Events and Awards

The RNA Institute Symposium is held yearly and provides a forum for faculty, students, and industry representatives to present their findings and network with colleagues. It has attracted Nobel Laureates, as well as National Academy Members, distinguished Howard Hughes Medical Institute Principal Investigators, renowned university professors, industry scientists, and medical doctors, among others from around the world. 

The STEMTriCS (STEM Trending Careers Seminar) is an invited seminar series for students and postdocs to explore science careers by engaging in a roundtable discussion with credentialed scientists who have pursued careers in or outside of academia. Discussion topics cover an array of subjects related to the speaker(s) career path, personal experiences, and interests. Typically, the sessions address specific aspects of academic training, career goals, aspirations, and tips on becoming successful in reaching goals and achieving career stability.

STEMTriCS exposes students across the science disciplines to careers away from the bench, in teaching, in industry or non-traditional research and development. To be included in the invitation list, or if you would like to be an invited speaker or suggest a speaker, please contact us at [email protected].

This seminar series was created and hosted by Dr. Arun Richard Chandrasekaran, Senior Research Scientist at the RNA Institute. This creative series explores the connections between Science, Communication and Art. 

List of Seminars

Fall 2021
Spring 2022
Fall 2022
Spring 2025

Career Panels

Summer 2022
Summer 2023

The RNA Collaborative seminar series goal is to cross promote RNA research and strengthen and connect the RNA scientific community. RNA Collaborative seminars are held virtually and are recorded and made freely available for viewing on the RNA Collaborative YouTube Channel.

View past and upcoming seminars

These seminars are organized by RNA Centers of the following institutions:

In the RNA summer symposium, the trainees from the RNA institute summer research fellowships, bioinformatics program and the NSF REU program presents their research work from over the summer.

2025 RNA Day Summer Celebration

The 2025 RNA Day Summer Celebration was held on Friday, August 1, 2025, hosted by The RNA Institute at the University at Albany! This exciting day of science and community featured a keynote seminar by Dr. Eric Wang, networking lunch and ice cream social, poster sessions highlighting cutting-edge RNA research, a fun-filled science bake-off, and an award ceremony.

2024 RNA Day Summer Celebration

The RNA Day celebration included a keynote seminar, Networking lunch, poster session by our summer trainees along with the press conference to announce the launch of a new Center of Excellence at UAlbany.

RNA Institute celebrated World RNA Day 2024 by launching the Center of Excellence in RNA Research and Therapeutics (CERRT), a major partnership with the University of Rochester to advance RNA-based therapies.

2023 RNA Day Summer Celebration

In 2023, the summer symposium integrated with the RNA Day (AUG 1) celebration with a full day events. Beginning with two keynote seminar by Drs. Marlene Belfort and Sally Temple followed by poster session of the summer program trainees and Science themed bake-off.

See Dr. Belfort's talk on "Science-Life Retrospective for RNA Society's Lifetime Achievement Award" here.

RNA Institute Trainee Travel Award

Objective: The Trainee Travel Award provides funds to assist PhD students and Postdoctoral Fellows working in RNA Institute Affiliated labs within the UAlbany system traveling to conferences and/or seminars to present a poster or give an oral presentation at the conference. The poster or presentation must address research on RNA, or use RNA as a tool (siRNA, shRNA, miRNA, RNAi).  The award is not intended to support attending courses at other schools, research or general educational travel.

Eligibility: Graduate students and post-docs are eligible to receive a maximum of $600 (with a yearly cap of $1,200 per lab) Travel Grant. This amount can be used towards one conference during each Calendar year. Applicants must have received commitments from other University sources (such as the faculty mentor, home department or school) to partially cover the costs of the conference or seminar. The grant will be awarded based on the pending availability of funds.

Faculty Mentor Approval & Commitment:  A letter of support from the faculty mentor to provide the remainder of the meeting costs must be submitted with the application. 

Covered Costs: Trainee travel award will only cover the following items: conference registration fees, transportation to/from meeting, lodging, food, and ground transportation while attending the conference. Trainees are expected to find the most reasonable and economical lodging and transportation. For instance, trainees are encouraged to share a room, and it is expected that trainees partake of meals provided as part of the conference rather than incurring additional expenses. Examples of non-covered expenses include proposal submission and optional pre-conference fees, poster printing, mailing expenses, and internet access while traveling. Do not include non-covered expenses in the application budget.

Air and rail fares and conference registration fees may be charged to an RNA Institute account prior to travel by contacting Joe Scibienski ([email protected]) to make arrangements; however, cash advances will not be provided. Expenses for hotel, food, taxis, etc., are to be paid with the trainee’s personal funds and will be reimbursed upon filing of a properly completed Travel Reimbursement form with original receipts. Following are links to the State Accounting General Travel Procedures: State Accounting General Travel Procedures and Travel Reimbursement Procedures.  

Application Instructions:   

1. The application must be submitted as a single PDF to [email protected]. Please indicate Travel Award Application in the subject line.
2. Each application should include the following components:
   • Applicant information: name, academic title, expected degree (MS/PhD) and anticipated year of graduation (for graduate students), department, campus address, campus phone number, name of faculty mentor,
   • Conference Information: conference name, location, date(s), sponsoring organization name, brief itemized budget
   • Category of participation (oral presentation or poster), title, abstract (350 words maximum), and a signed letter of support from the faculty mentor to provide the remainder of the meeting costs.

Deadline: In order to best accommodate various conference schedules, applications will be accepted on a rolling basis.  Please apply at least 1 month prior to the conference.

Award Notification: Each trainee will receive an email notification both when the online application is received and when The RNA Institute gives the final approval. The entire process should take between 3-10 business days.

Questions: Please contact [email protected] with any questions.  Please include your name, department, contact information, and faculty mentor in all messages.

RNA Institute Faculty and Staff Awards

Do you know an RNA Institute faculty or staff member that is doing an exceptional job in any of the following areas?

• Excellence in mentoring
• Excellence in service
• Excellence in research

Please feel free to nominate them for our annual RNA Institute Faculty and Staff Awards by emailing their name and a brief description of why they are an excellent candidate in any of these areas to [email protected]. Awards are decided by the Institute senior leadership and presented to awardees during our annual RNA retreat.

2025 Faculty & Staff Excellence Award Winners

2025 Excellence in Service

Sangeetha Selvam, Science Communications Specialist, RNA Institute

Claudia Lennon, Bioinformatics Support Specialist, RNA Institute

2025 Excellence in Mentoring

Andres Melendez, Professor & Chair, Department of Nanoscale & Engineering and RNA Institute

Ken Halvorsen, Senior Research Scientist, RNA Institute

2025 Excellence in Research & Entrepreneurship

Scott Tenenbaum, Professor, Department of Nanoscale & Engineering and RNA Institute

2025 Excellence in Research & Service

Morgan Sammons, Associate Dean for Natural Sciences and Mathematics and Associate Professor of Biological Sciences & RNA Institute

2024 Faculty & Staff Excellence Award Winners

2024 Excellence in Service

Tammy Reid, Research and Development Manager, RNA Institute

Susan Sharfstein, Professor, Department of Nanoscale & Engineering and RNA Institute

2024 Excellence in Mentoring

Alex Ciota, Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Sciences & RNA Institute

Alan Chen, Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry & RNA Institute

2024 Excellence in Research

 Arun Richard Chandrasekaran, Senior Research Scientist, RNA Institute

Sweta Vangaveti, Research Scientist, RNA Institute

2025 Travel Award Winners

• Iranna Todkari (Halvorsen Lab), GRC: RNA Nanotechnology
• Humphrey Omeoga (Begley Lab), RNA Therapeutics: From Concept to Clinic
• Saumya Gupta (Berglund Lab), RNA Therapeutics: From Concept to Clinic
• Jinxi Du (Sheng Lab), MARM 2025
• Samantha Choudhury (Andam Lab), Microbial Pathogenesis and Host Response
• Sam Lindberg (Andam Lab), Microbial Pathogenesis and Host Response
• Rachel Lange (Ciota Lab), Predicting and Responding to Emerging Viral Infections
• Mohamed Amin (Lednev Lab), SciX 2025
• Nurat Affinnih (Pager Lab), 25th Rocky Mountain Virology Conference

2024 Travel Award Winners

• Jibin Punnoose (Halvorsen Lab), 68th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society
• Manuela Montoya Giraldo (Andam Lab), Workshop on Molecular Evolution
• Madhanagopal Barathraj (Chandrasekaran Lab), Foundations of Nanoscience 2024
• Hannah Talbot (Chandrasekaran Lab), Foundations of Nanoscience 2024
• Jacob Schroader (Reddy & Berglund Labs), RNA Society 2024
• Dana Woodstock (Sammons Lab), 19th International p53 Workshop
• Shawn Gianola (Pager Lab), 43rd Annual Meeting for The American Society for Virology
• Andrew Munoz Gamba (Pager Lab), 43rd Annual Meeting for The American Society for Virology
• Chetna Mathur (Begley Lab), GRC: Post-Transcriptional Gene Regulation
• Abigail McCann (Sammons Lab), European Molecular Biology Laboratory: Transcription and Chromatin
• Kathryn Piper (Andam Lab), ASM: Next-Gen Sequencing and Bioinformatic Pipelines
• Reagan Conrad (Lee Lab), NY RNA Symposium in the Finger Lakes
• Nimmy John (Lee Lab), NY RNA Symposium in the Finger Lakes
• Sydney Hanson (Fuchs Lab), 2024 ABRCMS

2023 Travel Award Winners

• Rachel Lange (Ciota Lab), Vector Biology: Emerging Concepts and Novel Technologies
• Kayla Simanek (Paczkowski Lab), Association of Public Health Laboratories 2023
• Chetna Mathur (Begley Lab), RNA Therapeutics: From Concept to Clinic
• Humphrey Omeoga (Begley Lab), RNA Therapeutics: From Concept to Clinic
• Ya Ying Zheng (Sheng Lab), GRC: 2023 Nucleosides, Nucleotides and Oligonucleotides
• Caleb Mallery (Paczkowski Lab), 2023 Molecular Genetics of Bacteria and Phages Meeting
• Megan Schumacher (Paczkowski Lab), 2023 Molecular Genetics of Bacteria and Phages Meeting

2022 Travel Award Winners 

• Chris Smith (Yigit Lab), ACS Fall 2022: Sustainability in a Changing World
• Sangeetha Selvam (Fuchs Lab), 2022 RNA Society Meeting
• Jibin Abraham Punnoose (Halvorsen Lab), 2022 RNA Society Meeting
• Dana Woodstock (Pager Lab), Evolution and Core Processes in Gene Expression Meeting
• Gabriele Baniulyte (Sammons Lab), Evolution and Core Processes in Gene Expression Meeting
• Jacob Schroader (Reddy & Begluns Labs), Gordon Research Conference and Seminar: 2022 Post-Transcriptional Gene Regulation
• Johnsi Mathivanan (Sheng Lab), ACS Fall 2022- Sustainability in a changing world
• Kristen Kaytes (Pager Lab), American Society for Virology (ASV) 2022
• Lamyaa Almehmadi (Lednev Lab), The 27th International Conference on Raman Spectroscopy
• Pheonah Badu (Pager Lab), RNA Society Meeting 2022
• Shu Jun Lin (Fuchs Lab), American Society of Virology 2022
• Ya Ying Zheng (Sheng Lab), 2022 ACS Middle Atlantic Regional Meeting (MARM)
• Avinash Londhe (Boivin Lab), Society for Redox Biology and Medicine
• Zhihua Chang (Sheng Lab), 2022 North East Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society