by Sam Reed
Dr. Caroline Kumsta has been contemplating big-picture ideas. “I’ve been thinking about this a lot: What is innovation? I don’t think you just wake up one day and have a brilliant idea out of nowhere. It comes out of something that already exists, in small increments; you gather the pieces, you get input from others, and you figure out the next little step—or big step.”
These things are on Dr. Kumsta’s mind because she’s one of the organizers of this year’s Sanford-Burnham Science Network (SBSN) Poster Symposium, where young Sanford-Burnham scientists gather to exchange ideas. She continues, “You should read anything you can, you should talk to anybody you can—because you don’t know what’s going to give you the next great idea.”
The SBSN Poster Symposium is celebrating its 10th year in San Diego. Never tied to a specific theme, researchers from across the Institute’s myriad areas of inquiry come to learn what their colleagues are investigating. (Read about last year’s Symposium here.)