ALA Mentorship Program — NEW!

Below is a list of ALA Members that have graciously agreed to serve as mentors at LabAutomation2010.

Students and Early Career Professionals — if you are interested in connecting with one (or more) of these mentors, please contact Amy McGorry at amcgorry@labautomation.org. Be sure to include the following in your email communication:

• Name, School or Company
• Have you attended LabAutomation before?
• Dates you will be attending LabAutomation2010
• The name of the mentor you are interested in connecting with (below)
• A short bio ≤100 words

Once the mentor has been notified and agrees, the two parties will be connected via email or telephone. Upon that connection taking place, it is the responsibility of the two parties to work within their schedules to set up a connection at LabAutomation2010.

You must be an ALA Member to take advantage of this program. Interested in becoming an ALA Member, please visit the membership information Web page.

Interested in Becoming a Mentor? Submit a short biography to have your name added to the list of available mentors. Once you are selected by a student or early career professional attending LabAutomation2010, a request will be sent to you via email (or telephone) to connect with that individual.

Questions? Contact Amy McGorry, Senior Manager, Administration and Member Services at amcgorry@labautomation.org.

This is a test program, in its first year. Please feel free to submit feedback and suggestions!

Available Mentors:

Dawn earned her Master's Degree in cellular and molecular Biology at the University of New Haven. She spent 10 years at Neurogen Corporation in Branford CT, in their high throughput screening group. She then made the transition from small molecule screening to screening biologics using lab automation at VaxInnate Corporation. Dawn is now at Affomix Corporation where her group has automated a yeast two hybrid assay for the discovery of mAbs. She is also currently an adjunct professor at the University of New Haven, introducing biology to new students.

Stephen Hughes, Ph.D., USDA, ARS, NCAUER, BBC
Attending LabAutomation2010: January 23-27

Stephen Hughes is a Ph.D. research molecular biologist in the Bioproducts and Biocatalysis Group at the National Center For Agricultural Utalization Research Center of the USDA where he has designed a high throughput plasmid-based functional proteomic robotic workcell for use in engineering yeast strains for efficient fuel ethanol production. Most recently, while at Cell Pathways Inc., Dr. Hughes designed and implemented a functional proteomics strategy for protein kinase substrate identification and for determination of protein or small molecule binding.

Jörg Kutter, Ph.D., Technical University of Denmark
Attending LabAutomation2010: January 23-27

Dr. Jörg P. Kutter holds a Ph.D. from the University of Ulm in Germany in Analytical Chemistry. He did a postdoc at Oak Ridge National Laboratories working in the field of microfluidics and chemical separations on microchips. Presently, he is professor in experimental lab-on-a-chip technologies at the Technical University of Denmark. His group focuses on the development of microfluidic devices for applications in life sciences.

Tal Murthy, Ph.D., Thermo Fisher Scientific
Attending LabAutomation2010: January 25-27

Tal Murthy graduated with a Ph.D in biochemistry and pursued research fellowship at Harvard University in structural biology. Upon completion of two year research fellowship, he lead the high-throughput protein facility for biodefense programs at the Harvard University for three years. With his recent education in business management he associates technology with business. Tal is currently an applications manager and heads an applications team at Thermo Fisher Scientific. His work involves managing scientific applications on various product portfolios including automation.

Mark Russo, Ph.D. — ALA Charter Member
Attending LabAutomation2010: January 23-27

Mark Russo received his Ph.D. in 1989 and soon thereafter began his profession in the field of Laboratory Automation. He has integrated many diverse robotic systems for applications in high-throughput screening, combinatorial synthesis, product formulation and X-ray crystallography. He has also authored several laboratory information management systems in areas such as protein expression and combinatorial synthesis. Mark has published extensively on topics related to laboratory automation. He has also co-authored a book on laboratory automation programming entitled Automating Science and Engineering Laboratories with Visual Basic. Currently, Mark works in the pharmaceutical research.

Reinhold Schaefer, Ph.D., RheinMain University
Attending LabAutomation2010: January 23-27

Dr. Reinhold Schäfer is a Professor at the University of Applied Sciences Wiesbaden, Wiesbaden, Germany (now RheinMain University of Applied Sciences). He studied Physics at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany, and received his Doctor degree in Biophysics also in Mainz. Between 1973 and 1989 he worked for the Pharmaceutical Industry. His last position was Corporate Manager Scientific Information Systems for a globally operating company. At the University of Applied Sciences Wiesbaden he is teaching Database Systems, Artificial Intelligence, and Laboratory Automation.

Maureen Stone, Labcyte
Attending LabAutomation2010: January 23-27

Maureen Stone is the Midwest Account Manager for Labcyte. She has over 20 years sales experience at a variety of companies. She is currently selling the Labcyte products using Acoustic Droplet Ejection technology and Magnetic Feedback Control technology.