People Behind the Science Podcast - Stories from Scientists about Science, Life, Research, and Science Careers

Dr. Dan Geschwind is the Gordon and Virginia MacDonald Distinguished Professor in of Neurology, Psychiatry and Human Genetics at the University of California Los Angeles School of Medicine. He is also Director of the Neurogenetics Program, Director of the Center for Autism Research and Treatment (CART) and Co-Director of the Center for Neurobehavioral Genetics in the Semel Institute at UCLA. Dan received his MD/PhD from Yale University School of Medicine. He completed his internship, residency (Neurology), and postdoctoral fellowship at UCLA, joining the faculty at UCLA afterwards, founding the Neurogenetics Program. Dan has received many awards and honors during his career, including the Derek Denny-Brown Neurological Scholar Award from the American Neurological Association in 2004, the Scientific Service Award from Autism Speaks in 2007, the Ruane Prize for Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Research from the Brain and Behavior foundation in 2012, the Taking on Tomorrow Innovation Award (Research/Scientific Breakthrough in Autism) from Boston Children’s Hospital in 2013, and he is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. Dan is with us today to tell us all about his journey through life and science.

Dr. Kate Scholberg is a Professor of Physics and Bass Fellow, as well as the Director of Undergraduate Studies at Duke University. She received her Masters and PhD in Physics from the California Institute of Technology and completed her postdoctoral training at Boston University. Prior to joining the faculty at Duke, Kate was an Assistant Professor at MIT. Kate has received many awards and honors during her career, including the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, Outstanding Junior Investigator award from the department of energy. Kate is with us today to tell us all about her journey through life and science.

Dr. Steven Churchill is a and past chair of the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke University. He also holds a secondary appointment as an Honorary Reader in the Evolutionary Studies Institute and Centre for Excellence in PalaeoSciences at the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa). He received his B.S. from Virginia Tech and Masters and PhD from the University of New Mexico. Afterwards, Steve served as a Teaching Associate and Visiting Professor at the University of New Mexico before joining the faculty at Duke University in 1995. He has also worked as an Associate at the Bernard Price Institute of Palaeontology at the University of Wits in South Africa. Steve is here with us today to tell us about his journey through life and science.

Dr. Jennifer F. Biddle is an Assistant Professor in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment at the University of Delaware. She received her PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Pennsylvania State University. Jen then went on to complete postdoctoral fellowships in the Department of Geosciences at Penn State and in the Department of Marine Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill before joining the faculty at University of Delaware. Jen is with us today to tell us all about her journey through life and science.

Dr. Katrina Steiling is a physician-scientist and Assistant Professor of Medicine and Bioinformatics in the Section of Computational Biomedicine at Boston University School of Medicine. She completed her Doctorate of Medicine at Boston University Medical School, and her Internship and Residency in Internal Medicine at Boston University Medical Center followed by a post-doctoral research fellowship with The Pulmonary Center. Concurrent with her clinical fellowship training in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Boston University Medical Center, Katie completed a Masters of Science in Bioinformatics through the Boston University College of Engineering. Katie is with us today to tell us all about her journey through life and science.

Dr. Alexandra Harmon-Threatt is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Entomology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She received her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley and completed an NSF postdoctoral Fellowship at Washington University in St. Louis. Alex is today to tell us all about her journey through life and science.

Dr. Irving R. Epstein is the Henry F. Fischbach Professor of Chemistry and a member of the Volen Center for Complex Systems at Brandeis University, as well as a Professor of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He received his Masters degree in Chemistry and his PhD in Chemical Physics from Harvard University. Irving then completed a NATO Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University before joining the faculty at Brandeis. Irving has received a number of honors and awards during his career, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Grass Fellowship of the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University. Irving is here with us today to tell us about his journey through life and science.

Dr. Emily Cross is a Senior Lecturer of cognitive neuroscience and a dancer who shares a dual appointment at the School of Psychology at Bangor University in North Wales and the Department of Social and Cultural Psychology and the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour at Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands. She studied psychology and dance as an undergraduate at Pomona College, and went on to complete a MSc in Cognitive Psychology at the University of Otago in New Zealand as a Fulbright fellow. She returned to the USA to complete a PhD in cognitive neuroscience at Dartmouth College, and then moved on to postdoctoral positions at the University of Nottingham in the UK and the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, Germany. Emily is with us today to tell us all about her journey through life and science.

Dr. Nan Arens is an Associate Professor of Geosciences at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in New York. She received her Masters degree in Geology from Pennsylvania State University as well as a Masters degree in Biology from Harvard University. Nan then went on to complete her PhD in Biology at Harvard. She served as a faculty member at the University of California at Berkeley and Curator of Fossil Plants at the University of California Museum of Paleontology before joining the faculty at Hobart and William Smith. Nan is with us today to tell us all about her journey through life and science.

Dr. Steve Ormerod is a Professor in Ecology in the Cardiff School of Biosciences at Cardiff University in the United Kingdom. He is also Chair of Council of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Chair of the Science Development Group of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Vice-Chair of the Welsh Water Environment Advisory Panel, and Co-Chair of the Cardiff Water Research Consortium. Steve received his PhD in River Ecology from Cardiff University. He has been recognized with many awards and honors, including being an elected Fellow of the Society of Biology, the Learned Society of Wales, and the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management, as well as a Fellow of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust. Steve has also received the Ralph Brown Expedition Award from the Royal Geographical Society, the Past-President’s Medal of the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management, and the Marsh Award for Marine and Freshwater Conservation from the Zoological Society of London. Steve is here with us today to tell us about his journey through life and science.