home Meetings and Talks Retirement Symposium for Norman Pace–a “Normposium”

Retirement Symposium for Norman Pace–a “Normposium”

A Retirement Symposium for Dr. Norman R. Pace from the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder will be held on 4 – 5 June 2015.  The symposium is free and open to the public with generous support provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Agouron Institute.NormPace

This “Norm-posium” will be held at the Colorado School of Mines, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in Coolbaugh Hall (map), in Golden, Colorado.

Norm Pace has made enumerable contributions to science over the course of an incredible career.  Focused on two primary aspects relating to the biochemistry of RNaseP, a unique ribozyme that catalyzes the maturation of tRNA, and “The Search” for life, in all three domains, to better understand life on Earth.  Contributions to both areas of science from Norm and the many members of his laboratory over the years have greatly expanded what is know about both areas of science.  Without the early techniques developed in his lab for the sequencing and constructing of phylogenetic trees based upon ribosomal RNA gene sequencing, little would be known of “The Big Tree”–a ‘map’ of life that we rely upon for understanding life today.  Now, with next-generation DNA sequencing technology and larger, whole micro-biome projects, we can better understand the kinds of life and types of life that make both ourselves and our environment these amazing, living conglomerations of life-types.  None of us are ‘me’–we are all ‘we.’Big_Tree_Bold_Letters

None of this would have been possible with out the contributions that originated and have since stemmed from, Norm Pace’s laboratory.  The remarkable achievements in being able to better understand ourselves and our environments all trace back to Norm’s laboratory.  It is for this that Norm is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and recognized as a MacArthur Fellow.

To celebrate Norm’s retirement a collection of former postdocs and lab members are coming together in Golden on 4 – 5 June 2015.  The line-up includes:

Thursday, 4 June 2015, 5:00PM

Keynote:  Dr. Norman Pace

Friday, 5 June 2015, beginning at 8:30AM, Adjourn at 4:30PM:

Dr. Scott Dawson, University of California, Davis

Dr. Laura Baumgartner, Front Range Community College

Dr. Alex Burgin, Broad Institute

Dr. Daniel Frank, University of Colorado, Denver

Dr. Amy Buck, Edinburgh University

Dr. Gary Olsen, University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign

Dr. Tom Schmidt, University of Michigan

Dr. Anna-Louise Reysenbach, Portland State University

Dr. Mitchell Sogin, Marine Biological Laboratory

Dr. John Spear, Colorado School of Mines

For contact information and questions:

John Spear, jspear@mines.edu

 

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