Sue Lynn Lau chose classical ballet and highly kinetic party dancing as the way to interpret her Ph.D. thesis, "The role of vitamin D in beta-cell function." As The Nutcracker Suite lilts in the background, Lau, a graduate student from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, Australia, appears as the Sugarplum Fairy, delivering marshmallow glucose to four beta cell dancers. Meanwhile, a fifth dancer flings and twirls around the stage--representing the sunlight required for vitamin D biosynthesis.
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~~By Aimee Stern
Connecting with the general public and hopefully future scientists and engineers is one the major goals of the USA Science & Engineering Festival. We want to light a spark, to convince students that these fields are not only those of the future but just plain fun.
Forty stage…
But I can't. I am quite possibly the worst dancer in our galaxy (notice the nod to my self-esteem: I can acknowledge that there might be an entity worse at dancing somewhere in the universe). But still, this announcement spoke to my inner Balanchine.
Who said scientists can't dance? The American…
Vince LiCata, a biochemist at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, won this category with the help of his graduate students. The foursome danced a slow and graceful double pas de deux, representing the interaction of pairs of hemoglobin molecules from his 1990 Johns Hopkins University Ph.D.…
My friend Kiki created this awesome choreography to represent her PhD thesis on sea turtle conservation. Kiki explains,
The dance opens with aerial dancers. The suspended fluidity of their movements embodies swimming in the ocean. The swinging and dancing couples are sea turtles mating. In the wild…
Lau appears to have had some training in dance. That white boy though, was a little closer to my level of talent. Perhaps he represented a less active molecule.
Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!
This one was great, and (along with the winner in post-doc category) stands out as showing some real dance talent along with the science talent. For me, this is my favourite, not only for the talent of the dancers, but because of the powerful energy levels, the variety of dance forms, and the involvement of her fellow students. Dr Lau is going to be fantastic when working with a professional choreographer.
In the press release from the Garvan institute in Australia, where Dr Lau is an endocrinologist, she mentions her love of dance, but it seems to be just a hobby with a lot of natural grace and aptitude. From PhD student Sue Lynn Lau dances her way to Chicago:
"I really love dancing - although I haven't done it seriously," said Sue Lynn. "I did a couple of years of ballet when I was in kindergarten, and I've done some small classes - swing, a little ceroc and salsa."
The extraordinarily athletic dancer for the Sun was also great in this. Beautiful work.