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

Dr. Robert C. Malenka is the Pritzker Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Director of the Pritzker Laboratory, and Deputy Director of the Stanford Neurosciences Institute at Stanford University. He received his Bachelor's degree from Harvard College and his MD and PhD in Neuroscience from the Stanford University School of Medicine. Rob conducted postdoctoral research at the University of California, San Francisco and completed his residency in Psychiatry at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He served on the Faculty at the University of California, San Francisco for 10 years before joining the faculty at Stanford where he is today. Rob is a recipient of the Medical Research Award in Neuropsychiatry from the Pasarow Foundation, the Julius Axelrod Mentorship Award from the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, and the NARSAD Goldman-Rakic Prize for Outstanding Cognitive Neuroscience Research. In addition, Rob is a Member of the National Academy of Sciences, a Member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology. Rob is here with us today to tell us all about his journey through life and science.

Dr. Jan Westpheling is a Professor of Genetics in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Georgia. She received her B.S. degree in Microbiology from Purdue University. Jan worked as a  Research Technician at Eli Lilly before going back to graduate school to earn her Ph.D. in Genetics from the John Innes Institute. She worked for a year for Biogen in Geneva, conducted postdoctoral research at Harvard University, and served on the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School before joining the faculty at the University of Georgia where she is today. Jan is a two-time recipient of the Creative Research Medal from the University of Georgia, and she served as a Member of the National Research Council Committee on the Development and Acquisition of Medical Countermeasures against Biological Warfare Agents in 2005. Jan is with us today to tell us all about her journey through life and science.

Dr. C. David Remy is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He received his M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, a Diploma in Engineering Cybernetics from the University of Stuttgart, and his Ph.D. from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. David is a recent recipient of a 2015 NSF CAREER Award. He is here with us today to tell us all about his journey through life and science.

Dr. Maureen Murphy is a Professor and Program Leader in the Molecular and Cellular Oncogenesis Program of the Wistar Institute Cancer Center in Philadelphia. She is also the Associate Vice president for Faculty Affairs and Associate Director For Education and Career Development there. Maureen received her B.S. in biochemistry from Rutgers University and a Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. After graduate school, she completed postdoctoral research at Princeton University. Maureen served on the faculty at the Fox Chase Cancer Center before accepting her current position at the Wistar Institute. Maureen is with us today to tell us all about her journey through life and science.

Dr. David Pizarro is an Associate Professor in Psychology at Cornell University and Chief Science Officer at BeWorks which applies scientific thinking to marketing and operational challenges in business. He also hosts the Very Bad Wizards podcast that explores human morality. David received his B.S. From Pacific Union college and his M.S., M.Phil, and Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Yale University. He completed postdoctoral training at the University of California, Irvine before joining the faculty at Cornell University where he is today. David is a Fellow of the American Psychological Society in Behavioral and Brain Sciences and served as the Nannerl Keohane Distinguished Visiting Professor at UNC, Chapel Hill and Duke University last spring. David is here with us today to tell us all about his journey through life and science.

Dr. Wakenda Tyler is an Associate Professor in Orthopaedic Oncology and Metabolic Bone Disease and Adult Reconstruction at the University of Rochester Medical Center. She was awarded her M.D. And M.P.H. from John Hopkins University and completed residency in Orthopaedic Surgery at the Hospital for Special Surgery. Wakenda then completed a fellowship in musculoskeletal oncology at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center before joining the faculty at the University of Rochester where she is today. Wakenda is with us today to tell us all about her journey through life and science.

Dr. Rupal Patel is a Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders as well as the College of Computer and Information Science at Northeastern University. She is also Director of the Communication Analysis and Design Laboratory and a Co-Founder and Core Faculty member of the interdisciplinary doctoral program in Personal Health Informatics there. She received her B.Sc. in Neuropsychology from the University of Calgary and her M.H.Sc. and Ph.D. in Speech Language Pathology from the University of Toronto. Afterwards, Rupal completed postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and served as a faculty member at Columbia University before joining the faculty at Northeastern University where she is today. Rupal is here with us today to tell us all about his journey through life and science.

Dr. Stuart Firestein is a Professor and Chair in the Department Biological Sciences at Columbia University. He received his B.S. Degree in Biology from San Francisco State University and his PhD in Neuroscience from the University of California, Berkeley. Afterward, Stuart completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Yale University. He has received the Lenfest Distinguished Columbia Faculty Award for scholarship and teaching as well as being named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, an Alfred Sloan Fellow, and a Guggenheim Fellow. Stuart is also an advisor for the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's program for the Public Understanding of Science and the author of the book Ignorance: How it Drives Science and the upcoming book Failure: Why Science is So Successful that will be released in October 2015. Stuart is here with us today to tell us all about his journey through life and science.

Dr. Seth Guikema is an Associate professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. He holds joint appointments in the Department of Civil Engineering and the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. In addition, Seth is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Industrial Economics, Risk Management and Planning at the University of Stavanger in Norway and is a Senior Analyst with Innovative Decisions, Inc. Seth received a B.S. from Cornell University and a M.S. from Stanford University both in Civil and Environmental Engineering. He then traveled to the University of Canterbury in New Zealand where he received a M.E. In Civil Engineering. Seth returned to Stanford where he completed his Ph.D. in Management Science and Engineering, followed by a postdoctoral research position at Cornell. He served as a faculty member at Texas A and M University before joining the faculty at Johns Hopkins where he is today. Seth was recently named the Carol Linde Croft Faculty Scholar at Johns Hopkins and was previously awarded a National Science Foundation CAREER Award. He recently completed a term as a member of the Council of the International Society for Risk Analysis and as well as the Council of the INFORMS Decision Analysis Society. Seth is here with us today to tell us all about his journey through life and science.

Dr. Heather Berlin is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Visiting Scholar at the New York Psychoanalytic Society. She received her undergraduate education at the State University of New York, Stonybrook and her Master's degree in Psychology from The New School in New York. Heather was awarded a PhD in Experimental Psychology and Neuropsychology from Magdalen College within the University of Oxford and an MPH from Harvard University. Afterward, she accepted a National Institute of Mental Health postdoctoral fellowship in Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine where she later joined the faculty. Heather has received many awards and honors during her career, including the Clifford Yorke Prize from the International Neuropsychoanalysis Society, the Phillip M. Rennick Award from the International Neuropsychological Society, and Young Investigator Awards from both the American Neuropsychiatric Association and the National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder. Heather is with us today to talk about her journey through life and science.