COLIN BARBER
Getting involved
A core ethic of mine is to give back often and in meaningful ways. On this page, I summarize some of the major projects in which I've recently been involved.
Because I've been disproportionately involved in Science Olympiad-related programs, I've included a dedicated page for my leadership and service in that arena.
21st Microbiology Student Symposium
In September 2019, I was chosen to lead the Microbiology Student Group, a team of microbiology graduate students charged with planning and executing the annual Microbiology Student Symposium, a one-day research conference targeted to early career scientists. With one month to go until our Symposium, initially scheduled for late April 2020, nine Bay Area counties went into shelter-in-place in response to COVID-19. Over the course of the next month, I transitioned our Symposium from an in-person to a virtual model; attendees heard from two keynote speakers and several student speakers just like any other Symposium.
22nd Microbiology Student Symposium
I was re-elected to my role as chair of the Microbiology Student Group in May 2020. I am currently steering the 22nd Microbiology Student Symposium. We are planning for an in-person Symposium this Fall. Aside from the catharsis of hosting an in-person event, I am looking forward to maintaining our momentum in improving our sponsorship strategy and expanding the number and type of institutions we reach.
RCNR Student-Faculty Relations Committee
Recently, the Rausser College of Natural Resources at UC Berkeley, of which my home department is a constituent, received a once-in-a-lifetime $50M gift from a donor. To equitably allocate this endowment, RCNR convened its Student-Faculty Relations Committee (SFRC), for which I serve as the graduate student representative from my department. On the committee, I advocate for proposals favored by graduate students in my department. In the view of my constituents, with which I agree, we have an unprecedented opportunity to make graduate education more accessible to people of underrepresented backgrounds.
IGI-FAST Study
In March 2020, the Innovative Genomics Institute at UC Berkeley, spearheaded by Dr. Jennifer Doudna, initiated a two-pronged response to COVID-19. The first prong consisted of a pop-up testing lab to screen samples for SARS-CoV-2, for which I volunteered from April to June. The second prong, the Free Asymptomatic Saliva Testing program, used a spit-and-go model to study the prevalence of asymptomatic COVID-19 cases among UC Berkeley-affiliated volunteers. I am a co-author on one IGI-FAST publication.