The UAB Department of Microbiology hosted the inaugural David E. Wells Memorial Symposium on December 14, 2017. The event kicked off with talks by five selected graduate students in the Department of Microbiology who competed for the David E. Wells Scholarship. The students (pictured below from left to right) are Tyler Stewart (Novak/Renfrow labs), Michael Schultz (Lund lab), Anukul Shenoy (Orihuela lab), Danielle Chisolm (Weinmann Lab) and Johua Justice (Thompson lab). The student presentations were followed by the keynote presentation entitled "Genomic control mechanisms that establish T-cell identity", which was presented by Dr. Ellen Rothenberg, Albert Billings Ruddock Professor of Biology at California Institute of Technology. This was the first symposium held in memory of Dr. David E. Wells, a former graduate student in the UAB Department of Microbiology. Family members of Dr. Wells were in attendance for this special event including Dr. Kathy Hancock, who was married to Dr. Wells. Dr. Hancock presented Joshua Justice with the David E. Wells Scholarship at the close of the symposium.