3rd AfroBiotech Conference

American Institute Of Chemical Engineers, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

The AfroBiotech conference will be held October 25-27, 2021 on a virtual platform owing to the continuing Covin-19 pandemic facing the world at present. The conference highlights the achievements of African Americans in biotechnology, inspires a new generation of diverse biotechnology professionals and identifies, communicates, and explores current advancements in various aspects of Biotechnology. This forum organizes African-American scientific talent from across the U.S. at a single event and provides a venue to inspire a new generation of diverse biotechnology professionals, for scientific presentations, for highlights on African American achievements in biotechnology, for participation of students and postdocs and for an interdisciplinary dialogue among professionals. A virtual platform that facilitates vibrant and highly interactive virtual events that include a poster session, Question and Answer discussions, and small group/one-on-one discussion has been chosen. The conference also provides specific forums for scientific presentations, posters, networking, extended discussions and presentations and is inclusive of early-career researchers, postdoctoral associates and graduate students. Although the field of biological engineering is rapidly expanding and integrating with the US and global economies the data show that African Americans continue to be underrepresented in this scientific area. There is also an increasing number of African Americans entering this scientific area but this growth is still insufficient to alleviate the under-representation in the field of biological engineering. This situation represents an opportunity for the community of African American biological engineers to organize itself to address current and future opportunities. The AfroBiotech conference creates a forum for African American biological engineers to become organized to focus on this growing opportunity and at the same time address advances and prospects in scientific areas pertinent to biological engineering. The conference has a diverse agenda that is inclusive of early-career and postdoctoral researchers as well as graduate students. The agenda accommodates sessions for networking and extended discussions. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.