SFN 2006
I am writing from the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta
International Airport. It is one of the largest airports i have been in, and
today, it is also seems like its one of the busiest. In fact, according to the
statistics on their website, the airport serviced
78,774,044 domestic passengers and 932,968 domestic
take-offs and landings in 2005. Assuming peak airport hours of 6am to 12am, the
HJAI airport serviced in 2005, on average, 142 flights and nearly 12,000
passengers every hour! Its no wonder that it indeed has the lone
distinction of being "the world’s
busiest passenger airport."
A little tip...if you're departing from here, get here as early as you can; J, L, and I missed our flight out to Denver due to a Delta agent misinforming us of which line to stand in. We had purchased our ticket from Delta, but our flight from ATL to DEN was on Frontier Airlines. The Delta agent probably assumed that we could check-in at the Delta window because the Frontier Airlines portion of our flight was operated by Delta. Not so. After standing in line for an hour, we were informed to go to the Frontier check-in terminal, who then promptly told us that we had missed the flight, that the next and only flight to denver was overbooked, and to pay her $100 each to make the adjustment. We balked and returned to the Delta window, and after a sincere explanation, a wonderful Delta agent by the name of Brenda P. hooked us up on a direct flight to SLC. Though we had to wait an extra couple of hours in ATL, we're scheduled to arrive around the same time. (edit: delays at the terminal and tarmac actually postponed our flight an additional 2-3 hours).
So SFN. What a meeting! I saw so many incredible posters, talked to alot of people about their work, asked questions that were minute and technical or broad and naive, and received great feedback on the posters. We got a pretty good crowd at J and I's poster, and got a surprising amount of traffic at the neuroprotection poster (eric and I's). The greatest thing that I found about the meeting was being able to go up and talk to people who are doing the exact same technique that I am trying to develop in the lab, and ask the technical questions. I was given their emails, and contact info, and was encouraged to contact them for their protocols! It was great! Another great thing was that I was able to return the favor to a scientist from Spain who was trying to adopt a technique, one that I am quite comfortable with, and i was able to tell him, "sure, give me your contact info, i will send you my protocol"! so cool! scientific Kharma!
The meeting ended on the 18th, but you can see the attendance as of the 16th, when this picture was taken. Interesting that the Student Member category was the only one without a noticeable decline.
Here's J in front of our poster. I'm really proud of our work on this one. We got great feedback. It was great to hear the positive comments regarding the images. So many people came up to the poster and said, "wow, these are beautiful images"! some people even asked, "so this is confocal?" and we had to be like, "nah...it's just a light microscope"!! The most consistent question was "so what do you think is going on here?" the answer to which was, "koji will find out soon." the need to do the functional experiments proposed in my thesis is now crystal clear.
here i am talking about E and I's poster...this one was really cool because i wasn't expecting much traffic, and instead, i had several people to talk to the entire time that i was standing in front of it (i did leave for an hour to go see some posters for my self!). It was surprising to hear how much interest (and mystery) there was regarding the technique that we used. The highlight for me, however, was that before presenting this poster, I was able to go one aisle over and talk to THE person who developed the technique we use! Dr. Schmued developed the use of the anionic fluorochromes to detect cell death and i was able to ask him some direct questions that were burning holes in my skull and also proposed a sensible experiment with him that would validate his ideas! it was so cool. so then, when i was in front of my own poster, i was able to address these issues. man, what a great conference.
here's our roommate and labmate Liang giving the thumbs up while talking to KW's former graduate student MB.
some intense basal ganglia discussion by the Keefe Lab posters.
after a full day, sometimes you feel like this poor little primate...
you know you're at a geeky convention when you see one of these outside the hotel bar...
20,000+ making a mad dash after each day's session.
this was a great meeting. i found the size of the meeting a little difficult; it was hard to go to all the talks and posters that i wanted to due to time constraints imposed by both the number of events and the sheer distance between them. However, because there were so many high-quality presentations to choose from, i feel that i got a good exposure to the field i am getting in to. it was so fun, and i can't wait to go again next year.
A little tip...if you're departing from here, get here as early as you can; J, L, and I missed our flight out to Denver due to a Delta agent misinforming us of which line to stand in. We had purchased our ticket from Delta, but our flight from ATL to DEN was on Frontier Airlines. The Delta agent probably assumed that we could check-in at the Delta window because the Frontier Airlines portion of our flight was operated by Delta. Not so. After standing in line for an hour, we were informed to go to the Frontier check-in terminal, who then promptly told us that we had missed the flight, that the next and only flight to denver was overbooked, and to pay her $100 each to make the adjustment. We balked and returned to the Delta window, and after a sincere explanation, a wonderful Delta agent by the name of Brenda P. hooked us up on a direct flight to SLC. Though we had to wait an extra couple of hours in ATL, we're scheduled to arrive around the same time. (edit: delays at the terminal and tarmac actually postponed our flight an additional 2-3 hours).
So SFN. What a meeting! I saw so many incredible posters, talked to alot of people about their work, asked questions that were minute and technical or broad and naive, and received great feedback on the posters. We got a pretty good crowd at J and I's poster, and got a surprising amount of traffic at the neuroprotection poster (eric and I's). The greatest thing that I found about the meeting was being able to go up and talk to people who are doing the exact same technique that I am trying to develop in the lab, and ask the technical questions. I was given their emails, and contact info, and was encouraged to contact them for their protocols! It was great! Another great thing was that I was able to return the favor to a scientist from Spain who was trying to adopt a technique, one that I am quite comfortable with, and i was able to tell him, "sure, give me your contact info, i will send you my protocol"! so cool! scientific Kharma!
The meeting ended on the 18th, but you can see the attendance as of the 16th, when this picture was taken. Interesting that the Student Member category was the only one without a noticeable decline.
Here's J in front of our poster. I'm really proud of our work on this one. We got great feedback. It was great to hear the positive comments regarding the images. So many people came up to the poster and said, "wow, these are beautiful images"! some people even asked, "so this is confocal?" and we had to be like, "nah...it's just a light microscope"!! The most consistent question was "so what do you think is going on here?" the answer to which was, "koji will find out soon." the need to do the functional experiments proposed in my thesis is now crystal clear.
here i am talking about E and I's poster...this one was really cool because i wasn't expecting much traffic, and instead, i had several people to talk to the entire time that i was standing in front of it (i did leave for an hour to go see some posters for my self!). It was surprising to hear how much interest (and mystery) there was regarding the technique that we used. The highlight for me, however, was that before presenting this poster, I was able to go one aisle over and talk to THE person who developed the technique we use! Dr. Schmued developed the use of the anionic fluorochromes to detect cell death and i was able to ask him some direct questions that were burning holes in my skull and also proposed a sensible experiment with him that would validate his ideas! it was so cool. so then, when i was in front of my own poster, i was able to address these issues. man, what a great conference.
here's our roommate and labmate Liang giving the thumbs up while talking to KW's former graduate student MB.
some intense basal ganglia discussion by the Keefe Lab posters.
after a full day, sometimes you feel like this poor little primate...
you know you're at a geeky convention when you see one of these outside the hotel bar...
20,000+ making a mad dash after each day's session.
this was a great meeting. i found the size of the meeting a little difficult; it was hard to go to all the talks and posters that i wanted to due to time constraints imposed by both the number of events and the sheer distance between them. However, because there were so many high-quality presentations to choose from, i feel that i got a good exposure to the field i am getting in to. it was so fun, and i can't wait to go again next year.
Posted: Wed - October 18, 2006 at 05:21 PM
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Published On: Jul 15, 2007 11:24 PM
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Published On: Jul 15, 2007 11:24 PM