Madhumala Sadanandappa Appointed to Early Career Leadership Program

Madhumala Sadanandappa, PhD. Photo by Kurt Wehde

The Genetics Society of America (GSA), an international community of biologists advancing the field of genetics, has announced members of this year’s Early Career Leadership Program.

Participants in this professional development program receive leadership training and mentoring while developing programming, highlighting important advancements originating within the genetics community, and building relationships with scientists in all sectors of the workforce.

A postdoc researcher in Giovanni Bosco’s lab, Madhumala Sadanandappa, PhD, says the GSA program offers a unique platform to network with a peer group of scientists and serve the scientific community.

“As a co-chair of the career development subcommittee, I am committed to communicating the importance of leadership to early career researchers and to supporting ongoing career development programs,” she says, “and I have an opportunity to create professional training opportunities that better equip graduate and postdocs members of the GSA to achieve their career goals.

“Personally, this program will help me identify my strengths, improve my skills, establish collaboration with my peer group, and expand my professional network.”

The Bosco lab studies the role behavior, learning, and memory play in gathering, storing, and recalling information as well as “understanding the genetic and epigenetic determinants of how chromosome structures are established and maintained in different tissues and at different times during development.” Sadanandappa is elucidating neuronal circuitry of the Drosophila (fruit fly) brain that controls egg laying and reproductive behavior.

“I am thrilled that Madhu is included in this year's GSA Early Career Leadership Program—she is a brilliant and hardworking bench scientist who makes serving the scientific community a priority,” says Giovanni Bosco, PhD. “Whether it is mentoring graduate and undergraduate students, leading the postdoc association, or sharing her experiences so that others may benefit, Madhu is always ready to step-up and take the lead in community matters that really make a difference to people. "

Sadanandappa also received the DeLill Nasser Award for Professional Development in Genetics, given by the GSA twice each year to a handful of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. Named in honor of DeLill Nasser, a long-time GSA supporter and National Science Foundation Program Director in Eukaryotic Genetics, the award supports meeting attendance and laboratory courses.

Founded in 1931, the GSA publishes two peer-reviewed journals: GENETICS and G3. Their nearly 6,000 members from more than 50 countries, work to advance knowledge in the basic mechanisms of inheritance from the molecular to the population level. Since 1933, 22 members have become Nobel Laureates in physiology or medicine.