Left: The first Volcano Conference in Chemical Biology was held in Feb. 1991 at Pack Forest. Attendees are standing in front of Pack Hall which houses the poster session and a variety of antique lumbering equipment used before the turn of the century.

In 1991, Prof. Steve Withers (Univ. of British Columbia) and Prof. M. Gelb put together a conference in chemical biology. This annual event is typically held on the last weekend in February or the first weekend in March, at Pack Forest (see below) a rustic lumber camp just outside of Mt. Rainer National Park (hence the name Volcano Conference).

The conference is held annually in late February/early March and is attended by students, postdocs, and faculty from universities in the Pacific Northwest (US and Canada) (typically 120 people). A researcher from each lab gives a lecture on their research efforts, and there is a plenary lecture by a well known professor from a university outside of the Pacific Northwest and one by a scientist from chemical/biochemical industry. A poster session enables all conference attendees to present and discuss their research. Saturday afternoon is left open for cross country skiing at Paradise in Rainier National Park or other activities, and following the Saturday evening scientific session there is a game event in which faculty and postdocs take on graduate students.

Past Speakers

1992:  Dale Poulter

1993:  Steve Benkovic

1994:  Paul Bartlett

1995:  John Kozarich

1996:  Rafael Apitz-Castro

1997:  Dagmar Ringe

1998:  Olke Uhlenbeck

1999:  Ben Liu

2000:  Marv Caruthers

2001:  Craig Townsend

2002:  Carolyn Bertozzi

2003:  Dave Cane

2004:  Ben Cravatt

2005:  Tadhg Begley

2006:  Tom Muir

2007:  Ronald Kluger

2008:  Kevan Shokat

2009:  Richard Silverman

2010:  Vern Schramm

2011:  Brad Moore

2012:  David Baker

2013:  Jim Stiver

2014:  William Lubbell

2015:  Carole Fierke

2016:  Jim Wells

2017:  Pete Schultz

2018:  Steve Benner

2019:  Jennifer Cochran

2020:  Dan Herschlag

2023:  Emily Balskus

2024:  Dirk Trauner