Registration for Nobel-Pauling Biotech Pharma Symposium

Thanks Grace for pulling such a nice symposium together. It was a great pleasure meeting you and all the other speakers! It was interesting to see how academia and industry may work together in the future. Your passion towards the ever growing intersection of academia and industry is the right driving force! from Dr. Christian Alexander Maass PhD, MIT Postdoc.

Dear Grace, thank you so much for putting together the 2015 Linus Pauling symposium. It's been wonderful to hear all the talks and meeting new friends. Really appreciate your efforts!

Dr. Jiang He, PhD, MIT Postdoc (Dec 26, 2015).

In my mind, Linus Pauling was a great scientist. He is most famous for his contribution to reveal the nature of the chemical bond. However, few people knew that he actually contributed a lot to the DNA double helix structure. Dr. Pauling would have won a third Nobel prize if he was able to get a visa to visit UK to see the famous “photo 51” of DNA produced by Rosalind Franklin. ​I have never thought that my name could be linked with such a great scientist. I would like to thank Grace for inviting me to give a talk at the Nobel-Pauling Biotech Symposium. This was an amazing event to learn about the career decision (academia vs. industry) and very unique experience for me to speak, to learn and to meet new friends during the Christmas holidays.

Dr. Tianmin Fu, PhD, Harvard postdoc (Dec 26, 2015).

Hi, Grace, thank you for organizing the symposium. It was a pleasure and an honor meeting you! It was great to learn about the legacy of Dr. Pauling. I found your talk about academia vs. biotech industry to be very insightful. Your personal story is very inspiring too. I am a young researcher turned entrepreneur. So I am sure I can learn a lot from you.

Rajiv Shrestha, PhD, Founder and CSO, Octet Research (Dec 27, 2015).

Dear Grace, Thank you for organizing such an exciting and important symposium! I learned a variety of new facts about the biotech and pharmaceutical industries and got very important contacts for future scientific collaboration. And above all, your enthusiasm, kindness and wisdom are inspiring and enlightening!

Leonid Gaidukov, PhD, Postdoc, MIT (Dec 26, 2013).

"I enjoyed this Nobel-Pauling Biotech Symposium (2013) a lot. Grace's passion and enthusiasm to help students/postdoc are admirable, and her scientific achievements and personal generosity are remarkable and extraordinary."

Min Wu, PhD. DFCI, Harvard (Jan 2, 2014)

Dear Dr. Grace Wong, Thank you very much for giving me the chance to speak at the 2012 Nobel-Pauling Biotech Symposium. It was a great opportunity to meet scientists and people from the Biotech industry. The presentations were very interesting and insightful. I also found the advice from scientists very helpful. It was a great experience to be a part of the 2012 Nobel-Pauling Biotech Symposium and will be happy to volunteer for the future.

Mansi Soni, University of Massachusetts Lowell (Dec 26, 2012).

Dear Dr. Grace, Thank you very much for letting me participate and introduce myself in the 2012 Nobel-Pauling Christmas Biotech Symposium. It was very interesting, and I am very glad for this experience and a chance to speak, network and meet scientists. I would be happy to volunteer in the future symposium.

Izabela Durzynska, PhD, Queens University Belfast, Northern Ireland (Dec 26, 2012)

Dear Grace, It was a great pleasure to finally meet you today at the 2012 Nobel-Pauling Christmas Symposium. I had a great time and enjoyed the unique symposium format. This Nobel-Pauling symposium offers a great opportunity for postdocs and students to meet people from both academia and industry, to learn the latest developments, and to showcase their own ideas, not to mention that all these, including the delicious dim sum, are free! I am inspired by your enthusiasms to help young scientists and would be happy to volunteer for any future events.

Junjie Lu, PhD, Postdoc, Harvard (Dec 26, 2012).

Dear Dr. Grace Wong, Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak at The 2012 Nobel-Pauling Christmas Biotech Symposium on "Mixing the arts with science". The Nobel-Pauling Biotech Symposium was an excellent opportunity to meet with students, post-doctoral researchers and scientists from both academia and industry (start up, biotech & Pharma).

Yazdani B. Shaik Dasthagirisaheb, PhD, Instructor of Medicine, BU (Dec 27, 2012).

Dear Grace, Thank you very much for giving me the free pass to the Cell-based Assay America Conference (July 19-20, 2012). I have learnt the newest updates from the pharma industry and met many experts in the field. You are so thoughtful for students and postdocs. I really appreciated your great effort at helping young researchers to network and seek a job in industry. I am looking forward to assisting you again in the Nobel-Linus-Pauling Christmas Dim Sum Symposium.

Jason Z. Deng, PhD, Postdoc, MIT (July 19, 2012).

Dear Grace, It was really nice to meet you and attend the Dim Sum Dinner you organized last night. Thank you very much for organizing the event and providing such an exceptional opportunity for postdocs to meet with the conference speakers at Cell-Base Assays (July 19, 2012). I will be happy to volunteer for future events with Nobel-Pauling. Thank you again for organizing this wonderful event for us!

Ying-Ja Chen, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, MIT (July 20, 2012).

Dear Grace, I would like to thank you for giving me an opportunity to attend the dinner event. It was a wonderful opportunity for me to meet and network with industry professionals. I would also like to congratulate you on doing a great job with organizing the event and offering advice to young professionals like me.

Komal Sane, PhD, Harvard (July 21, 2012)

Hello Grace, Thank you again for everything that you did for me and the other postdocs at the CHI conference. Your enthusiasm about your research and helping others less fortunate is inspiring. I greatly appreciate your providing me with the opportunity to get to know you and to meet with so many other successful scientists outside of academia. Thank you also for arranging for us to have dinner with you and some of the other conference attendees. The whole experience was very rewarding. Sincerely,

Kathleen Haines, PhD, Postdoc, Dept Microbiology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (March 23, 2012).

Dear Grace, Thank you very much for free tickets for postdocs to the CHI conference and dinner afterwards. I very much appreciated the opportunity to meet top notch scientists and entrepreneurs outside the confines of general academia. I was greatly impressed by your energy and enthusiasm for science in general and for struggling young scientists as well. I am also thankful for the chance to meet Dr. Jacqueline Fine and to hear her story and advice for young scientists seeking a career outside of academia. Thanks so much and all the best in your future endeavors. I would be willing to assist with future Pauling Symposium in PA and I also look forward to any potential opportunities for future collaboration.

Richard McCurdy PhD, Senior Postdoc Res. Fellow, University of Pennsylvania Medical Center (March 22, 2012).

Hi Grace, Thank you very much for the opportunity (a free pass) to attend the CHI Neglected Diseases conference and dinner subsequently. I learned a great deal and met many interesting people. Please let me know if I can assist with organizing the Linus Pauling Biotech Symposium in Philadelphia in the future. .

John Gledhill, PhD, Postdoc, PA (March 15, 2012)

Hi Grace, It’s very nice of you to offer our postdocs free passes to attend the CHI conference in PA. It’s really a great opportunity to meet these great scientists working on drug development. I learned and benefited a lot from the conference. Your kindness and enthusiasm deeply impressed me. I would like to be a volunteer again to the Linus-Pauling conference in Philadelphia and China. Moreover, I will be of pleasure if you could give us a seminar about Science as well as career advice in future.

Jinqi Jack Ren, PhD, Postdoc, University of Pennsylvania (March 19, 2012).

Greetings Dr. Grace Wong, I sincerely appreciate the opportunity to attend such an interesting conference. I must admit that I learnt a lot and met very interesting people at the conference. It was one of the rarest opportunity where postdocs get a chance to interact with professionals from industry. Please let me know if I can be of any help in the future in organizing a symposium in Philadelphia. Once again I thank you for the free passes and more importantly for a wonderful dinner. Thanks.

Swapnil Kulkarni, PhD, Postdoc, University of Pennsylvania (March 17, 2012).

Hi Alex, I want to express my deepest gratitude to you for volunteering for this event (Cancer Immunotherapy, Boston, 2012). It was a great event and every one enjoyed it. The free passes definitely provided unique and valuable opportunities for students, postdocs and scientists to interact with industrial/academic experts/leaders in this field. Your and Grace's tireless efforts and time are greatly appreciated. I would like to mention that Grace's passion for science, good medicine, helping young scholars, her deep knowledge and her enthusiasms have impressed every one not only in this meeting, but all the meetings I have attended together with her. Thanks Grace.

Jeffrey Su, PhD, CSO, Cytovance Biologics, USA (March 1, 2012).

Dear Grace, Thank you again for successfully getting us free passes to attend the cancer conference. I attended all seminars. Honestly, you did great. Not only cancer immunotherapy I learnt, but also your powerful communication skill I have gotten. Glad to having chance to knowing you. Even it was short time, but it inspired me for my further work. Looking forward to welcoming you in Thailand in one day.

Wikunda Limpiangkanan, MD, Harvard Medical School, MGH (March 1, 2012)

Dear Dr. Grace Wong, My sincerest thank you for the opportunity to sponsor the dinner and attend the Cancer Immunotherapy Summit in Boston. The presentations were of the highest quality. At least 2 new business relationships have been formed by our company as a direct result of our attendance. What made this conference unique was the atmosphere of collaboration and friendliness you facilitated. In no other gathering of our industry professionals have I found the attendees so engaged with one another. In our sometimes intensely competitive field, I am frankly amazed at the spirit of cooperation that prevailed. Over the longer term, it is human health that will benefit.

Stephen Haley, PhD, VP, Immudex (March 2, 2012).

Dear Grace, Thanks again for the free pass and also the opportunity of introducing a speaker Dr. Jeffrey Schlom, PhD, Chief, Laboratory of Tumor Immunology and Biology, National Cancer Institute. I've learned a lot from this cancer immunotherapy conference. I would be happy to speak at the future Linus Pauling Biotech Pharma Symposium in Boston or Shanghai. Regards.

Dr. Dagang Huang, China Novartis Institute (March 2, 2012)

Hi Grace, Thanks to you and Alex for successfully providing us with the free passes to the cancer conference. My 6 colleagues and I greatly enjoyed the talks and found it very educational and stimulating. It was well worth the initial confusion that came up with the commercial conference organizer over the passes. Please keep me posted about future symposia. Thanks, again.

Marc Pelletier, Merck Boston (March 2, 2012).

Dear Dr. Grace Wong, I really enjoyed the conference, it was so helpful and informative. Thank you for getting me a free pass to the Immunology conference in Boston and your persistent effort to get that. It was a great opportunity to meet professionals and listen to great speakers. Thank you for providing this unique chance for students and post-docs to introduce speakers and give a chance to all attendees to give a smart pitch (self introduction) so that we could remember who is who . Thank you for your kind invitation to Dim Sum Chinese dinner. You always have a unique way to be wonderful. Look forward to attend your event (Nobel-Pauling Biotech Christmas Dim Sum Symposium).

Atoosa Lotfi, PhD candidate, Bioengineering (March 10, 2012).

The 2011 Linus Pauling Symposium in Boston was a wonderful opportunity and experience for me to see first-hand that the spirit and camaraderie among academic and biopharmaceutical scientists in promoting science is alive and well. It was a terrific way to pay tribute to the late Dr. Linus Pauling. It was a privilege to be part of the event.

Dr. Thomas Tan, Roche NJ (Dec 26, 2011)

Thank you so much for taking time and efforts to organize this Nobel-Pauling Biotech Symposium. It's really a good opportunity for the students and postdocs who cannot go home to get together in the Christmas holiday to hear practical advice from biotech pharma experts. Usually, the biotech conferences are expensive, but your Pauling symposium was no charge and offered dim sum for free. Unlike other conferences, I had the chance to introduce myself in your symposium and met biotech pharma speakers face to face. I was very glad that I volunteered to take photos for you. I look forward to volunteering for the future Nobel-Pauling Biotech Symposium.

Dr. Ju Huang, Postdoc, Harvard (Dec 26, 2011)

Dear Dr. Grace Wong, During the 2011 Xmas Pauling symposium, it was a great experience to see how you care for young scientists to flourish and bring out the best in them by linking the students with industry and academic personnel. It was a great honor to be part of this group. I wish you all the best in your endeavors of this kind. Thank you. "Scientific quest is unquenchable, the path most adventurous, what can be more fascinating than knowing every day a new scientific truth. Come, one and all to be initiated into scientific endeavors to be eternally in search of truth." (by Prof. Tara Devi S. Ashok, University of Massachusetts Boston).

Prof Tara Ashok, Umass Boston (Dec 26, 2011).

Dear Dr. Grace Wong, Thank you for taking your precious time to bring so many speakers here to speak at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU). Honestly speaking, I learned much more knowledge not only from sciences but also from life. Thanks for teaching us to be useful for the society & the world. Thanks for inspiring us to help our boss succeed and also respect our mentors. Thanks for sharing your exciting science and practical advice. I will need to pick up a lot skills to make myself useful. The advice from the Pauling Symposium speakers has broadened my horizons. For example, how to start, develop and grow a company. I really liked the symposium so much not only because of the free pizza or Chinese food, but because the valuable advice and the opportunity to meet speakers face to face for future jobs or collaborations. I believe others also enjoyed the Pauling symposium very much. It was my pleasure to volunteer to take photos for the symposium. I look forward to taking more photos for the future Nobel-Pauling Biotech Pharma Symposium. Thank you, Gold Road

Jinlu Huang (Gold Road) 黄金路, Student at SJTU, Shanghai (Dec 2, 2011).

Dear Dr. Grace Wong, I am Joyce, a final year student from Molecular Biomedical Sciences Program of HKUST. Thank you for giving us such an inspiring seminar. Your industrial experience in bio-tech and pharmaceutical companies is extremely valuable for final year undergraduate students in biomedical related subjects like me. Though I attempted to apply for graduate school to further my studies in the US for next few years (focusing on translational science - cancer vaccination and immunotherapy), at some point, probably after gained enough knowledge and experience, I am willing to enter industry so as to make my knowledge applicable in real life. In order to make myself "useful", I have been actively taking part in research projects in my university life, in addition to impressive academic results. However, these may not be sufficient to realize my dream. Network and interpersonal skills also play critical roles for people in the real world. Isolated in academia will not be a good option for individuals like me who want to make big impacts in the real industrial world. Your emphasis on 7P and 7I did inspire me what I should do to prepare for my better future career. Thank you for coming to HKUST, thank you for delivering this eye-opening seminar, thank you for introducing me to such a different career path. I will continue to passionately contribute to public health by speeding up the bench-to-bedside transition in the near future. Thank you! Yours Sincerely, Joyce.

Joyce Zhang Junyi, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, HKUST (Dec 5, 2011).

Dear Dr. Grace Wong, I'm Julie from Prof Chow's lab. We met today in your talk at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). Thank you for coming bringing us so much to learn. I really appreciate your inspiration. If you could organize Nobel-Pauling Biotech Symposium in Malaysia, I would be more than happy to help you! I was given great opportunities by great people in my life, and I hope to be able to create or at least bring some of these opportunities back for my fellow juniors and students in my country. Compare to other places, students in my country gets less exposure on world-class opportunities. I change my life by coming to Hong Kong, I see different things here. Thank you, Julie.

Julie YingJin ANG, Candidate for M.Phil in Biology, HKUST (Dec 5, 2011).

Dear Dr. Grace Wong, I am Cynthia, a year one student from biochemistry department of HKUST. Thank you for your talk in our university. Your passion for science, your experiences and your knowledge of interpersonal skills really inspired me. After your speech, I can feel the passion for science growing inside me. I really love life science and that's why I chose to study biochemistry. And I have always been dreaming of helping people with the knowledge of life. Now I am more determined to work on science and improve life and health care of people all over the world. Before coming to your talk, all I think about my career is to work in research labs or universities. However, you have brought me into a new world where new medicines discovered and developed in biotechnology companies can have more impact to improve health care. Your talk inspires me to think about my characteristics, reconsider my career and learn more about biotech companies. I am still in a very early stage of my career. Thanks for your sharing, it really inspires me to find out more about the new world, think about my career path and my goal. Thank you for your passionate and inspiring talk. I really love your smiling face and cheerful attitude, they are like your symbols that one can never forget. Thank you! Cynthia.

Chen Yiyun, Cynthia, HKUST (Dec 5, 2011).

Dear Dr. Grace Wong, I would like to express in the name of BGI, our gratitude for two wonderful and inspiring lectures made at BGI on Dec. 6, 2011. The audience enjoyed and get inspired by your presentation, thank you very much. Very nice to meet you and looking forward to possible collaboration.

Dr. Jorge Andrade, Associate Director, BGI-Shenzhen (Dec 6, 2011)