Connecting Minds Across Continents: MCAA North America Meeting 2025
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Connecting Minds Across Continents: MCAA North America Meeting 2025
100 Years Since Marie Skłodowska Curie’s Visit to Chicago
Why Chicago? There are multiple reasons:
Marie Skłodowska-Curie visited Chicago in 1921 to accept an honorary degree from the University of Chicago and Northwestern University. During her visit, she received a gift of 100,000$ raised by the women in Chicago’s area, among them also Ms. Marshall Field, the wife of the founder of the Field Museum.
The Field Museum offered support to host the event.
Read more about the MCAA North America Chapter’s Vision here.
Registration: The event has limited places available. Please reserve your spot by registering as soon as possible here.
Agenda
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
Amir Esrafilian, University of Eastern Finland, Stanford University
From Lab to Life: Smartphone-Based Estimation of Lower Limb Joint Biomechanics
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
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
