Members of the Substance Misuse and Addiction Research Traineeship (SMART) lab traveled to Minneapolis, Minnesota for one of the oldest and most prestigious conferences on addiction, the College on Problems of Drug Dependence conference. Also an NIDA R25 training program, the SMART lab is led by Mental Health Law & Policy Assistant Professor Micah E. Johnson, PhD. Johnson’s group was comprised of 11 undergraduate students, three graduate students, and two postdoctoral fellows.
SMART Lab, which consists of underrepresented undergraduate students at USF, delivered three oral presentations and six poster presentations. The students' research was celebrated by some of the leading scholars in the field as well as administrators at the National Institute on Drug Abuse, including Deputy Director Wilson Compton. The students cited “the ability to connect, feeling a part of a scientific community, and getting feedback from very approachable expert researchers” as things they enjoyed most about this experience. Find more photos from the conference on our Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter!