People Behind The Science Podcast - Stories From Scientists About Science, Life, Research, And Science Careers

Dr. Andrea Califano is the Clyde and Helen Wu Professor of Chemical Systems Biology in the Departments of Systems Biology, Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics, and Biomedical Informatics at Columbia University.  He is Founding Chair of the Department of Systems Biology, Director of the JP Sulzberger Columbia Genome Center, and Associate Director for Bioinformatics of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center. He completed his doctoral studies in physics at the University of Florence in Italy and his postdoctoral studies at MIT. Afterward, Andrea worked at the IBM TJ Watson Research Center, and he subsequently became Program Director of the IBM Computational Biology Center. In 2000, Andrea co-founded First Genetic Trust, Inc and founded another company called Therasys in 2008 before joining the faculty where he is today at Columbia University. Andrea is with us today to tell us all about his journey through life and science.

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

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

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.

Dr. Rob Dunn is an Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at North Carloina State University.  He is also an accomplished author with his books Every Living Thing, The Wild Life of Our Bodies, and recently released The Man Who Touched His Own Heart. In addition, his writings have been featured in BBC Wildlife Magazine, Scientific American, Smithsonian Magazine, National Geographic, and more. Rob received his PhD in Ecology and Evolution from the University of Connecticut and received a Fulbright Fellowship to conduct postdoctoral research at Curtin University in Australia afterwards. He then completed a short postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Tennessee before joining the faculty at North Carolina State University. Rob is here with us today to tell us all about his own experiences in life and science.

Dr. Susan Wessler is a Distinguished Professor of Genetics at the University of California, Riverside. She is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor and the Home Secretary of the National Academy of Sciences. She received her PhD in Biochemistry from Cornell University. Susan then spent time as a postdoctral fellow at the Carnegie Institute of Washington. She served on the faculty at the University of Georgia for over 25 years before moving to UC Riverside. Susan has received many awards and honors over the course of her career. She is a Member of the National Academy of Sciences, a member of the American Philosophical Society, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is also the recipient of the Stephen Hales Prize from the American Society of Plant Biologists the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology Excellence in Science Award, and the McClintock Award from the Maize Genetics. Susan is w

Dr. Tess Russo is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geosciences at The Pennsylvania State University. She received her PhD in Earth and Planetary Sciences from the University of California, Santa Cruz and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Earth Institute at Columbia University. Her fantastic work is already getting a lot of attention. Last year, Tess was featured by the Green Sense Podcast, Scientific American, and she is a guest on an upcoming episode of Startalk Radio with the wise and wonderful Neil Degrasse Tyson. Tess is with us today to tell us all about her journey through life and science.

Dr. Ruth Hufbauer is a Professor of Evolutionary Ecology at Colorado State University in the department of Bioagricultural Sciences and Pest Management. She received her Phd in Entomology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Cornell University and completed postdoctoral research at Cornell before joining the faculty at Colorado State University where she is today. Ruth was the recipient of a Fulbright Research Fellowship and during this time she had the opportunity to work at the National Institute of Agronomic Research in France. Ruth is with us today to tell us all about her journey through life and science.

Dr. Reggie Edgerton is a Professor in the Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Reggie received his Master's degree from the University of Iowa and his PhD in Exercise Physiology from Michigan State University. Reggie's work has been featured by CNN, USA Today, The New York Times, the LA Times, Popular Mechanics, and other media outlets. He has also co-authored two books entitled The Biology of Physical Activity and An Atlas of the Lesser Bushbaby. Reggie is here with us today to tell us all about his journey through life and science.

Dr. Pam Ronald is a Professor in the Department of Plant Pathology and the Genome Center at the University of California, Davis. She is also the Director of the UC Davis Institute for Food and Agricultural Literacy, Director of Grass Genetics at the Joint Bioenergy Institute, and Cofounder of Biology Fortified Incorporated, an educational non-profit organization. Pam received a Master's Degree in Biology from Stanford University as well as a master's Degree in Plant Physiology from the University of Uppsala in Sweden. Her PhD was awarded from UC Berkeley in Molecular and Physiological Plant Biology. Afterward Pam conducted postdoctoral research at Cornell University before joining the faculty at UC Davis. Pam is the recipient of many awards and honors, including the USDA 2008 National Research Initiative Discovery Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Fulbright-Tocqueville Distinguished Chair, the National Association of Science Writers -Science in Society Journalism Award, the Louis Malassis International Scie

Dr. Seth Bordenstein is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and in the Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology at Vanderbilt University. He received his undergraduate, Master's and PhD degrees from the University of Rochester, receiving his PhD in Evolutionary Genetics. Seth then served as a Postdoctoral Fellow of the National Research Council in the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole. He worked as an Assistant Research Scientist and Assistant Scientist there and also served as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Brown University before joining the faculty at Vanderbilt. Among his many honors and awards, Seth has received the Chancellor's Award for Research and awards for Excellence in research as well as Teaching and Mentoring from Vanderbilt. His research was also featured in as a top story of 2013 in Science News. Seth is here with us today to tell us all about his journey through life and science.

Dr. Mariana Wolfner is the Goldwin Smith Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics and a Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow at Cornell University. She received her BA in Genetics and Chemistry from Cornell University, and her PhD in Biochemistry from Stanford University. She did postdoctoral work at UCSD, before joining the Cornell faculty in 1983. Mariana has received many awards and honors during her career. For example, she is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and was a Lady Davis Fellow. She has given numerous named or distinguished lectures, and has also received awards for her teaching and advising of students. In addition to research, teaching, and advising, Mariana is very active in service to her field, serving on many Society Boards, Editorial Boards and organizing many conferences. Mariana is with us today to tell us all about her journey through life and science.

Dr. S. Thomas (Tom) Carmichael is a Neurologist, as well as Professor and Vice Chair for Research in the Neurology Department at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is also a Member of the Brain Research Institute and Co-Director of the UCLA Broad Stem Cell Center. Tom received his MD and PhD from Washington University School of Medicine. He completed a Neurology residency there, followed by a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship at UCLA. He then joined the faculty at UCLA where he remains today. Tom is here with us today to tell us all about his journey through life and science.