Mon, 24 September 2018
Dr. Richard Ivry is Professor of Psychology and Professor of the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at the University of California, Berkeley. His research focuses on what makes certain individuals really good at skilled, coordinated movements. He also seeks to better understand what goes wrong in the nervous systems of people with neurological conditions that affect their ability to make skilled movements. When he’s not at work, Rich loves going hiking with his dogs at a giant canyon near his home in the East Bay area in California. He also enjoys unwinding by hiking and surfing along the coast. Rich received his B.A. in Psychology from Brown University, and he was awarded his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Psychology from the University of Oregon. Afterwards, he conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Oregon and Good Samaritan Hospital before accepting a faculty position at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Rich joined the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley in 1990. Over the course of his career, Rich has received numerous awards and honors, including being named a Fellow of the American Psychological Society as well as the Society of Experimental Psychologists. In addition, he was a recipient of the FIRST Award from the National Institutes of Health, an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, and the Association for Psychological Science Williams James Fellow Award for his lifetime intellectual contributions to the basic science of psychology. In our interview, Rich shares more about his life and science. |
Mon, 17 September 2018
Dr. Eric Kmiec is Director of the Gene Editing Institute of the Helen F. Graham Cancer and Research Institute at Christiana Care Health System. He also holds faculty appointments at the University of Delaware and the Wistar Institute. Eric and his colleagues are working to develop new ways to treat cancer by destroying the genes that cause cancer cells to be resistant to typical therapies like chemotherapy, radiation, or immunotherapy. Throughout his life, Eric has enjoyed sports. He particularly likes playing baseball and hockey, and he still plays baseball competitively in a league in Philadelphia. Eric also spends much of his time doing landscaping and yardwork. He Received his B.A. in Microbiology from Rutgers University, his M.S. in Cell Biology and Biochemistry from Southern Illinois University, and his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry from the University of Florida School of Medicine. He conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Rochester before joining the faculty at the University of California, Davis in 1987. Since then, he has served on the faculty of Thomas Jefferson University, the University of Delaware, and Delaware State University. In addition, Eric founded, consulted for, and served as Vice President of Kimeragen, Inc., he was Chief Scientific Advisor for the Genomics Division of Tapestry Pharmaceuticals, was an Eminent Scholar and Director of the Marshall University Institute for Interdisciplinary Research, and also served as Co-Founder, Chief Scientific Officer, and a Board Member of OrphageniX. Eric has received numerous awards and honors over the course of his career, including receipt of the 2012 Proudford Foundation Unsung Hero Award in Sickle Cell Disease, designation as an Honorary Commander of the 436th Air Wing at Dover Air Force Base in 2013 and 2014, and also induction into the Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville Alumni Hall of Fame in 2012. Further, Eric and the team at the Gene Editing Institute were recently awarded the inaugural Life Sciences and Bio Innovation Award from the Philadelphia-Israeli Chamber of Commerce. In our interview, Eric shared his experiences in life and science. |
Mon, 10 September 2018
466: Researching the Comparative Genomics of Pathological and Beneficial Bacteria - Dr. Rebecca Wattam
Dr. Rebecca Wattam is a Research Associate Professor in the Network Dynamics and Simulation Science Laboratory within the Biocomplexity Institute of Virginia Tech. Rebecca is the outreach and biology lead for a bioinformatics research center that scientists use to share and analyze their data on bacteria and bacterial genomes. She is particularly interested in examining the similarities and differences between groups of bacteria. Rebecca received her B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of New Mexico in Biology. Next, she attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she earned a joint Ph.D. degree in Entomology and Veterinary Science. Rebecca received a MacArthur Fellowship to conduct postdoctoral research at the University of Arizona in Tucson, and she completed a second postdoctoral fellowship there as well before accepting a position on the faculty at Virginia Tech. In our interview, Rebecca speaks more about her experiences in life and science. |
Mon, 3 September 2018
Dr. Deepak Singh is an Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Missouri and Principal Investigator of the Magnetism and Superconductivity Research Laboratory there. Deepak’s research aims to better understand magnetism and superconductivity in new and existing materials. One of the magnetic materials they are studying has a honeycomb lattice structure that gives the material unique properties. Deepak and his lab are working to better understand the fundamental physics and mechanisms that underlie these properties, but also to investigate potential applications of this material. Deepak has a variety of interests outside of science, including playing tennis, traveling, and spending time with his family. In particular, he and his family love exploring National Parks, and the Badlands National Park is his favorite thus far. He received his PhD in condensed matter physics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Afterwards, Deepak conducted postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prior to joining the University of Missouri, Deepak worked for about 4.5 years as a Staff Scientist with a joint appointment at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Maryland, College Park. He has received several research awards at the University of Missouri, including the Research Board Award and the Physics Alumni Faculty Fellow Award. In our interview, Deepak shared some of his experiences in life and science. In our interview, Deepak shared some of his experiences in life and science. |