At the recently held 8th annual Frontiers in Chemistry and Biology Interface Symposium (FCBIS), Christena "Linn" Cadieux, from the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense (USAMRICD), received an award for excellence for her poster presentation, "Phosphonylated Acetylcholinesterase: Probing the Mechanism of a Non-Oxime Reactivator." Eight of the nearly 100 posters at the symposium were recognized with an award by an independent panel of judges.

The research Cadieux presented not only advances the USAMRICD's mission to discover and develop medical products and knowledge solutions against chemical and biochemical threats, but is also the basis of her doctoral thesis, most of which she is conducting in the laboratory of USAMRICD senior scientist Dr. Douglas Cerasoli. An Oak Ridge Institute of Science and Engineering (ORISE) postgraduate research program participant, Cadieux has worked in Cerasoli's lab for seven years and has been a doctoral candidate at the University of Delaware, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, for the last four years. She is on schedule to complete her thesis in December of this year.

Cerasoli, who also attended the symposium to take part in a lunchtime panel to discuss scientific careers within the Department of Defense, praised Cadieux for her contributions to his research team.

"In addition to being a diligent, hard-working, independent graduate student, Linn manages supplies, ordering, and financial records for three different laboratory groups at ICD," he said. "I am constantly amazed at her energy, ability to shoulder responsibility, and consistently positive attitude. I would clone her if I could!"

The FCBIS is hosted by the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and highlights research in the Mid-Atlantic region. Among the participants were faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and students from the University of Maryland, the University of Delaware, the University of Pennsylvania, the Jefferson University, the Virginia Commonwealth University, and Johns Hopkins University. In addition to the poster presentations, the symposium included platform talks and two keynote speakers.