ACA Meeting Committee Candidate 2021: Samantha Powell

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Postdoctoral Researcher, Biological Sciences Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Education

BS Chemistry, Colorado School of Mines (2014); PhD Chemistry & Biochemistry (2019); NASEM RAP Postdoctoral Fellow, Air Force Research Lab, Ft. Sam Houston (2019-2020); Postdoctoral Researcher, PNNL (2020-Present)

Professional Activities

Member, ACA; Member, American Chemistry Society; Member, American Association for the Advancement of Science; Mentor, Washington State Opportunity Scholarship

Research Interests

Macromolecular Crystallography, X-ray Crystallography, Cryo-EM, MicroED, Proteomics, Method Development

Statement

I’m honored that the ACA Nominating Committee has asked me to run for the Meeting Committee, especially being a new member of ACA and an early career scientist. Although I’ve only attended one ACA meeting (2021) thus far and it was held virtually, I intend to continue attending for many years to come. It was clear to me early on that ACA is a very exciting, supportive, and collaborative community that I wanted to be a part of in a larger capacity.

My previous research focused on the structural determination of protein-ligand complexes using X-ray Crystallography. And in my current position, I utilize Cryo-EM (SPA and MicroED) for structure elucidation as well as work at the interface of structural biology and proteomics. As a member of the meeting committee, it is important to be able to put together a meeting program that consists of interesting, cutting-edge, and relevant topics. I believe that my broad research background in structural biology will help me in doing just that.

Additionally, ACA is currently a relatively small association. This presents a great opportunity for students and early career scientists, like me, to quickly get acquainted with experts in the field, to learn about leading science, and to get involved with ACA. If nominated, a priority of mine is to make sure that early career scientists have ample chances for events such as networking and opportunities for oral presentations at the meeting. This requires also recruiting more young scientists to attend our meetings.

My experience with planning large events, such as banquets, has been on smaller scale as president of the chemistry graduate student society at my graduate university. However, I am very organized and efficient and am a fast learner. I’m prepared, ready to contribute, and excited to learn from the others on the Meeting Committee as we put together another awesome ACA meeting!