2023 CMaT Annual Retreat
November 17-20, 2023
San Juan, Puerto Rico

2023 CMaT Retreat Recap

CMaT recently held its annual retreat from November 17-20, 2023 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where over 100 attendees gathered from CMaT partner universities, CMaT international partners, CMaT industry partners, and CMaT advisory boards. The retreat kicked off Friday night with a welcome dinner and traditional Puerto Rican music and dancing hosted by University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez. Saturday's activities began with the state of the center address by Dr. Temenoff, followed by a presentation by keynote speaker Ivan Lugo-Montes, Executive Director of Industry-University Research Center highlighting the biomanufacturing ecosystem opportunities in Puerto Rico. Later, CMaT trainees from each research thrust gave oral research presentations and robust discussions followed at the lunch and poster session. This was followed by the 3-minute thesis competition (see below for our list of winners!).

Sunday’s activities included a thought-provoking session chaired by our Diversity and Inclusion leads, and an Industry Panel. Industry Board co-Chairs Stacie Chvatal and Eli Fine spoke at the Industry Panel moderated by CMaT Industry co-lead Scott Ransom.  Key takeaways included a tightening financial landscape for industry member companies and a need for members to maximize their return on investment when collaborating with CMaT. Test-bed and thrust breakout sessions rounded out a full 2 days of exciting scientific exchanges between members.

CMaT 2023 Retreat Poster and Three Minute Thesis winners:
Poster Winner
Walker Byrnes (Georgia Tech / GTRI)
 
2nd Place (tie)
Zoe Mote (Georgia Institute of Technology)
Lauren Sarko (University of Wisconsin - Madison)
  
People’s Choice (tie)
Carolina A. Colón (Georgia Institute of Technology)
Margot Amitrano (University of Wisconsin - Madison)
 
Three-Minute Thesis
Winner - Madeline Smerchansky (University of Wisconsin - Madison)
 
Runner Up (tie)
Morgane Golan (University of Georgia)
Apoorva Ramamurthy (University of Wisconsin - Madison)