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

Dr. Holly Bik is a Birmingham Fellow in the School of Biosciences at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom. She completed her PhD in Deep Sea Biology and Molecular Phylogenetics at the University of Southampton and conducted postdoctoral research at the University of New Hampshire and the University of California, Davis before accepting her current position. Holly is scientist and an avid science communicator, and you can find her writing on blogs such as Eukaryotic Ebullience, The Molecular Ecologist, Haute Science, and Deep Sea News. Holly is with us today to tell us all about her journey through life and science.

Dr. Oliver Smithies is the Weatherspoon Eminent Distinguished Professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of North Caronlina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine. He received his PhD in Biochemistry at Oxford University and spent some time on the faculty at the University of Toronto, as well as the University of Wisconsin, Madison, before joining the faculty at UNC, Chapel Hill where he is today. Oliver is a distinguished scientist, and in 2007, he was a co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Among many other accomplishments, he is the recipient of the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research, the Wolf Prize in Medicine, the Massry Prize, and the University of North Carolina's O. Max Gardner Award. Oliver is also a Member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, a Member of the U.S. Institute of Medicine, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a Foreign Member of the Royal Society. Oliver is here with us today to tell us all about his journey through life and science.

Dr. Kurtis Williams is an Assistant Professor at Texas A and M University, Commerce. He received his Master's and PhD degrees in Astronomy and Astrophysics from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and afterward served as a Research Associate at the Steward Observatory in Tucson. Kurtis was awarded an NSF Postdoctoral fellowship and completed his postdoctoral research at the University of Texas, Austin before accepting his current position. Kurtis is here with us today to tell us all about his journey through life and science.

Dr. Jack Schultz is a Professor in Plant Sciences and Director of the Bond Life Sciences Center at the University of Missouri. He received his PhD in Zoology from the University of Washington and completed postdoctoral research at Dartmouth College. He was then hired at Dartmouth as a Research Assistant Professor. Jack's next career move brought him to Penn State University where he remained for 25 years, rising to the rank of Distinguished Professor of Entomology before joining the faculty at the University of Missouri. Jack's research has been featured by the New York Times, People Magazine, and Time Magazine. Jack is here with us today to tell us all about his journey through life and science.

Dr. Luise Hermanutz is a Professor in the Department of Biology at Memorial University in Canada. She received her PhD in Plant Ecology from Western University in London, Ontario. Afterward, She taught as a per course instructor at the Geography Department at Memorial University, she did a postdoc university of wallingong in Sydney Australia, before joining the faculty at Memorial University. Luise is with us today to tell us all about her journey through life and science.

Dr. Tom George is Chancellor and Professor of Chemistry and Physics at the University of Missouri - St. Louis. He earned his bachelors degree from gettysburg college and MS and PhD in Theoretical Chemistry from Yale University and conducted postdoctoral research at MIT and UC Berkeley. Afterward, Tom joined the faculty at the University of Rochester, he later served as Dean of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at SUNY - Buffalo, Provost at Washington State University, and Chancellor at the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point before accepting his current post. Tom has received many awards and honors during his career, including receipt of the Marlow Medal from the Royal Society of Chemistry and being named a Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences, the American Physical Society, the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Dreyfus Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Guggenheim Foundation. Tom has also been elected as a foreign member of the Korean Academy of Science and Technology, and he has received honorary doctorate degrees from the Universities in Hungary and Thailand. Further, Tom has been awarded the Medal of Honor from Gulf University for Science and Technology in Kuwait and the Diploma of Honour from Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences in Finland. In addition to his phenomenal science career, Tom is dedicated to being active in his community, and he has been recognized with many awards for community service as well. Tom is here with us today to tell us all about his journey through life and science.

Dr. Noah Fierer is a microbial ecologist and an Associate Professor in the Ecology & Evolutionary Biology department and a fellow in the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Noah completed his PhD in Ecology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Afterward, he conducted postdoctoral research at Duke University. Noah is here with us today to tell us all about his journey through life and science.

Dr. Cassandra Extavour is a Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University. She received her PhD from the Severo Ochoa Center for Molecular Biology at the Autonomous University of Madrid. Cassandra then conducted postdoctoral research at the Institute for Molecular Biology and Biotechnology in Crete, Greece as well as at the University of Cambridge. Afterward, she worked as a Research Associate in the Department of Zoology at Cambridge before joining the faculty at Harvard. Cassandra is with us today to tell us all about her journey through life and science.

Dr. Christina (Naomi) Tague is an Associate Professor of ecoHydrology in the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She received her Bachelor degree from the University of Waterloo in Systems Design Engineering and her MS and PhD degrees in Geography from the University of Toronto and completed postdoctoral research with the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. Naomi then spent five years as a member of the faculty at San Diego State University before moving to UC Santa Barbara. Naomi is with us today to tell us all about her journey through life and science.

Dr. Yasmin Hurd is Professor of Psychiatry, Neuroscience and Pharmacology and Systems Therapeutics as well as the Ward-Coleman Chair in Translational Neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine in New York. She is also Director of the Center for Addictive Disorders in the Mount Sinai Behavioral Health System. She received her PhD in Medical Science from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and spent time as a Pharmacology Research Associate Fellow with the NIH and Staff Fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health. Afterward, Yasmin returned to the Karolinska Institute where she remained as a faculty member for 13 years before coming to Mount Sinai. She is also a member of the American Society for Neuroscience, New York Academy of Sciences, and the College on Problems of Drug Dependence. Yasmin is with us today to tell us all about her journey through life and science.