LEND Symposiums
About the LEND Symposium
For years, the annual Symposium has served as a forum for students in the Maternal and Child Health Center of Excellence (CoE) and the University of California-Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (UC-LEND) training programs to present their research, internship insights, and engage in sharing knowledge and experiences that have occurred over the academic year.
In June 2024, the UCLA Maternal and Child Health Center of Excellence (CoE) and the University of California-Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (UC-LEND) training programs were excited to expand their annual Symposium offering with the First Annual Neal Halfon Public Health Trainee Symposium. Students from across UCLA were invited to attend the poster symposium, with lectures from student researchers and a plenary lecture from Dr. Michael Lu, Dean of the UC Berkeley School of Public Health.
In 2025, the Neal Halfon Symposium continued to grow to serve the broader UCLA student community, partnering with the UCLA Tarjan Center and the UCLA Bixby Center to provide a local, no-cost interdisciplinary conference experience to students from a variety of disciplines. Thirty four student posters were accepted, with three selected to give oral presentations of their work following the plenary lecture by Dr. Candace Gragnani. We hope to continue providing this event in future years as a showcase of student research in public health and beyond.
Information about the 2026 Neal Halfon Public Health Trainee Symposium will be available at a later date.
Please email mch@mednet.ucla.edu with any questions or concerns.
FAQs
No, the Symposium Committee handles poster printing and setup. As a student presenter, all you have to do is submit your poster by the deadline and we will handle the rest!
We do not have strict requirements for the type of work that can be submitted. Works in progress and/or works done as part of other programs are welcome! Previous students have presented formal research, capstone projects, etc.
Yes, upon acceptance, the Symposium Committee will send all accepted students the poster design guidelines, including a template and recommendations. In general, posters should be landscape style and formatted to be 36” tall x 48” wide. Submissions are accepted as Microsoft PowerPoint files only, please do not use Canva or other resources to design posters.