On Thursday, October 9th, the fourth College of Science Postdoc Lightning Talk Competition was held in Jordan Hall of Science. These 3-minute presentations highlight exciting scientific research being conducted by postdoctoral scholars in the college. Not only do these talks provide an opportunity for postdocs to develop presentation and research communication skills, but monetary prizes for the top three presentations are also on the line.

There were 13 participants in the final round representing the Departments of Biological Sciences, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Mathematics, and Physics and Astronomy. Two postdocs from the Department of Physics and Astronomy participated: Dr. Khushi Bhatt and Dr. Joseph Derkin.

Dr. Bhatt won the second position. Through her talk “Recreating the stars in the lab”, she described how she recreates the nuclear reactions that happen inside stars in the lab using particle accelerators to understand how elements like niobium are formed in stellar explosions. Dr. Bhatt is a Provost’s Society of Science Fellow and works in the research group of Prof. Anna Simon-Robertson. Dr. Derkin’s talk titled, “The Neutron Marathon” described his research on reaction-based neutron sources for astrophysical applications. He works under the guidance of Prof. Michael Wiescher.

Top three contenders of this event will advance to the university-wide competition and will face off the winners from Colleges of Engineering, and Arts & Letters on November 6th.