Escape room
On Saturday, March 30, BLPA went to the Madame Tussauds Escape Room in San Francisco. The two groups successfully escaped in less than the regular time! We had a lot of fun and we hope to do it again. Thank everyone for coming!
LINC launch
We are thrilled to announce the launch of BLPA’s latest initiative for advancing postdoc careers: the Lab-Industry Networking Connection, a platform designed to introduce postdocs to careers beyond academia, and importantly, facilitate networking with industry partners. Postdocs possess invaluable skills that can be used in several sectors, which is why …
Laurel Wright, Ph.D
Scientist, Zymergen Laurel Wright is a Scientist in the Data Science group at Zymergen in Emeryville, where she builds statistical and AI tools that support Zymergen’s high-throughput screening platform. Since joining Zymergen in 2016, Laurel has worked has a technical and business scoping lead for several client projects, and as …
Paul Ashby, Ph.D
Staff Scientist, Molecular Foundry, Berkeley Lab Co-Founder, Scuba Probe Technologies Paul Ashby came to Berkeley Lab in 2003 as a postdoc in the Imaging and Manipulation of Nanostructures Facility at the Molecular Foundry and he successfully transitioned to a Staff Scientist position there in 2007. His group works on designing …
Diego Scarabelli, Ph.D
System Engineer and Data Scientist, Cerebras Systems After completing his Ph.D. in Applied Physics at Columbia University, Diego Scarabelli joined Rigetti Computing as a Quantum Engineer leading the Qubit Microfabrication Team. There, he contributed to designing and testing iterative architectural improvements, and developed control software and data analysis code base. …
Israel Figueroa, Ph.D.
Scientist, Visolis Israel Figueroa obtained his PhD in Microbiology from UC Berkeley. After a brief stint as a postdoc, he decided to move into the exciting and rapidly expanding biorenewables industry. He currently works as a Scientist at Visolis, a biotech startup based in Hayward, CA, where he uses synthetic …
Christopher Benson
Associate, EE & CS, Exponent Christopher Benson is an experimental physicist with a background in mechanical engineering whose expertise covers high voltage systems, high-power devices, electric motors, detector calibration, extreme ultraviolet optics, wavelength shifting thin films, and detailed Monte Carlo simulations. His experience at Exponent includes failure analysis, testing, and …
Biotech by the Beach – Santa Cruz
On Saturday March 16, 2019, we went to Santa Cruz for a full day excursion. In the morning, we visited Startup Sandbox, a new biotechnology incubator. The director, Dr. Alireza Chavosh, gave us a tour of the lab as well as an overview of the program and services offer by …
Briones hike
A group of 22 Berkeley lab postdocs went on a hiking trip to Briones Regional park on Sunday March 17, 2019, which is just a 30 minute drive from Berkely. On a very warm and pleasant day, we were treated to some amazing views of Berkeley Hills and Mount Diablo. …
Challenges to “academic” entrepreneurship
The Berkeley Postdoc Entrepreneurship Program is having their next event on March 21st from 6.00-8.30 pm at SkyDeck. The topic is Challenges to “academic” entrepreneurship: the perspectives of an entrepreneurial professor and a former postdoc. Please RSVP.