3rd AfroBiotech Conference

非洲生物技术会议将于2021年10月25日至27日在虚拟平台上举行，因为目前世界面临着持续的covid -19大流行。会议突出了非裔美国人在生物技术方面的成就，激励了新一代多样化的生物技术专业人员，并确定、交流和探索了生物技术各个方面的最新进展。这个论坛组织了来自美国各地的非裔美国人的科学人才在一个单一的事件，并提供了一个场所，以激励新一代不同的生物技术专业人员，科学报告，突出非洲裔美国人在生物技术方面的成就，学生和博士后的参与，以及专业人员之间的跨学科对话。选择了一个虚拟平台，促进充满活力和高度互动的虚拟活动，包括海报会议，问答讨论和小组/一对一讨论。会议还为科学报告、海报、网络、扩展讨论和报告提供了特定的论坛，并包括早期职业研究人员、博士后助理和研究生。尽管生物工程领域正在迅速扩张，并与美国和全球经济融合，但数据显示，非裔美国人在这一科学领域的代表性仍然不足。也有越来越多的非裔美国人进入这一科学领域，但这种增长仍不足以缓解生物工程领域代表性不足的问题。这种情况为非裔美国生物工程师社区提供了一个机会，可以组织起来应对当前和未来的机会。非洲生物技术会议为非裔美国生物工程师创建了一个论坛，让他们有组织地关注这一不断增长的机会，同时讨论与生物工程相关的科学领域的进展和前景。会议有一个多样化的议程，包括早期职业和博士后研究人员以及研究生。议程安排了建立网络和扩大讨论的会议。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The AfroBiotech conference will be held October 25-27, 2021 on a virtual platform owing to the continuing Covin-19 pandemic facing the world at present. The conference highlights the achievements of African Americans in biotechnology, inspires a new generation of diverse biotechnology professionals and identifies, communicates, and explores current advancements in various aspects of Biotechnology. This forum organizes African-American scientific talent from across the U.S. at a single event and provides a venue to inspire a new generation of diverse biotechnology professionals, for scientific presentations, for highlights on African American achievements in biotechnology, for participation of students and postdocs and for an interdisciplinary dialogue among professionals. A virtual platform that facilitates vibrant and highly interactive virtual events that include a poster session, Question and Answer discussions, and small group/one-on-one discussion has been chosen. The conference also provides specific forums for scientific presentations, posters, networking, extended discussions and presentations and is inclusive of early-career researchers, postdoctoral associates and graduate students.Although the field of biological engineering is rapidly expanding and integrating with the US and global economies the data show that African Americans continue to be underrepresented in this scientific area. There is also an increasing number of African Americans entering this scientific area but this growth is still insufficient to alleviate the under-representation in the field of biological engineering. This situation represents an opportunity for the community of African American biological engineers to organize itself to address current and future opportunities. The AfroBiotech conference creates a forum for African American biological engineers to become organized to focus on this growing opportunity and at the same time address advances and prospects in scientific areas pertinent to biological engineering. The conference has a diverse agenda that is inclusive of early-career and postdoctoral researchers as well as graduate students. The agenda accommodates sessions for networking and extended discussions.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.