Miller Symposium Schedule

2025 Miller Symposium Schedule

March 6-7, 2025

 

Thursday, March 6th  
8:45am 

Opening Remarks

Shota Atsumi, Chair, Miller Committee

Gary May, Chancellor, UC Davis

9:00am
Dugar Headshot

Alumni Speaker

Sundeep Dugar, Alumni Speaker

"Let’s Talk Mitochondria and the Discovery and Role of a New Steroid"

10:00am
Mascal Headshot

Najafi Award Presentation

Mark Mascal, UC Davis

"Extracyclic Indoles, Pseudocannabinoids, and Other Fun Stuff"

10:30am Break
10:45am 
Alanna Schepartz Headshot

Alanna Schepartz, UC Berkeley

"Delivery, delivery, delivery"

11:45am Lunch
12:45pm
Dirk Trauner Headshot

Dirk Trauner, University of Pennslyvannia

"On Folding Molecules"

1:45pm
Jennifer Doudna Headshot

Jennifer Doudna, UC Berkeley (Nobel Laureate)

"The Chemistry of CRISPR: What's Ahead for Genome Editing"

2:45pm Break
3:10pm
Frances Arnold Headshot

Frances Arnold, Caltech (Nobel Laureate)

"Innovation by Evolution: Bringing New Chemistry to Life"

4:10 Poster Lightning Talks
4:30 Poster Session 
7:00pm Gala Dinner (Invitation only)
Friday, March 7th  
8:45am PST 

Opening Remarks 

Estella Atekwana, Dean, College of Letter & Science

9:00am
Cody Pitts

Cody Ross Pitts, UC Davis

"Strain-Release Pentafluorosulfanylation: Strange Molecules Doing Stranger Things"

9:30am
Michael Marletta Headshot

Michael Marletta, UC Berkeley

"An Unlikely Path: From a Biofuel to Plant Pathogens"

10:30am Break
10:50am
Kiessling Headshot

Laura Kiessling, MIT

"Revealing Glycans in the Cell Wall"

11:50am Poster Lightning Talks
12:20pm Lunch
12:30pm Poster Session 
1:30pm Provost Mary Croughan
1:35pm
Bhandari Headshot

Ashok Bhandari, Protagonist Therapeutics

TITLE TBA

2:35pm
Wendy Young Headshot

Wendy Young, Scientific advisor, Independent Board member, former SVP Small Molecule Drug Discovery Genentech

"Adventures in Drug Hunting"

3:35pm Announcement of Awards
3:50pm Break
4:50pm
Ken Houk Headshot

Ken Houk, UCLA

"Frontiers of Pericyclic Reactions"

5:50pm Announcement of Awards
6:10pm Symposium Concludes