DAY 1 - Thursday, 6 November 2025

Lecture Hall 2

Open only to MCAA members and guests

14:30-15:00 – Arrival, Registration

15:00-16:00 – Brainstorming Session with MCAA members on ways for strengthening collaboration between North America and Europe 

Jackson Howard, MSCA GLOPOL Project

16:00-18:00 – Workshop: “Improv to Communicate Science” 

Heather Lynn Barnes, Improv at Work, LLC & Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University 

18:00 – Dinner for MCAA members & Workshop Participants

FRIDAY 

Friday, 7 November 2025

Founders’ Room

Open to MCAA members, and non-members, including graduate students, postdocs, faculty, and guests

9:00-9:30 – Arrival, Registration

09:30-10:00 Welcome remarks

William A. Parkinson, Curator & Associate Director of Anthropology, Field Museum

Valérie Livrelli, Scientific Attaché, Consulate General of France in Chicago

Suzana Češarek, Consul General, Slovenian Consulate General in Cleveland

Marc Maillot, Director & Chief Curator, ISAC Museum 

Gian Maria Greco, Chair of the Marie Curie Alumni Association

Sabina Cveček, MCAA North America Chapter Chair

10:00-10:45 – Opportunities to Choose Europe: MSCA and ERC Programmes

Jackson Howard, EURAXESS North America

10:45-11:00 – Coffee-break

11:00-11:45 – Lightning Talks: Present your MSCA project (10 x 3 mins) 

Maria Salome Adank, University of Verona, University of Chicago

Gender and Power: A Historical Perspective on Decision Making

Gülce Şafak Özdemir, Harvard University, University of Birmingham 

Shining a Light on Urban Marginalisation 

Ugur Aygun, Stanford University

A Multimodal Platform for Label-Free Characterisation of Extracellular Vesicles in Cancer Detection

Sabina Cveček, Field Museum of Natural History, Austrian Academy of Sciences

Making Kin with or without Shared Genetic Ancestry in European Prehistory

Gioele Zisa, Sapienza Università di Roma, University of Pennsylvania

PlANET: Bridging Humanities and Natural Sciences through Ancient Plants 

Rebecca Kariuki, Arizona State University

Land Use Change and Conservation in Multiple Use Landscapes of Southern Kenya 

Phivos Phylactou, University of Nevada

Novel Investigation of Causal Neural Evidence for Visual Working Memory 

Sandra Rebok, Center for US-Mexican Studies, University of California San Diego  

Humboldt and the Globalization of Science: Networks of Knowledge between Germany and the United States in the 19th Century

Jean Milot, Aarhus University

Viking Iron Production in Iceland: a new model of Norse iron supply and circulation in the North Atlantic

11:45-12:00 – Lightning Talks: My academic journey after the MSCA (3 x 3 mins)

Irene Sánchez Martín, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), New York

Maternal Immune Activation and Placental Pathways in Neurodevelopmental Risk

Lotan Kraun, Massachusetts General Hospital

Amplifying Patient Voices: My Academic Journey after the MSCA

Rebecca (Becky) Seifried, University of Massachusetts Amherst

From Mapping Digs to Digging Maps

Elvan Ceyhan, Auburn University

From MSCA Fellow to Institute Leadership - and back to Academia

12:00-13:00 Lunch Break

13:00-13:15 – Lightning Talks: My non-academic journey after the MSCA (4 x 3 mins)

Sridharan Govindachary, PlantInnov Montreal

From Marie Skłodowska-Curie Senior Research Fellowship to Innovations: Visions for MSCA Fellows & Alumni

Gloria Fuentes, The Visual Thinker

Visuals by Scientists: The Key to Scientific Literacy

Mahmut Mijit, ​​Global Medical Affairs Manager, Interventional Oncology, Boston Scientific 

Bridging Science and Clinical Practice: My Career Path After the MSCA

Majid Butt, NOKIA

Post-PhD Careers: Navigating the Path Through Struggles

13:15-13:30 – Lightning Talks: My take-homes as an MSCA Global Fellow in NA (4 x 3 mins) 

Sergio Crespo-Garcia, Université de Montréal, Montréal

When Career follows Passion: On the Quest to Cure Blindness. 

Klaudijo Klaser, Colombia University, University of Trento

MSCA Global Postdoctoral Fellowship Challenges

Sree Bash Chandra Debnath, Loyola University of Chicago

My Takeaways as an MSCA-GF & Academic Journey after Fellowship 

Marcelo Caetano, University of California, San Diego

How an MSCA Project Turned My Career Around 

Saša Čaval, ​​ZRC SAZU & Stanford University

Empowered by MSCA: Key Takeaways from my MSCA Journey

13:30-15:15 – Unconference: Participant-led topical discussions in small groups (topics will be decided based on the lightning talks and during the coffee breaks, and not predefined.

15:15 – 15:45 – Wrap-up: Participants share highlights of the meeting with the whole group 

15:45 – 16:00 – Concluding Remarks and Reflection 

Sergio Crespo-Garcia, MCAA Canada Chapter

Sabina Cveček, MCAA North America Chapter Chair
 

16:00-17:00 – Cocktail reception

17:00-17:45 – Round Table discussion on Hosting the MSCA Global Fellows at North American Institutions 

Thorsten Lumbsch, Vice President - Science & Curator, Field Museum

Valérie Livrelli, Scientific Attaché, Consulate General of France in Chicago

Matthew H. Johnson, Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs at Weinberg College, Northwestern University 

Tarini Bedi, Head of Anthropology Department, University of Illinois at Chicago

Gian Maria Greco, Chair of the Marie Curie Alumni Association

Moderation: Sabina Cveček, MCAA North America Chapter Chair 

17:45 – 21:00 – Dinner and drinks served at the venue