The Kleinmuntz Center supports a variety of IGB initiatives, from economic and professional to outreach, prioritizing work that has societal impact, scientific merit, and commercial potential. Center funding will enable the IGB to take their commercialization and social impact efforts to the next level, further developing their reputation as one of the leading genomics institutes in the country.
Young Innovator Program
The Young Innovator Program aims to provide professional development for a select cohort of graduate students and post-doctoral associates over a 10-week summer program. At the conclusion, three of the cohort's members will be awarded tiered awards of between $5,000 - $20,000 to help their projects continue to be developed and succeed.
Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science Seminar
The Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science empowers scientists and health professionals to communicate complex topics in clear, vivid, and engaging ways; leading to an improved understanding by the public, media, patients, elected officials, and others outside of their discipline. Kleinmuntz Center funding allowed us to offer this unique professional development opportunity to our volunteers in preparation for our 2019 World of Genomics event at the National Academy of Sciences building in Washington, D.C.
Genomics For™ Professionals
Genomic research has an ever-growing impact on many areas such as health and agriculture, yet most members of the public do not have access to the information they need to understand new findings and evaluate how they might be affected by them, both personally and professionally. To address this need, the IGB designs and implements educational programs, entitled “Genomics For™,” which target the needs and interests of specific demographic or professional groups. Each program explores the basic science concepts of genomics and how genomic research impacts that particular group. Although we have already held a variety of programs, the Kleinmuntz Center funding will help to support additional Genomics For™ programs, target groups that we have not previously engaged with, and allow us to bring in national experts on specific topics to complement excellent local faculty expertise.
World of Genomics at the National Academy of Science Building
One of the IGB’s most successful and comprehensive public engagement events, the World of Genomics, was showcased in Washington, D.C. in April of 2019 at the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) building, a private, nonprofit organization comprised of the country’s leading researchers. Our World of Genomics event was designed to make the broadest impact on the largest audience and brings the full scope of our research in health, technology, the environment, and fundamental science to the public with hands-on activities and exhibits for all ages. The event included five interactive learning stations, staffed by a team of Illinois volunteers from diverse scientific fields and highlighted hands-on activities and interactive demonstrations describing the broad portfolio of IGB research in easy to understand terms. These stations were integrated alongside educational activities provided by NAS. This event would not have been possible without Kleinmuntz Center funding due to the logistics and distance associated with hosting the event cross country.
Professional Skills for Careers in Biosciences (PSCB) Seminar Series
The IGB provides a workshop-based certificate program, Professional Skills for Careers in Biosciences (PSCB), for IGB graduate students and postdocs to develop and enhance their universal job skills including communication, professionalism, marketing, budgeting, and leadership. Each series consists of thirteen workshops throughout the year and combines lectures, interactive activities, writing, and presentations to cover topics related to a variety of bioscience career paths including academia, industry, entrepreneurship, policy, teaching, science writing, and others. The course concludes with a capstone project that combines all of the topics. Kleinmuntz Center funds have allowed us to diversify workshop speakers and guests to ensure participants are receiving the highest level of professional development training.
Art of Science on the Hill
Kleinmuntz Center resources allowed the IGB to bring our Art of Science exhibit, one of our most successful endeavors supporting IGB’s mission to help science meet society, to Washington, D.C. The program, which celebrates the beauty found in science enhanced by the aesthetics of artistic expression, was sponsored by U.S. Representatives Sean Casten, Bill Foster, and Dan Lipinski who served as our honorary congressional co-hosts and took place at the Rayburn Office Building in D.C. The exhibit showcased images from federally-funded research projects with NSF, NIH, USDA, and others.
Mikashi Awards: The Kleinmuntz Center Proof of Concept Program
The Kleinmuntz Center is providing resources to support IGB faculty with their innovations through a new pre-commercialization Proof-of-Concept (POC) Program, named the Mikashi Awards. The Kleinmuntz Center POC Program funds IGB projects that demonstrate market viability to help projects succeed. Up to two recipients are awarded $50,000-$75,000 in funding per year for up to two years. This program aims to provide consistency and support for developing innovation at the IGB, bridge the funding “gap” between government-supported innovations that result from University research and private sector support of those innovations into commercial products, as well as facilitate the transformation of researchers’ discoveries and technologies into useful products and services that benefit society. This is the first time the IGB will be able to offer such programming on a regular ongoing basis.
