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Dr. Samantha Maragh is Leader of the Genome Editing Program and Co-Leader of the Biomarker and Genomic Sciences Group at the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). She also represents the U.S. as a technical expert on nucleic acid measurements for the International Standards Organization (ISO) Technical Committee on Biotechnology (ISO TC 276). Samantha received her B.S. degree in Biology with a specialization in Cellular & Molecular Biology and a minor in chemistry from Loyola University. She went on to get her M.S. degree in Biotechnology: Molecular Targets & Drug Discovery from Johns Hopkins University and her Ph.D. in Human Genetics & Molecular Biology from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. In 2019, Samantha received the Outstanding Young Scientist Award from The State of Maryland, The Maryland Academy of Sciences, and the Maryland Science Center. She was also selected as the recipient of the George A. Uriano Award in 2021 for her success in building the NIST Genome Editing Consortium as a public-private partnership. In 2022 she received the Measurement Science Excellence Award from the NIST Material Measurement Laboratory for leading the development of the first international standard for the field of genome editing published in 2021 and deploying the first inter-laboratory study for the genome editing field. In this interview, she talks more about her life and science.

[Read more…] about 771: Dr. Samantha Maragh: Developing Tools, Terms, and Standards for Genome Editing

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Dr. Erin Conwell is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology and Coordinator for the PhD program in Visual and Cognitive Neuroscience at North Dakota State University. She received her undergraduate degree in Brain and Cognitive Sciences from MIT and her PhD in Cognitive and Linguistic Science from Brown University. Her dissertation research received the Peter W. Jusczyk Award. Afterward, Erin conducted postdoctoral research in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. Erin is with us today to tell us about some of her experiences in life and science.

[Read more…] about 770: Dr. Erin Conwell: Cued in to Environmental Factors Important for Children Learning Languages

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Dr. Carmel Majidi is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. There, he also holds courtesy appointments in the Robotics Institute and in Civil and Environmental Engineering. Carmel received his B.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Cornell University and his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley. He completed postdoctoral fellowships at Princeton University as well as at Harvard University before joining the faculty at Carnegie Mellon. Over the course of his career, Carmel has received numerous awards and honors, including the Young Faculty Awards from the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR). He has also received the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Early Career Faculty Award, as well as the George Tallman Ladd Award and Carnegie Institute of Technology Dean’s Early Career Fellowship from Carnegie Mellon University. In addition, Carmel was named a PopTech Science Fellow in 2013. In our interview Carmel discusses his experiences in life and science.

[Read more…] about 769: Dr. Carmel Majidi: Making New Materials for Soft and Flexible Bio-Inspired Robots

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Dr. Fiona “Boo” Maisels is a Conservation Scientist with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and an Honorary Professor of Biological and Environmental Sciences in the African Forest Ecology Group at the University of Stirling in Scotland. She completed her PhD and postdoctoral fellowship at Edinburgh University and has worked as a conservation scientist since then in the Central African tropical forest region. Boo is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, and she also previously served as an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh and the University of Stirling. In this interview, she shares more about her life and science.

[Read more…] about 768: Dr. Fiona “Boo” Maisels: Studying Interactions Between Animals and Humans to Conserve Species in African Tropical Forests

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Dr. John Aitchison is President and Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research, the largest independent, non-profit organization in the U.S. that is focused solely on infectious disease research. In addition, John serves as an affiliate or adjunct Professor at the University of Washington, the University of British Columbia, the University of Alberta, and the Institute for Systems Biology. John received his B.Sc. degree with Honors in Biochemistry from McMaster University and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from McMaster University as well. He then conducted postdoctoral research in the Laboratory of Cell Biology at The Rockefeller University. Next, John served on the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Alberta. Afterwards, he became a founding member at the Institute for Systems Biology where he later served as Senior Vice President and Executive Director of Integrative Biology. While working at the Institute for Systems Biology, John also began conducting research at the Center for Infectious Disease Research where he still works today. In our interview John shares his experiences in life, leadership, and science.

[Read more…] about 765: Dr. John Aitchison: Applying Systems Biology Approaches to Advance Our Understanding of Infectious Disease

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Dr. Robert S. Langer is the David H. Koch Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Being one of the eight Institute Professors is the highest honor that can be awarded to a faculty member at MIT. He received his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Cornell University and his Sc.D. in chemical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Afterwards, Bob worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Children’s Hospital Boston and at Harvard Medical School. He joined the faculty at MIT in 1978. Since then, Bob has accepted more than 220 major awards and honors, including the U.S. National Medal of Science, the U.S. National Medal of Technology and Innovation (he is one of 3 living individuals to have received both these honors), the Charles Stark Draper Prize (often called the Engineering Nobel Prize), Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, Albany Medical Center Prize, Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, Kyoto Prize, Wolf Prize for Chemistry, Millennium Technology Prize, Priestley Medal (highest award of the American Chemical Society), Gairdner Prize, Hoover Medal, Dreyfus Prize in Chemical Sciences, BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Biomedicine, Balzan Prize, and the Dr. Paul Janssen Award. In 1998, he received the Lemelson-MIT prize, the world’s largest prize for invention for being “one of history’s most prolific inventors in medicine,” and he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2006. He is an elected Fellow of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Sciences, and National Academy of Inventors, and the Royal Academy of Engineering. He has been awarded over 1,000 patents and has received 42 honorary doctorate degrees, including degrees from Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and Northwestern. In our conversation, he shares more about his life and science.

[Read more…] about 764: Dr. Robert Langer: Pioneering Innovative Solutions in Biotechnology, Engineering, and Materials Science to Advance Medicine

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Dr. Marcie O’Malley is the Stanley C. Moore Professor of Mechanical Engineering, as well as a Professor of Computer Science and Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rice University. Marcie is also an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Departments of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Baylor College of Medicine and at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston. In addition, she is Director of the Mechatronics and Haptic Interfaces Lab at Rice University, Director of Rehabilitation Engineering at TIRR-Memorial Hermann Hospital, and co-founder of Houston Medical Robotics, Inc. She received her B.S. in mechanical engineering from Purdue University, and she was awarded her M.S. and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Vanderbilt University. Marcie has received recognition for her teaching and research through receipt of the George R. Brown Award for Superior Teaching at Rice University, an Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award, and an NSF CAREER Award. She has also been named a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Marcie joined us for an interview to talk about some of her experiences in life and science.

[Read more…] about 763: Dr. Marcie O’Malley: Researching Robotic Systems for Rehabilitation of Stroke and Spinal Cord Injury

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Dr. Ryan Martin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at Case Western Reserve University. He received a B.S. in Ecology and Evolution from the University of California, Santa Cruz and was awarded his Ph.D. in Biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Afterward, Ryan conducted postdoctoral research at North Carolina State University and the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis in Knoxville, TN before accepting a faculty position at Case Western where he is today. Ryan is here with us today to tell us all about his journey through life and science.

[Read more…] about 762: Dr. Ryan Martin: Understanding How Natural Selection Drives Diversity, Adaptation, and Design