GSA is excited to welcome Balint Kacsoh, PhD, as the Society’s Engagement Professional Development Program Coordinator! Read on to learn more about Balint, a past DeLill Nasser Award recipient, 2020 Larry Sandler Awardee, and former Early Career Leadership Program member.

Can you tell us a little bit about your background and what your career has looked like up to this point? How did you come to join the GSA staff?

My name is Balint Zoltan Kacsoh. I was raised in the beautiful capital of Hungary, Budapest, and in Macon, GA. From a young age, I was fascinated by biology—whether it be going to the aquarium and the zoo, to biology class—I wanted to understand how organisms function. My father, also Balint Kacsoh, brought me to his research lab at Mercer University School of Medicine, where I was able to keep my own cell cultures and “help” run experiments as young as age eight. Throughout lower, middle, and high school, my favorite subject was science. I even sought more rare classes to take, such as Genetics and Advanced Topics in Science. 

I received my BS/MS from Emory University under the guidance of Dr. Todd Schlenke and Dr. Nathan T. Mortimer and received my PhD in the lab of Dr. Giovanni Bosco at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College. I performed postdoctoral research in the lab of Dr. Shelley Berger at the University of Pennsylvania, funded by a Damon Runyon Cancer Research Fellowship, where my research focused on epigenetics of social structure. Throughout my time in research, I gained an appreciation for the immense importance of Science Communication and Science outreach, forming SciAnts with my wife to facilitate this goal.

I have been a member of the Genetics Society of America since I was an undergraduate. I have been afforded many opportunities, such as conference travel funding through the DeLill Nasser Award and participating in the Early Career Leadership Program (ECLP), that have shaped me as a scientist. These programs and opportunities were immensely important to me. Thus, when the opportunity to join the GSA staff presented itself, I immediately applied. I hope to make as big of a difference to the GSA as they have to me.

Can you describe your new position at GSA as the Engagement Professional Development Program Coordinator?

As a member of the engagement team, my job will entail working with members of the ECLP, organizing conference workshops and events, and implementing new ideas to benefit members and other constituents of the Society.

What upcoming projects are you most looking forward to working on in your new role?

I am excited for many different projects—first, I am looking forward to helping further grow the ECLP. The ECLP is a critical component in the lives of many young scientists, and I hope to further the community. I am also looking forward to designing conference mascots as part of our science outreach endeavor to engage a broad community. Finally, I am very excited about helming new programs to engage our community utilizing streaming platforms.  

What about the GSA community do you find most inspiring?

I am most inspired by the support system in place in the GSA community. Simply asking for help—whether it be on Slack, email, or in person—creates opportunities for growth and support. I owe my scientific career to the GSA, and I cannot wait to give back.

What’s one piece of advice that you think every early career scientist should hear?

As a scientist, you are in a position of extreme privilege; therefore, I believe it is your moral obligation to willingly and freely disseminate information in which you are an expert. Only with this mentality, can we promote science literacy and science trust in the broader community. 

What do you think would surprise your undergraduate self about your career path so far?

My undergraduate self would be surprised at my strong love of science outreach—not in that I love doing it, but in the strong need for it. I have experienced much more now compared to then, and have seen firsthand the need to support members outside of the scientific community.

Do you have any mentors? How have they played a role in your career journey?

I have had many mentors throughout my journey. This ranges from my father, who is a professor in a medical school, to my academic mentors. As an undergraduate, a postdoctoral researcher, Nathan T. Mortimer, took me under his wing. Under his mentorship, I began to think like a scientist, solving and making puzzles in biology. Because of his mentorship, I embarked on a journey of research. His continued mentorship across over a decade has helped me identify regions to improve in and what matters most to me. 

What professional accomplishment to date are you most proud of?

I am most proud of receiving the Larry Sandler Award, presented by the Genetics Society of America at the Annual Drosophila Research Conference for the best Drosophila PhD thesis. Having the community I support and love recognize my thesis has meant the most to me. It represents a long and hard journey through graduate school, and I am extremely proud of this accomplishment.

What’s your idea of a perfect weekend?

My perfect weekend is sitting outside in our yard with my wife on a cool afternoon while grilling some of our favorite foods. Having a soccer game on the tablet—on low volume, of course—would be a bonus. 

“Why are chromosomes so different? Genetic conflicts and genome evolution”

Congratulations also to this year’s Larry Sandler Award runners up:

• Kristina Stapornwongkul (Advisor: Jean-Paul Vincent)
• J. Dylan Shropshire (Advisor: Seth Bordenstein)
• Jiefu Li (Advisor: Liqun Luo)

About the awardees:

Ching-Ho Chang was born in Taiwan. He went to the National Taiwan University and graduated in 2009 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Life Science. He received his Master’s degree from the Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary biology at the National Taiwan University in 2011 under the mentorship of Dr. Chau-Ti Ting, studying the evolution of neo-sex chromosomes in Drosophila albomicans using genetics and computational biology. He continued his interest in chromosome evolution during his Ph.D. work by combining genetics, computational biology, and cytology to study the evolution of Drosophila centromeres, Y chromosomes, and meiotic drive under the guidance of Dr. Amanda Larracuente at the University of Rochester. As a graduate student, he held the Ernst Caspari and Messersmith Fellowships from the University of Rochester and a Government Scholarship to Study Abroad from the Ministry of Education, Taiwan. He earned his doctoral degree in Biology from the University of Rochester in 2020. Dr. Chang is currently a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Harmit Malik at the Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center, studying the function and evolution of sperm chromatin using Drosophila. 

Kristina Stapornwongkul did her Masters at the University of Heidelberg and then moved to London to do a Wellcome Trust-funded PhD in Jean-Paul Vincent’s lab at the Crick Institute. Since February, she is a postdoctoral fellow at EMBL Barcelona.

Dylan Shropshire received his PhD from the Bordenstein lab at Vanderbilt University and is currently an NSF postdoctoral research fellow in Brandon Cooper’s lab at the University of Montana.

Jiefu Li did his Ph.D. thesis research with Prof. Liqun Luo at Stanford University. He developed proteomic and genetic tools to study cell-surface signaling in the precise assembly of Drosophila olfactory circuits.

This year’s Larry Sandler Memorial Award for an outstanding PhD dissertation in Drosophila research was presented to Zhao Zhang. Zhang, pictured receiving the prestigious award from Erika Bach (New York University), delivered the award lecture on the opening night of last week’s 56th Annual Drosophila Research Conference in Chicago, IL, organized by GSA. He carried out the award-winning doctoral work at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and is now a Junior Investigator as well as the newest staff member at the Carnegie Department of Embryology.

Zhao Zhang receives the 2015 Larry Sandler Memorial Award from Erika Bach, 56th Annual Drosophila Research Conference.

The Larry Sandler Memorial award is given annually to honor an outstanding PhD dissertation in research using the fruit fly Drosophila. This powerful model organism is employed in many areas of research including genetics, disease, evolution, neurology, and more. The Larry Sandler Memorial Award was established in recognition of Dr. Larry Sandler’s many contributions to Drosophila genetics and his dedication to the training of Drosophila biologists.

“We congratulate Zhao on this exceptional honor,” said Allan Spradling, Director of Carnegie’s Department of Embryology and keynote speaker at last week’s conference. “He is exactly the sort of original, unconventional, and self-motivated researcher that Carnegie seeks to support. We look forward to his many accomplishments that lie ahead.”

Zhang delivered a stimulating award lecture describing his studies of transposons, DNA elements with the ability to “jump” around the genome. His doctoral research investigated how transposons are regulated in germ cells (eggs and sperm), with the goal of understanding how transposons contribute to genomic instability and to mutations that lead to inherited disease and cancer. In particular, his research has focused on the interplay between small RNA molecules known as piRNAs (Piwi-interacting RNAs), their recognition by the cell, and transposon silencing. His work has revealed novel insights into how piRNAs are processed by the cell and into the functional consequences of transposon activation and silencing. In addition to these discoveries, Zhang is recognized for his ability to integrate numerous cutting-edge and traditional technologies, while also developing novel ones.

Zhang received a B.S. in biotechnology from Shandong Agriculture University in Tai-an, China, and an M.S. in cell biology at Beijing Normal University. He carried out his doctoral work in the laboratories of Bill Theurkauf and Phil Zamore, and received his PhD in November 2013 from the University of Massachusetts Medical School in interdisciplinary studies.

Sources and further information:

• Carnegie Science announcement ; March 12, 2015
• Media release on 56th Annual Drosophila Research Conference