Seminars in Genetics

• The Genomics Salon is an informal and discussion-inviting seminar scheduled for occasional Thursdays, from 5-6pm.
• Genome Sciences has a seminar series on Wednesdays from 3:30-4:30pm to which you can subscribe to notifications about. There are also additional departmental events suitable for undergraduate attendance:
  • Genome Sciences journal club where department members present about interesting new papers in the scientific literature on Tuesdays from 12:30-1:50pm .
  • Genome Sciences research reports by graduate students about their current work on Fridays from 3:15-4:20pm.
• Medical Genetics has a seminar series on Fridays from 12:30-1:30pm, which you an subscribe to by sending an email to medgen@uw.edu.
• Microbiology has a seminar series in person and also on zoom.
• Epidemiology has seminars on Tuesdays from 3:30-4:30.
• Biostatistics has seminars on Thursdays from 3:30-5pm and a student seminar on Wednesdays from 3:30-4:50pm.
• Computational Biology has a seminar series on Wednesday afternoons from 1:30 - 2:30pm, which you can subscribe to notifications about.
• Biology has seminars which include science education as well as diverse biology topics.
• Biochemistry has seminars on Tuesdays from 10:30-11:30am.
• Pharmacology has seminars on Tuesdays from 2:30-3:30pm.
• Pathology has seminars at rotating times throughout the week.
• The eScience community seminar is relevant to people with a data science interest and happens on Thursdays, from 4:30-5:30pm.
• There are also seminars and other events at the Fred Hutch, note that there is a shuttle from campus. The Current Biology Seminar series is held on Tuesdays from 12-1pm.

In case you need someone to give you permission, here it is: you, as an undergraduate, regardless of major or standing, are allowed to attend seminars! The breadth and volume of seminars is a major perk of being at such a large research institution: take advantage of it!

Some guidelines:

• Don't worry about business attire: casual attire is fine.
• Arrive on time, stay until the end, and if an unavoidable exception happens (you fall ill and continuing to stay would be more disruptive than leaving) try to be super stealthy.
• Make sure other people also get a chance to enjoy free food by leaving some for others.
• Silence or turn off your phone before you enter the seminar.
• Don't use technology for anything off-task to the seminar: it is super distracting to people around you.
• Try your best not to nap, yawn or snore. Drinking some of that free coffee, eating some of those free snacks, sitting closer to the front, adjusting your posture and jotting down notes can help!
• Don't talk or whisper; even if it's on topic it can disrupt the speaker.
• Try to hold your questions until the right time: there might be natural pauses to avoid interrupting the presenter's momentum, and there is usually a break at the end alotted for questions. If you opt to save a specific question until the end, jotting down the slide number or title can help the presenter find the slide to answer it.
• Keep questions relevant and respectful in tone. Try not to monopolize time allotted for questions so other people can ask questions too.
• Do your best to follow along and pay attention. Sometimes the presentation will be comprehensible, sometimes it'll be over your head. Either case can help give you an idea about what kinds of research and career options are interesting to you. In a seminar that you find vastly exceeds your background, shift your focus to the techniques used in the presentation.
• Feel free to strike up a conversation with people seated near you afterwards -- networking opportunity!