Peter Shen, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry, University of Utah

Peter Shen received his PhD from Brigham Young University under the direction of David Belnap and did his postdoc with Adam Frost in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Utah. Following his postdoc, Peter stayed in Utah as Research Track faculty and Director of Cryo-EM, and it was during this time that he developed a passion for training cryo-EM newcomers and creating EM curriculum resources. In 2017, Peter started his independent tenure track position in the same department, and the focus of his lab is to use biochemical and structural tools to understand the mechanisms of protein quality control. He continues to be passionate about cryo-EM training and is funded by the NIH to create CryoEM and CryoET 101 with Janet Iwasa and Julia Brasch. 

Rebecca Thompson, Director of Sales Development, Thermo Fisher Scientific

Rebecca is Director Sales Development for Life Sciences for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. She and her team work across the region supporting communities in academia, pharma, biotech, and beyond to leverage electron microscopy in their research programs. Previously, Rebecca was Head of Research Facilities for the Faculty of Biological Sciences and was also Deputy Director Electron Microscopy at the Astbury Biostructure Laboratory, University of Leeds.

Rebecca has over 12 years of experience in electron microscopy and cryo-EM (both single particle and electron tomography approaches) and has worked on a wide range of projects and research questions, from cryo-EM methods development (particularly in relation to sample preparation) to structure determination of membrane proteins, soluble complexes, amyloid fibrils. With 7 years of experience in core facility labs, she is passionate about reducing barriers to accessing technology, particularly focusing on training and streamlining workflows.