Help STARS Students Attend Crystallography Conference 2025

https://www.starsanticancer.org/donate

Hello! We are the STARS nonprofit organization (Structural Nucleic Acid Anticancer Research Society (STARS)), which was started by a Walton HS (now Georgia Tech) student in 2021.

Our mission is to bring crystallography research experiences to undergraduate students and high schoolers. We desire to show students the scientific and beautiful sides of inorganic compound and protein crystal-growing.

These last couple of years, we have hosted over 11 distinct crystal-growing competitions, crystallography workshops, or crystallography summer camps. Across all our events we have had over 350+ students participate in our programs.

More recently, our STARS collegiate branch (at GT) and STARS HS branch leaders attended the American Crystallographic Association (ACA) conference in the 2023 and 2024. The two experiences were epic! The participants learned about vanguard crystallography research and were able to present about STARS outreach work! Everywhere they went they saw people excited for structural biology and even therapeutic drug design.

The enthusiasm and energy at the conference were so strong that each time the student leaders came back from the conference, they had a higher sense of urgency to share with fellow students the importance of crystallography, driving their STARS club meetings and outreach programs, such as the creation of a new undergraduate branch and the organization of four crystallography workshops.

It would be so exciting for the other members to present about STARS outreach work, be a part of the dialogue, make connections with leaders in academia and industry, and see for themselves how amazing and beautiful this research field is like!

To involve more STARS members at ACA conferences so that they too can experience the excitement of crystallography and structural biology, STARS has implemented a Travel Grant policy to help students attend and present at the conference.

We aim to bring at least four additional STARS members to the 75th American Crystallographic Association conference in the summer of 2025.

If you would be so kind as to make a small donation to help more students attend the ACA conference and see for themselves this beautiful realm of research and discovery, we would greatly appreciate it. We aim to provide students an opportunity to practice giving presentations, engage with other conference attendees, learn about the recent research in the field and see and understand the vanguard instruments and their ingenuity to inspire them with a stronger passion for crystallography research that they can share with other students through STARS programs and outreach events.

As a public nonprofit, we are dedicated to the students in our community. We aim to inspire and build up the next generation of scientists in structural biology. If you support our cause in spreading the love of science and research to high school and undergraduate students, we would appreciate it if you support us by making a donation today.

NOTE: All funds on this funding page will be used towards the 2025 STARS Travel Grant in lessening the travel costs of STARS Travel Grant recipients. Any additional funds not used in the 2025 STARS Travel Grant will be used by STARS nonprofit at its discretion that is in furtherance of its nonprofit charitable and educational purposes.