She is the Fred Dickinson chair of wood science and technology a fellow of the American Association for the advancement of science a fellow of the American Academy of microbiology a fellow of the Mycological Society of America and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2021 Uwe Wong Dr. Wong graduated from UC Berkeley the PhD in microbiology from professor Coates lab That was 2018 after spending several years elucidating the molecular mechanisms and microbial Prochlorate respiration he transitioned his research focus from environmental microbiology to bioprocessing He leveraged the fundamental knowledge of microbial metabolism to build applied molecular tools including a Contamination control technology that prevents microbial contamination in bio reactors After graduating from Berkeley Uwe founded pow bio a startup that provides Intelligent fermentation services to the growing synthetic biology industry pow bio helps synthetic biology Companies to test to validate and to optimize their fermentation processes and to produce their first kilogram of Product Chris Nayogi Chris is a professor also in PMB an HHMI investigator Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a faculty scientist in the molecular biophysics and integrated bio-imaging division at Lawrence Berkeley lab His lab uses unicellular algae and plants as experimental organisms to study how Photosynthesis is regulated and how photosynthesis might be improved to help increase food production and carbon sequestration He received his BA in biology from Johns Hopkins an M. Phil and biochemistry from the University of Cambridge and PhD in biology from MIT He did postdoc doctoral research at the Carnegie institutions department of plant biology at Stanford since joining the faculty at Berkeley in 1997 he has received a presidential early career award for scientists and engineers a Searle scholar award the Melvin count Calvin award from the International Society of Photosynthesis research and the Charles Albert Shull Award from the American Society of Plant Biologists fellow of ASPB Award he has been elected as a fellow of a a a s and the National Academy of Sciences He teaches the genetics section of bio 1a general biology upper division lecture and lab courses on algal biology and a graduate seminar on plant and microbial photosynthesis three absolutely remarkable people a Fun topic when thinking about sort of the frontier, so I'll start I'll start with the department and this question So there is there is a unique PMB way of doing things as as you think about what that looks like from your Perspective whether it's a little bit more researchy or a little bit more on the alumni side. What is this secret sauce? What is it that makes PMB so special? Why don't we start with you, Louise? Yeah, it was really these questions are really great because they helped me reflect my career at PMB and I Think the secret sauce is the department itself and the colleagues and the graduate students in the postdocs in this department You guys are amazing And it's it's a highly collaborative highly forward-looking community that Asks what if what can we do, you know, so so don't recognizing limitations But actually recognizing opportunities and so I've been really the beneficiary of many of those opportunities over the last 20 years Including Novartis ebi the proximity of Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and interaction with scientists up there It's all been and other departments on campus. It's really been a fantastic Journey for me. Thanks for that who way how about please? Yeah Thank you Rick for the introduction so for me I think there are two major aspect of the secret sauce from PMB one is on the emotional support The other one is the connection. So we are a fairly small on department relatively speaking So that everyone knows everybody. So even for me, I'm a super introvert But when I came to PMB, I was still had the opportunity to really on speak and know everybody So that's extremely helpful because as you know Science there are up and downs and the up can be very high and the low can be very low Like your rotation project may not work until the last week or you may not have good data until you're like the fifth Year so having people that's going to a similar process with you and helping you support you is extremely helpful Not only providing on scientific helps, but also on emotional support and the second thing is connection again We are a relatively small departments Department so when we actually went for example when I after I graduated to start having professional meetings With other people's on if someone else is from PMB You really realize you're sharing this unique PMB bounce For example a few weeks ago actually met Stephen Smith from Kathleen Ryan's lab in your professional meeting and then it was like Oh, hi. How are you? I know this connection really goes a long way and then it doesn't help you to get things done But it definitely helped you to open doors Thanks, Chris. Thanks Yeah, I think the the secret for PMB is really in our name the combination of plant and microbial biology I think that especially 30 years ago was a really unique combination of Disciplines in a department and it's one that has since been Well other departments have tried to replicate and I think that interface between plants and microbes is an extremely crucial one and it's Going to become even more important over the next decades as we grapple with climate change and The associated changes in our environment that are happening Yeah, I think even today I see in all the new faculty that we're hiring that kind of interface between plants and microbes and I think that combination is just extremely powerful and has led to a lot of our success over the last 30 years Thanks for that. I think I think we will go ahead and reverse the order I won't always go go to you first Louise. Thanks for for taking that first question So the second question is really about how the research and the teaching landscape have changed Over the recent years and I just want to call people back to a comment that was made in the introductory remarks about an event on scientific communication and You know how how social media and other ways of communicating our results have changed That's just one element of of how some of the the landscape has changed But some thoughts on how that how that teaching and research landscape have changed for you Chris Yeah, I think in terms of science communication One of the big changes has been the move towards open access publishing I think that's been a really welcome change for the way we do science And I really am a big fan of open access publishing and putting articles on bio archive at the time You know that we're ready to share our results with the world I'm a little bit old-fashioned in that I don't use a lot of social media for like publicizing the work that our lab does but I think that's a really nice way to to communicate and I Encourage students and postdocs to do that and I know maybe I will get a Twitter account someday I've been a little bit discouraged from doing that over the last few years But but it could be a good idea. There are a lot of people quitting such a client accounts, but in any event It's used well. It can be productive over to you Yeah, I think the biggest change is probably people on taking online meetings much more seriously on so for example a few before the pandemic whenever We have a meeting as the person I'm not going to the person or the person not coming to me I always felt like you know, this is they're not taking this opportunity like we're this meeting even seriously, but now on people are really on There's more and more events that are previously impossible, but moving online so that the more people can actually join the event So I think that's a great great change. Thanks. Good example, Louise So I think both of those spheres have really changed over the past 30 years when I first started At UBC and also here there wasn't a lot of emphasis placed on teaching. I think that's really changed over the past 20 years There's a lot more training a lot more integration a lot more collaboration and also Information of what is actually being taught in different classes and also thinking about, you know, what what are we actually trying to teach students? Both at the graduate and undergraduate level, you know, it's just we feed them full of Information is that really the objective of teaching and I think that those conversations over the last 20 years have really Changed how people view teaching Research, you know, when I first started research, it was my research grant my project my lab and that has also really changed it's become highly collaborative and that has also been very enriching because You can collaborate with people that have a completely different skill set from you and their perspective and their ability to contribute to your research program is Incredibly beneficial And so I think that's also a really positive Aspect of research going forward is that pressure to actually think outside your own personal box Great examples all three. Thank you for that. This question is about so-called lab grown products Which as we've all seen there's been an explosion of such products And could we help us think a little bit at whether it's from a health perspective a climate perspective or a business perspective if you prefer What what is your current thinking about lab grown products? And I'll start with you away. This is very close to your work Yeah, thank you. Um, so I think there's indeed a massive explosion in lab grown product These days is honestly the best time to start a belt a company working on lab grown product as long as you have solid preliminary data Is on definitely possible to raise millions of funding to start your own company for example I know on Kulika Chum Wang from the from on glass lab actually started on a food additive company Based on synthetic biology, so on the there's definitely inspiration to produce High-quality healthy food and there's inspiration to reduce the carbon carbon footprint associated with food production And the I think the challenging part is really the business because all these inspirations are really billed on the foundation of having a solid business model it is on Relatively straightforward to produce a product a laboratory scale spending thousands dollars to produce one grams of meat Which causes a few sins on honestly But it's a whole different story when you try to scale up that process to A bigger to scale up and to facing the global market the market is there is a great The market is there and it's a great business model But then the challenge is really can we have the technology in place and really rush it through within a few years to achieve The cost economics that actually make a business case. Thank you for that. Chris. Why don't you go next? Thanks Yeah, this is a little bit further from yeah, my my area of expertise, I guess, but I'm a I'm a big fan of plant-based meats and cheese is for example, and I think the the whole space around Bioproducts and in food ingredients made from plant-based genes and microbial genes. It's really interesting There are a lot of start-up companies in this space right now as as we mentioned and I really am interested to see where that goes I think it could make a very significant impact in reducing the carbon footprint of the way we produce and consume food And this is if I can just pop in there I mean there's another area where there's just lots of other departments on campus that are running with some of these themes, right? Engineering just being one of many many examples So that's your area and you're just getting started in it Make sure you're spanning the boundaries on this campus Please Louise Yeah, my perspective is fungal So I'll say that right up front and it's a super exciting time in my opinion to work on fungi So there are a number of people in my lab who went to work for perfect day Which makes vegan ice cream out of fungi? Impossible foods that makes part of their products out of fermentation of yeast of course with yeast we have beer wine and bread There are also companies that you're using fungal Mushroom leather to make purses to make tennis shoes And I think really the sky is the limit and so this is I think actually a really terrific opportunity For postdocs and graduate students in our department to think again What what new things you know who would who would think of making ice cream out of a fungus? You know it's just like there but that particular company is now a multi-million dollar company so there are lots of opportunities for new ideas for using microbes for Food for biofuels for seed amendments for carbon sequestration And lots of economic and industrial opportunities for companies to exploit basic research that we do here on campus Thanks for that this this next questions related that last question was specifically about lab-grown products as you know The next question is really about kind of big picture next five to ten years Whether you're thinking about research in in your specific domain or perhaps with away a little bit more kind of so How are we going to do the scaling or how are we going to address some of the things that you mentioned in your last answer? But the next five to ten years and I'll start with Louise on this one Yeah, I think there are a lot of opportunities and so There are many more tools to probe Bacteria and fungi and other microorganisms algae that were available in the past I'm thinking of CRISPR-Cas and so it really allows the development of these new systems to do novel things And also sequencing to understand the ecology of organisms In nature doing metagenomics for example and how perturbations affect those populations and so I think that they're the The advent of this new technology really opens up opportunities to exploit those systems For example carpent sequestration and seed amendments and agriculture Thanks for that Chris Yeah, I really agree with what Louise just said there I see a big challenge for the next five to ten years is taking our fundamental mechanistic understanding of biology and Applying it to problems like climate change. I really think this is an existential problem for humanity that we need to address and I Planned to devote much of my time Remaining here at Cal to try to do just that Yeah, and I think another aspect again that kind of brings it back to P&B and what I said initially is that you know Many of us in the lab focus on individual isolated organisms And I think increasingly we need to look at communities of organisms and the interactions between them in the natural environment Yeah, Louise is for example doing some amazing work related to that and many of the people in P&B are as well other people in P&B So I see that as a really important future direction. Thanks for that next five to ten years away Um, so my my perspective is a little wise toward the industry because I guess I'm thinking on what How do we really best translate this great technologies into a product or into a applicable Technologies that actually has a business case on so the same I'm not the most creative person. So I guess you've probably heard this many times probably on leveraging the power of AI or machine learning and combining the fundamental knowledge of biology to really rapidly Screens through and the mind to the massive data that we are learning from our fundamental research for example When research area we are focusing focusing on is utilizing machine learning to drive the fermenter So for example in fermentation processes, you have to define the best pH best processing temperature the downstream the upstream Could we use almost like a self-driving car? Could we use machine learning to? to self to to build a self-driving fermenter so that on the scaled-up process will wouldn't be as a Black magic because right now honestly people just take a laboratory scale process and Use some boilerplate Process conditions and hope for the best move to a big reactor and hope for the best could we really bring on almost like an intelligent approach to To turn some of this on black magic almost aspect of biology into Into into more controlled Experiments. Yeah, well, I love the comment that you made and it's very much in keeping with sort of the modern Way that we teach and and provide opportunities around entrepreneurship the idea that the scientific method is as relevant for Developing a business as it is for developing the science underneath it. There are hypotheses you need to test those hypotheses What are the hypotheses? How are you going to test them? Right, so the idea that we put our science hats down and then we become entrepreneurs No, the entrepreneurship area is very much gone into let's use the tools of the method and and advance that way So this next question is Relates to some of the stuff you've talked about but it's the question is about how exciting this moment is right? I kind of started by saying why didn't I choose your field some of that is because as was discussed I'm helping a whole team of people that are working on Baker bio ingenuity hub Or but you could mention so many different things that are going on on campus Your department has been a societal game-changer for a long time the pandemic has shifted life and work expectations We we've got brand new initiatives on campus hubs geared toward expanding societal and economic Opportunities do you feel this buzz do your students feel this buzz a couple of comments on that Chris, please? Yeah, definitely. I was just reading the other day about The number of cluster hires that are taking place on our campus right now You know, I think we were a beneficiary of one of those first cluster hires in the area of biology And there are now a number of those going on not necessarily in the space of entrepreneurship, but in a lot of Areas that are related to equity inclusion social justice things like that I really look forward to seeing yeah, where these hires lead in terms of the directions it pushes our campus and I think that's a really great way to hire and To get new faculty on the campus Thanks for that who way Yeah, I think now is a great time to be a student at UC Berkeley. It's definitely an exciting time When I came to UC Berkeley, I didn't realize or even thought about that I will become an entrepreneur So it's just a run honestly like a random a series of random events Professor John Coase introduced me to a director at the NSF ACROPS program And that person already opened the door to for me on to the vast amount of Entrepreneurship on resources that available on campus. I know has has underpred entrepreneurship program NSF acrobs has programs here. I know how law school has started up law programs So all these resources are really helped to cultivate on this UC Berkeley entrepreneurship spirit Thanks for that. Please Louise. I think being a graduate student or post-doc now You have just many more opportunities than when I was a graduate student where we pretty much had tunnel vision And you just didn't really think outside of your experiments writing a thesis getting a job And so I think the sort of integration of different expertise and and thinking about for example aspects of social justice included in your thesis or interacting with people that think about that all of that enriches your Perspective and that enriched perspective I think really affects what choices you make in the future and the more informed you are the better choices You're going to make in the future And so I think the department has a really made a huge effort in the past two years to kind of bring that perspective with some of the DEI activities and the book clubs and And I think that that has really enriched our community and and I and I think that that Will make a big difference going forward Thank you. So this next question is about the cross-cultural role for your science It was mentioned by our keynote speaker So I want to drill into that a little bit more That it that that your science and science more generally has this powerful Cross-cultural role or the potential to play an even larger role that way in an often fractured world We've all seen that Could you speak to the science and PNB's value as a connector of people across culture science as an ambassador Science as a change maker Why don't we start with you? Yeah, I think science is definitely a great unifier on for people across different culture and PNB Especially as one of the most the best microbiology and plant science department in the world Attracting people from diverse different backgrounds and that was diverse experience I think a good research team should compose two people that actually on From diverse on background and with complementary skill set So for example when we first started on this is definitely not intentional Our our core team actually was born from four different like four of us was born from four different continents Right, like I was from Asia John's from Europe all dreams from Africa and Shannon's from America So I think I think science is definitely this great unifier that's bringing people together and learn From each other and and really grow to be a better better people together Thank you for that. I think you know that notion of the of the team I guess at least me in my own simplistic way of thinking about science Especially when I was younger the idea of the individual contributor and its boy. Is it is it a team sport now? Right great science. I guess it's always has been but it feels like it's only going further in that direction So same same question to you Louise, please Pleasure in my life to have all of the People who worked with me over the years and many of them are from diverse backgrounds diverse places and it has been not only Great on a personal level getting to know people and working with them over the years But also on a cultural level because they bring a different perspective because they come from a different place In the on earth and so I think that that's really beneficial And so there you have diversity of backgrounds But I think also it's kind of go back to something that I talked about before that you can also have diversity of perspectives and diversity of expertise and I think that that has also been Something that's been really Enriching is having people from different expertise Proteomics metabolomics protein structure to go along with our genetics machine learning And that has as is also I think an important aspect of Of this place and this department for sure Thanks for that So I did you get a chance to answer that one Chris not yet. Please to you. Yes Yeah, this is not yeah necessary specific to PMB But I think that cross-cultural cross-cultural aspects of science and how international it is is really one of the most enjoyable aspects of science So whether it's like a lab potluck where you have you know dishes that are prepared by people from all over the world or The chance to go to international conferences and meet colleagues in other countries That is really an amazing thing that we're able to do and you know, it's made harder now, but In some ways zoom has actually made that even more accessible the ability to communicate with colleagues all across the globe We need we need your glue. We need your glue at the next three questions are a little bit more personal, so I'm gonna ask you to open up a little bit here. Why who do you admire and why? Louise could could you start on that tough question? That is a tough question And I did think about it and I felt like Well, I I don't have a favorite person, I guess And so the thing that popped into my head was the department I really value the department and all the different voices in the department from undergrounds all the way up to Emeritus and so and staff and so I think that that has been a Real pleasure for me and I that's who I admire and I value are the people that are around me every day Love it. Well, you know at some level We're all volunteers and you are here because you feel that way and it is a great thing for all of us that you do Thank you for that. Oh, wait, why don't you go next? Thanks? Yeah, um, so I have massive amount of respect for people on just Don't give up that especially in science right so easy to give up you work on a project. It doesn't worry. Just leave um, I know a person worked on a project for many many years and the preserved to the end and Published a great paper in the end and even discovered Evidence of a new carbon fixation pathway. It does Israel figure or I really have a lot of respect for him And I think that's also part of the PNB spirit that we just keep Attacking a difficult past different difficult problem from all different angles and in the end we solve the mystery Thanks for that Chris Yeah, it is a tough question and I'm gonna I guess make it kind of personal. I Really admire my my mom Audrey Stevens Yeah, she was a scientist like me But she like Xing Wang Deng said came from very humble beginnings growing up on a small family farm in Nebraska Was one of the first to get a PhD from the university. She went to Did a fellowship at NIH? Was a co-discoverer of RNA polymerase and was elected to the National Academy the same year that Brian Staskowitz was actually So yeah, I'm just incredibly proud of her and I just admire her so much. Yeah Thank you for that. Thank you for that The next question is related but a little different as so many of the people in this audience know The quality of the mentors slash sponsors in your life Just have a fundamental impact on on what you become and the opportunities available to you And it's important that we we pay that back pay that forward But could you talk a little bit about specifically about mentoring it make it may connect to your who you admire? answer but Who's played in a role as mentor to you specifically and what made them great mentors? Chris could you do this one first? Sure. Yeah, so yeah, maybe just picking up where I left off there So I one of the reasons I admire my mother so much is what she taught me about science So the importance of a strong work ethic working hard and also she taught me what what creativity in science means And then more yeah in PMB. I want to give a shout out to Russell Jones who has been My senior faculty mentor for the entire time that I've been here He was actually the chair of the search committee when I was hired and we share a common love of soccer and a lot of other aspects of life that Has been a really enjoyable thing to share over these 20-plus years that I've been here and he he's someone who just knows this campus really well And he was just the perfect mentor for me to sort of tell me how things really work here And I really appreciate that that's great You know Russell's I might be the first person from your department that I got to know on campus through some some Senate work and I'm I'd like to say I'm as fond of him as you are you know him so much better than I am that I do but he is just a Remarkable remarkable person. Oh way. How about how about this question for you? Yeah, I have two people on in mind The one is definitely professor John Koh so I was in his lab for eight years and John really encouraged academic almost like a research Reach you know way like a research freedom like oh way What is the best question that you actually care something that you know? Let you up that you have a passion and work on that and really encouraged us to work on a question that we are really Passionate about and I really appreciate that and John also never give up, right? He really you really have to bring the most conclusive negative data to say I John this you know It's not it's not gonna work people so you never left wonder on like whether on you know I just didn't try it hard enough or the project was actually not going to work The second person is on my wife. So yeah Charlie and she's I'm like a very By the book person. I don't I always go with the easiest explanation Whereas she always think outside the box and I really appreciate that as well. Love it. Thank you for that Thank you Louise. Yeah Yeah, besides the mentors that I had in graduate school and postdoc since I've been here I want to acknowledge my fungal colleagues John Taylor Tom Bruns and more recently Rachel Bram They are a fantastic group of people to work with and especially John Taylor because he always I would go into his office And he his first answer would be or question would be why not be like why not do that? Or why not sequence a hundred strains? Why not? And so he was always an incredible optimist and the other person that I want to acknowledge is Chris Somerville Chris headed the EBI when I was part of the EBI and he was just an incredible leader to watch during that process and his ability to inspire 500 people across three different campuses to try to solve biofuel problems from again a uniquely integrated approach And I have to he he was really fantastic to interact with and he also Worked from first principles and what I mean by that is that you have to understand the problem before you solve the problem And that's really the basis of basic research is to understand the problem And then once you can't understand it then you can manipulate it to solve some of these problems And he was a huge advocate for that he's one of the people who started a rabidopsis for plant biology and for biofuels He let me work on the Ross Bra even though it was not an industrial organism And so I have to really credit him Thank you for those thoughts from all of you So this is the last question and this one is fairly open-ended That's really closing thoughts whether you want to look out sort of long term on PMB or just in general anything we've discussed. How about some closing thoughts? We'll start with you Uwe Thank you. So I really PMB is a great department. I really enjoyed my time here I hope I really firmly believe that PMB in the next 10 years or like even later will continue to produce groundbreaking researchers and continue to Generate groundbreaking discoveries for the for better humanity Also, I really hope that a PMB continue to unleash the Interpreter entrepreneurial spirit of UC Berkeley So that we help people we help to translate that this ground the great breaking technologies discoveries to applicable technology and products to make an impact to the society And yeah, and in the end hope to see you all again 10 years later in the next 10 year anniversary Maybe in eight because we'll be do Louise. We'll go we'll go next to you, please Yeah, I just want to it's Very exciting to have new faculty in our department and very vibrant new faculty And so actually yesterday at the PMB retreat was the first time but I've met many of the new faculty that were hired in the last 18 months and so that was really exciting and so I really look forward to Seeing where the department evolves over the next 20 years, and I'm really also hoping that there are some wine left Because I didn't have any before now So that's my final word looking out long-term Louise. Thank you for that Over to you Chris Yeah, I agree with Louise that The new faculty that we've hired over the last five years or so is really made me very optimistic about the future of this department I think there was a time like you know when Louise was chair and I was chair When we were very concerned about the future because we could see this retirement cliff with all of our outstanding faculty approaching retirement age and we were not able to hire new faculty and The new faculty are really the lifeblood of the department and they bring all kinds of creativity new approaches new ways of thinking and From what I've seen so far. We're in really good hands for the future Thank you all so much, you know, I think just one quick comment and that is I think when we ask kind of that why does this institution exist? It's is one of society's most important assets and I think for all of us. It's at the end of the day It's about impact. It's about long-term impact But it's about impact and when we start thinking about whether it's the fundamental research We do or the translation as we pointed to it that that we do of that to really improve society It feels to me as a relative outsider like your department has never had more opportunity To contribute both on the you know, the upstream side of that and on the downstream side of that So it's super exciting to me Let's give these three wonderful panelists a hand, please. Thanks, and I think John or someone is going to lead us to the next step. Thank you all three very much All right Thank you very much panelists and rich for that wonderful discussion And just from my own personal perspective, I'd like to say how incredibly proud I am to have been part of this department for the last 20 years Everybody has mentioned up here. It really is a remarkable place And how could it not be when we have graduate students like away who an alumni like away who go on to such amazing successes? So congratulations. Congratulations all of you and thank you for that wonderful discussion So now it's my pleasure to introduce professor Korean Gibbs who will announce the student 2021 poster awards Korean And when as she worked her way up here I'd just like to mention again that Korean is one of the brand new faculty in our department Who most of us haven't met in person until very recently I was fortunate enough to have met her long ago because we interacted during the whole interview process But Korean come up Thank you again for everyone participating In the retreat and the poster pitches. So for the best poster pitch christine kabar We will save this in joanne's office for her and then Uh for best poster presentations. We have two winners. Sebastian Fernandez and adrian belencore Come on up if you're here, so Thank you And so that concludes our program for today. We have some refreshments afterwards over here at pat frowns And thank you again