Walter Jessen

I’ve been keeping an eye out for 2010 science conference schedules the last few months, both online and in print. I need to figure out which conferences I’ll be attending soon, since abstracts are typically due several months prior to the conference. In my opinion, it’s important for scientists to (at the very least) submit an abstract and prepare a poster on their research when attending a scientific meeting. I want people to know who I am and what I’m working on.

In science (as in most other professions), time and money are both precious commodities. In addition, as both a bioinformatician and neurobiologist (focusing on cancer biology), it’s necessary that I balance my interests in genomics and integrative biology with my interest in neuro-oncology. Thus, it’s important for me to carefully choose which conferences to attend. As with any conference, my goals are to (i) stay current on what’s hot in the field, (ii) network and make contacts, (iii) learn about new approaches for data analysis and integration and/or (iv) learn about new findings in neurobiology.

If you’re reading this and have an opinion — either positive or negative — on any of the conferences I’ve listed, please let me know. I’m only planning on attending three or four conferences this year, so feedback on those conferences that are (or aren’t) worth going to would be appreciated. Also, if I’ve missed a conference you’ve found useful and is focused on bioinformatics, genomics, neurobiology or cancer, please let me know.

You can leave a comment below or contact me directly, either by the contact form, email or DM on Twitter or Friendfeed.

Confirmed or potential science conferences to attend in 2010

• ScienceOnline2010 [confirmed] January 15 – 17, 2010; Research Triangle Park, North Carolina
• Molecular and Cellular Biology of Immune Escape in Cancer (Keystone Symposia) February 7 – 12, 2010; Keystone, Colorado
• Biomolecular Interaction Networks: Function and Disease (Keystone Symposia) March 7 – 12, 2010; Quebec, QC
• Integrative Bioinformatics Symposium March 22 – 24, 2010; Cambridge, UK
• European Science Foundation Conference on Functional Genomics and Disease April 14 – 17, 2010; Dresden, Germany
• American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) April 17 – 21, 2010; Washington, DC
• NF Conference (Back to the Future) June 5-10, 2010; Baltimore, Maryland
• Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology (ISMB) 2010 July 11 – 13, 2010; Boston, Massachusetts
• Glia in Health & Disease (CSHL) July 22 – 26, 2010; Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York
• Systems Biology: Networks (CSHL) August 11 – 15, 2010; Hinxton, UK
• Mechanisms & Models of Cancer (CSHL) August 17 – 21, 2010; Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York
• Genome Informatics (CSHL) September 15 – 19, 2010; Hinxton, UK
• Wellcome Trust Conference: Functional Genomics and Systems Biology Workshop Not yet scheduled (link is to the 2009 conference)

References

1. Survey: The Best Conferences. Genome Web. 2009 Sept.
2. How to Get the Most Out of Scientific Conferences. The Chronicle of Higher Education. 2000 Feb 4.