By Hannah Lundquist —
UW–Stout is very fortunate to have as many on-campus organizations as we do. At Stout we have over two hundred organizations all of which are very important and can play a huge role in student involvement. The American Society for Biology and Molecular Biology has recently added a chapter here at UW–Stout. ASBMB is a national organization. Our addition now joins other established chapters in Lacrosse, Stevens Point, Madison, Milwaukee and Platteville.
ASBMB was founded in 1906 and has over twelve thousand members across the country according to their website.
One member of the organization was able to provide some information about the goals and purpose of ASBMB. Kayla Boyd a student in the organization said; “ASBMB’s goal is to promote the understanding of the molecular nature of life processes. Their society wants to assist scientists in their journey to making new breakthroughs in the fields of biochemistry and molecular biology.”
Like other campus organizations, students are not able to fully enjoy the benefits of the group until they become full members. These memberships are often costly and require a year-to-year fee to be paid. Usually since the organizations on campus are student run the membership fee is lower so that more students are able to join. As a student chapter there are opportunities for research projects and also being able to travel to conferences.
“Students will also have opportunities to work together and create their own research projects, which I think is really exciting and my favorite part about having this club. Another great thing about our club is that we will be keeping the students who attend meetings up to date on breakthrough research happening in the field. We are hoping to bring in people who work in biochemistry or molecular biology related fields to talk about what it’s like working in industry.” Says Kayla.
If anyone wants more information about ASBMB before attending a meeting it can be found at https://www.asbmb.org. Meetings are tentatively going to be every other week and there is not yet a set place to meet. For more information about meetings contact Melody Wehland at wehlandm0282@my.uwstout.edu