On this very eventful ring-filled day of the 2024 total solar eclipse, I asked Anna to marry me! We are looking forward to celebrating our wedding late next year.

I will be starting my next big adventure tomorrow by joining Boston University and working as a facility manager and cryoEM scientist at their newly established cryogenic electron microscopy core! I am VERY excited to join an awesome community of scientists at BU, and I look forward to everything we will accomplish together!

I am super excited to have been selected as a Baltimore Orioles Birdland Community Hero for my efforts in starting Science in Action-JHMI, a student-run science outreach program at Johns Hopkins that brings fun and exciting science activities to local Baltimore school classrooms. Huge thank you to Brady Goulden for nominating me. SiA-JHMI could not work without the tireless effort and dedication from our entire team of leaders and volunteers (including but not limited to: Brady Goulden, Abigail Wheeler, Joseph Varriale, Christine Youn, PhD, Morgan Beckett, Dominique Meyer, Mara Grace, Theron Palmer, Daniel Evans, Eucolona Bonett, Clara Wolfe).

Drawing help from Gonzaga University's SiA program, I believe we have developed a low-cost, simple, and robust science outreach format, specifically designed for the Baltimore community, that is fun and rewarding for all stakeholders (volunteers, elementary school students, and elementary school teachers). In the past 5 years we have served about 1000 3rd-5th graders, delivering about 200 hour-long science lessons to these students. While I am excited about what we have accomplished so far, I am more excited by the idea that our program has survived multiple leadership transitions and will likely continue to positively impact students long after I graduate from Hopkins.

https://www.mlb.com/orioles/community/birdland-heroes

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7101643734164885504/

I am incredibly honored to have been selected as the winner of the JHU 3-minute thesis competition from a pool of many excellent presentations. There are so many talented communicators at Hopkins. It is a huge honor to even just reach the finals. I feel very grateful to my mentors in undergraduate and graduate school that taught me effective science communication strategies. The SOM, BCMB program, and Wolberger Lab really emphasize the importance of effective science communication. 

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/articles/2021/03/three-minute-thesis-get-to-know-winners-chad-hicks-and-benjamin-zaepfel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xC4MheWGQo

I am excited to receive an NCI Ruth L. Kirschstein Predoctoral F31 Research Award with an impact score 16 (3.0 percentile) which will provide me with external funding to investigate my PhD research project. With this funding I hope to determine the molecular mechanisms regulating the deposition and recognition of methyl modifications on histone proteins of nucleosomes at histone H3 lysine 79.

https://wolberger.med.jhmi.edu/uncategorized/chad-hick-receives-an-f31-fellowship/