Bay Path to Present ‘Work-life Balance for Women in STEM ’
LONGMEADOW — Dr. Marlene Belfort, distinguished professor in the Departments of Biological Sciences and Biomedical Sciences, UAlbany, SUNY, will give a free and open-to-the-public presentation describing her STEM research journey over three continents while raising three sons. Work-life Balance for Women in STEM will take place on Nov. 30, at 5:30 p.m., at Bay Path University in Mills Theatre at Carr Hall on the Longmeadow campus.
Belfort’s presentation will discuss the challenges, rewards, sacrifices, and satisfactions of weaving together the two intense activities of research and parenting. An internationally-renown researcher, Belfort will give equal time to some of the major discoveries she has achieved in her career in the field of molecular genetics of mobile elements (introns and inteins) in microbes.
After graduating with a B.S. degree from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, Dr. Belfort received her Ph.D. degree in molecular biology at the University of California at Irvine, and performed post-doctoral work at the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel and at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.
Dr. Belfort’s research interests are in splicing, mobility and evolution of self-splicing introns and inteins, and their application to biotechnology and medicine. In addition, a goal of hers is to promote the careers of women in science, on which she has written, and for which she was recognized by the American Society for Microbiology with the Alice Evans Award for her contributions toward fostering the advancement of women.
Belfort’s presentation is sponsored by Bay Path’s Center of Excellence for Women in STEM (CEWS), created in response to the overwhelming need for education, advanced training and continued support for women who are beginning or advancing careers in STEM. Registration is strongly recommended and available at http://www.baypath.edu/womeninstem.
