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Dr. Amy Williams is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geological Sciences and Assistant Director of the Astraeus Space Institute at the University of Florida. Amy received her B.S. in Earth & Environmental Science from Furman University, her M.Sc. in Earth and Planetary Sciences from the University of New Mexico, and her Ph.D. in Geology from the University of California, Davis. Afterwards, Amy accepted a position as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. She served on the faculty at Towson University before joining the faculty at the University of Florida in 2018. She has received several NASA group achievement awards for her work with the Curiosity and Perseverance rover teams, and she was awarded the Provost’s Excellence Award for Assistant Professors from the University of Florida. She received the American Geophysical Union’s Award for Advancing Inclusive Excellence in STEM with the GeoSPACE Field Program, and she was a NASA Earth and Space Science Fellow and a Scialog: Signatures of Life in the Universe Fellow. In this interview, Amy shares more about her life and science.

[Read more…] about 874: Dr. Amy Williams: Searching for Signs of Life on Mars and Beyond

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Dr. Simon Sponberg is Dunn Family Professor and Assistant Professor in the School of Physics and the School of Biological Sciences, as well as Adjunct Assistant Professor in Biomedical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). He received his B.A. in physics and biology from Lewis & Clark College and his Ph.D. in Integrative Biology from the University of California, Berkeley. Afterwards, Simon conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Washington before joining the faculty at Georgia Tech. He has been the recipient of an NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biological Informatics, the University of Washington Postdoctoral Mentoring Award, the Young Investigator Award from the International Society for Neuroethology, an NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award, a Klingenstein-Simons Fellowship in the Neurosciences, and a Hertz Fellowship. In our interview, Simon shares more about his life and science.

[Read more…] about 873: Dr. Simon Sponberg: Finding Out How the Brain Controls Movement in Moths During Flight

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Dr. Martha Muñoz is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University. She received her B.A. in biology from Boston University. Afterwards, Martha worked as a Fulbright Research Scholar at the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid, Spain. She was awarded her Ph.D. in Organismic & Evolutionary Biology from Harvard University. Next, Martha conducted postdoctoral research in the Research School of Biology at The Australian National University and subsequently the Department of Biology at Duke University. Prior to accepting her current position at Yale University, Martha served on the faculty in the Department of Biological Sciences at Virginia Tech. Martha has received numerous awards and honors, including the Boston University Department of Biology’s Distinguished Alumni ‘Rising Star’ Award, and a Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Naturalists. She was also named a ‘Scientist to Watch’ by The Scientist Magazine in 2019. In our interview, Martha shares more about her life and science.

[Read more…] about 872: Dr. Martha Muñoz: Uncovering the Mechanisms Underlying Uneven Rates of Evolution Across Organisms

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Dr. Steven Platt is a Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Herpetologist for Southeast Asia. He received his BSc. in Forestry and Wildlife Management from Louisiana State University, his MSc. in Biology from Southeastern Louisiana University, and his PhD in Zoology from Clemson University. Afterwards, Steve worked for WCS from 1996 – 2001. In 2001, Steve transitioned to working in academia. He served on the faculty at Oglala Lakota College in South Dakota for about five years, followed by five years as a faculty member at Sul Ross State University in Texas. In 2011, he accepted his current position and returned to WCS. In this interview, Steve shares more about his life and his work in research and conservation.

[Read more…] about 871: Dr. Steven Platt: Committed to Conserving and Reintroducing Crocodile and Turtle Species

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Dr. Sharlene Santana is Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Washington and Curator of Mammals at the University of Washington’s Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture. She completed her undergraduate training in biology at the University of the Andes in Venezuela, and she was awarded her Ph.D. in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Afterwards, Sharlene conducted postdoctoral research at the Institute for Society and Genetics at the University of California, Los Angeles. She joined the faculty at the University of Washington in 2012. In our interview, Sharlene shares more about her life and research.

[Read more…] about 870: Dr. Sharlene Santana: Determining the Drivers of Diversity in Bats and Other Mammals

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Dr. Ashok K. Shetty is a University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Cell Biology and Genetics and Associate Director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Texas A&M University, Naresh Vashisht College of Medicine. Ash earned his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, and he completed postdoctoral research at Montana State University and Duke University. Afterward, he joined the faculty at Duke University in the Division of Neurosurgery. He joined the faculty at Texas A&M University College of Medicine in 2011. In 2024, he was honored with the University Distinguished Professor Award from Texas A&M University, and he has also received the College of Medicine’s Senior Research Excellence Award. In addition, Ash is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Society for Neural Transplantation and Repair. He has received the Research Career Scientist Award from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, has been recognized among the “World’s Top 1% of Scientists” across all scientific fields, and he was the 2025 honoree of Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas. In this interview, Ash shares details about his life and his work in science.

[Read more…] about 869: Dr. Ashok Shetty: Developing Extracellular Vesicle Treatments to Address Brain Aging and Inflammation

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Dr. Ayse Turak is Associate Professor and Associate Undergraduate Chair of the Department of Engineering Physics at McMaster University. Ayse received her B.Sc. in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering from Queens’s University and her PhD from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Toronto, where she was a Canada Graduate Scholar. Afterwards, Ayse conducted research as a Marie Curie Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research and subsequently worked as a visiting professor at Sabanci University in Istanbul, Turkey before joining the faculty at McMaster University. Ayse has received numerous awards and honors throughout her career, including the Early Researcher Award, the Petro-Canada Young Innovators Award, and a Leadership in Teaching and Learning Fellowship from McMaster University. In addition, she was recently nominated as a Full member at Sigma Xi, and she is the co-chair of the Canadian Chapter of the Society of Information Display. In our interview, Ayse shares more about her life and research.

[Read more…] about 868: Dr. Ayse Turak: Engineering Affordable Organic Electronics to Power and Light the World

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Dr. Sydney Glassman is an Associate Professor in the Department of Microbiology & Plant Pathology at the University of California, Riverside. She completed her B.A. in Biology with a Concentration in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Pennsylvania. Next Sydney received a Master’s of Environmental Studies degree in Environmental Biology from the University of Pennsylvania working with Professor Brenda Casper. She was awarded her PhD in Environmental Science, Policy, & Management from the University of California, Berkeley working with Professor Tom Bruns. Afterwards, she conducted postdoctoral research at UC Irvine working with Professor Jennifer Martiny in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology before joining the faculty at UC Riverside in 2018. In this interview, Sydney shares more about her life and science.

[Read more…] about 867: Dr. Sydney Glassman: Examining How Fungi and Soil Microbes Drive Ecosystem Recovery After Wildfires

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Dr. Edwin “Ted” Bergin is Professor and Chair of Astronomy at the University of Michigan. He completed his undergraduate training in Astronomy at Villanova University, and he was awarded his PhD in Astronomy from the University of Massachusetts. Before joining the faculty at the University of Michigan, Ted worked as an astronomer/astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Ted has been awarded the University of Michigan Henry Russel Award for his exceptional scholarship and teaching. This is the highest award given to Assistant Professors. Ted joins us to talk about his experiences in life and science.

[Read more…] about 866: Dr. Ted Bergin: Astrochemist Studying the Elements of Planet and Star Formation

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Dr. Cori Richards-Zawacki is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and Director of the Pymatuning Lab of Ecology at the University of Pittsburgh. Cori received her Bachelor’s degree in engineering and biology as well as her PhD in ecology and evolutionary biology both from the University of Michigan. She conducted postdoctoral research at the Smithsonian Institute and the University of California, Berkeley. Cori next served on the faculty at Tulane University prior to joining the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh in 2015. In our interview, Cori shares more about her life and science.

[Read more…] about 865: Dr. Cori Richards-Zawacki: Investigating How Frogs are Impacted by Climate Change, Fungal Disease, and Selection Pressures