Maxwell C.K. Leung, Ph.D.
Congratulations to the Inaugural Winners of
the 2020 EMGS Bioinformatics Challenge!
Thank you for your interest in the 2020 EMGS Bioinformatics Challenge! The competition was held as a part of the EMGS Virtual Meeting on September 16th at 1:30 – 3:30 CDT. We would like to congratulate all five finalist teams who presented their work in the final round of competition. We would also like to thank the audience who participated in the Q & A session. The inaugural awards of this year’s EMGS Bioinformatics Challenge go to:
Maximillian Soltysiak
1st place award ($1,200)
“Machine Learning-based Analysis of Genome Sequences for Studying the Impact of Extreme Environments on Genomic Signatures”
David Chen
2nd place award ($300)
“SomaticSim: A Somatic Mutational Signature Simulator for Benchmarking Alignment-free Machine Learning Analyses”
Both winners are from the Western University – University of Waterloo joint team. Other members of the joint team include Abdelhady Osman; Gurjit Randhawa, Ph.D.; Lila Kari, Ph.D.; and Kathleen Hill, Ph.D. All five finalist teams were awarded $300 each for advancing to the final round. The full roster of each finalist team can be found here: https://www.emgs-us.org/blog/congratulations-to-the-finalists-of-2020-emgs-bioinformatics-challenge!
We would like to thank the five members of our judge panel: Logan Everett, Ph.D. (U.S. EPA); Roman Mezencev. Ph.D. (U.S. EPA); David Reif, Ph.D. (North Carolina State University); Lisa Truong, Ph.D. (Oregon State University); and Carole Yauk, Ph.D. (University of Ottawa). We would also like to thank Scott Auerbach, Ph.D. (NIEHS) for his input in the early design of this competition and Nicole Kleinstreuer, Ph.D. and NICEATM for their assistance in communicating this event to the toxicology community.
We look forward to seeing you all in next year’s EMGS Bioinformatics Challenge in the 13th International Conference on Environmental Mutagens in Ottawa, Canada on August 28 – September 2, 2021 (https://www.emgs-us.org/page/about-ottawa)!
Maxwell Leung, Ph.D. (Arizona State University)
Jeffrey Bemis, Ph.D. (Litron Laboratories)
Co-chairs, 2020 EMGS Bioinformatics Challenge
EMGS congratulates winners of Poster/Platform Presentations
The Environmental Mutagenesis & Genomics Society congratulates the Students and New Investigators selected for Best Poster Presentation and Best Platform Presentation from the 2020 EMGS Virtual Annual Meeting, which took place Sept. 12-16.
The first-place prize for Best Poster Presentation (Student) was given to Elizabeth Rose Lotsof (University of California, Davis). Second place went to Marcela Teatin Latancia (University of Sao Paulo).
Top prize for Best Poster Presentation (New Investigator) was awarded to Azra Dad (US FDA/National Center for Toxicological Research), while Rebekah Beck (King's College London) took second place.
Abigail Bline (University of California Los Angeles) placed first for Best Platform Presentation (Student), followed by Mathia (Tia) Colwell (University of Minnesota) in second place.
The first-place prize for Best Platform Presentation (New Investigator) was awarded to Christa Wright, PhD (Georgia State University), with Jennifer Kay, PhD (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) earning second place.
