Program Events
Department Welcome Event
M&I Welcome BBQ
This annual event is a M&I tradition, which allows the department to welcome new students to Stanford University. This also allows the incoming class to get to know their peers, as well as the rest of the faculty, postdocs and staff of the M&I department.
Graduate Student Retreats
2024 Student Retreat
The third annual retreat was held June 7, 2024 at California's Great America in Santa Clara. This event brought students together tonot only enjoy the parks rides & experiences, but team building science activities, promoting vast discussion on research, and promoting interconnection of the cohort.
2023 Student Retreat
We hosted our second annual event in March of 2023 at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco and 32 students attended. Part of the motivation was to encourage social/mental and scientific recovery as we emerge from the isolation and challenges associated with the pandemic.
2022 Student Retreat
We began a new event in May of 2022, to be held annually, that enables scientific exchange, social connectivity and cohesiveness between our graduate students. This retreat held at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk was attended by 24 students and focused on both scientific discourse and team building for the current cohort. Students were given significant input into the activities of the day to ensure that it met their needs and expectations. Each student shared a “lightning talk” describing their ongoing research to their peers, many of whom they had not interacted with in person.
The retreat also included an alumni career panel composed of scientists across different disciplines and in different career fields (e.g. faculty, directors at biotech companies, data scientists). Discussions around the graduate student handbook took place, and changes suggested by the student cohort have since been incorporated into the AY22-23 version of the department handbook. Students also planned numerous games and social activities to assist in team building, such as Introduction Bingo, Faculty Fun Facts, and a sandcastle building competition.
Student-Hosted Visiting Scientist Series
Once or twice a year, the trainees in the program invite visiting scientists to present a seminar on their work. This is entirely student-organized, with the visiting scientist spending the day with students and postdocs in a series of one-on-one and group meetings, and dinner. Trainees in the M&I Program are required to schedule meetings with speakers and present their work in this forum. We guide the trainees to invite speakers that represent diversity broadly defined, including a wide range of topics within the realm of host-microbe interaction, race/ethnicity, gender identity, career stage, and more.
For the upcoming academic year, the trainees have selected the following speaker:
2025-2026
Kim Seed
Associate Professor
Department of Plant & Microbial Biology
UC Berkeley
Previous Visiting Speakers
2024-2025 |
Jeffery Cox (Professor, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, UC Berkeley) |
2023-2024 |
Ellen Foxman (Associate Professor, Department of Immunobiology, Yale University) |
2022-2023 |
Tania Rozario (Assistant Professor, Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases, University of Georgia); Gretchen Diehl (Adler Chair for Junior Faculty, Immunology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute) |
2021-2022 |
Rachel Dutton (Associate Professor, Department of Molecular Biology, UC San Diego) |
2020-2021 |
Ceaser De La Fuente (Assistant Professor, Departments of Psychiatry and Microbiology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania) |
2019-2020 |
Andrew Goodman (C.N.H. Long Professor of Microbial Pathogenesis and Director of Microbial Sciences Institute, Yale University); |
2018-2019 |
Manuela Raffatellu (Professor, Department of Pediatrics, UC San Diego); |
Ethics, Science, and Society Course
This is a 3-day/10-hour interactive course taught by Microbiology & Immunology department faculty for any trainees supported by the training grant, as well as those trainees in their 3rd year who are due for a refresher course, which focuses on topics in Rigor & Reproducibility in research. Lecture/discussion topics included “Data Management” and “Collaborative Research” which emphasize best practices and common pitfalls in achieving high quality research.