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

Dr. Woodward Fischer is an Professor of Geobiology at the California Institute of Technology. He received his PhD in Earth and Planetary Sciences from Harvard University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Caltech before joining the faculty there. Woody is here with us today to tell us all about his journey through life and science.

Dr. David Baltrus is an Assistant Professor in The School of Plant Sciences at the University of Arizona. He received his PhD in Ecology and Evolution from the University of Oregon, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dave is here with us today to tell us all about his journey through life and science.

Dr. Murray Blackmore is an Assistant Professor in Biomedical Sciences at Marquette University. He received his undergraduate degree from Stanford University and his PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Minnesota. He then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis at the University of Miami, where he remained for two additional years as a Research Assistant Professor before assuming his current position. Murray is here with us today to tell us all about his journey through life and science.

Dr. Laurence Packer is a Professor of Biology at York University. He received his PhD in Zoology from the University of Toronto. He completed a postoctoral fellowship at the University of Calgary and then joining the faculty at York University. He leads one of the largest wild bee research labs in the world and looks after an impressively large collection of over 300,000 bees. Laurence is here with us today to tell us all about his journey through life and science.

Dr. Christine Floss is a Research Professor in Physics at Washington University in St. Louis. She received her PhD in Geochemistry from the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, and spent five years working as a research scientist at the Max Planck Institute in Heidelberg before joining the faculty at Washington University. Christine is with us today to tell us all about her journey through life and science.

Dr. Richard Hardy is a Professor of Biology and Associate Chair of Teaching at Indiana University, Bloomington. He received his PhD from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Washington University in St. Louis before joining the faculty at Indiana University. Richard has received a number of awards and honors during his career, including the Indiana University Trustees' Teaching Award three times. Richard is here with us today to tell us all about his journey through life and science.

Dr. Neo Martinez is an Associate Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and The University of Arizona and Director and Founder of the Pacific Ecoinformatics and Computational Ecology Lab in Berkeley. He is also an Affiliated Researcher of the Energy and Resources group at the University of California Berkeley. Neo received a Masters degree in Oceanography and Limnology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and his Masters and PhD degrees in Energy and Resources from the University of California, Berkeley. Afterward, he accepted a National Science Foundation and Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship working as Principal Investigator at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory and at the UC Davis Bodega Marine Lab. He was also a faculty member at San Francisco State University before joining the faculty at The University of Arizona. Neo is here with us today to tell us about his journey through life and science.

Dr. Marla Sokolowski is a University Professor in the Departments of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology  as well as Canada Research Chair in Genetics and Behavioral Neurology at the University of Toronto. She is also Academic Director of the University of Toronto Fraser Mustard Institute for Human Development and Co-Director of the Child & Brain Development Programme of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research where she is the Weston Fellow. She received her PhD in Zoology from the University of Toronto and served on the faculty at York University before joining the faculty at the University of Toronto. Marla has received many awards and honors during her career. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and Senior Fellow at Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. She has also received the Genetics Society of Canada’s Award of Excellence, the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Medal, and the Award of Excellence from the International Society of Behavior and Neurogenetics. Marla is with us today to t

Dr. Rob Phillips is the Fred and Nancy Morris Professor of Biophysics and Biology at the California Institute of Technology. He received his PhD in Physics in condensed matter physics from Washington University in St. Louis. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in physics at Sandia Labs in Livermore California and at Cornell University. Rob served on the faculty at Brown University for 7 years before joining the faculty at Caltech. Rob is here with us today to tell us about his journey through life and science.

Dr. Raymond Huey is a Professor of Biology and former chair of the Department of Biology at the University of Washington. He received his Masters degree in Zoology from the University of Texas, Austin and his PhD in Biology from Harvard University. Ray was a Miller Research Felllow at the University of California, Berkeley before joining the faculty at the University of Washington where he has worked for over 35 years. Ray has received numerous awards and honors during his career, including election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and receipt of the President's Award from the American Society of Naturalists. He was also recently selected to give the Cramer Lecture at Dartmouth University, the Sutton Lecture at the University of Oklahoma, and the Inaugural Plenary Lecture of the International Max Planck Research School for Organismal Biology at the University of Konstanz. He was also a guggenheim fellow. Ray is here with us today to tell us all about his journey through life and science.

Dr. Karla Kaun is an Assistant Professor of Neuroscience at Brown University. She received her PhD in Zoology from the University of Toronto and afterward completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco and Howard Hughes Medical Institute – Janelia Farm Research Campus before joining the faculty at Brown. Karla is with us today to tell us all about her journey through life and science.

Dr. Jason Wright is an Assistant Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at The Pennsylvania State University. He received his Masters degree and PhD in Astrophysics from the University of California, Berkeley. Afterward, he served as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of California, Berkeley and then a Research Associate at Cornell University before joining the faculty at Penn State. Jason has received a number of honors and awards during his career, including receipt of the Dean's Climate and Diversity Award from Penn State, being named a Rock Institute Ethics Fellow, and receipt of the NASA Group Achievement Award as part of the SIM Planet Finding Capability Study Team. Jason is here with us today to tell us all about his journey through life and science.

Dr. Jonathan Copley is a Senior Lecturer in Marine Ecology and Director of the Postgraduate Taught Programmes in the Department of Ocean and Earth Sciences at the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom. He is also the Principal Investigator of the Chemosynthetic Environments Research Team and Scientific Associate at the Natural History Museum in London. Jon received his Masters degree and PhD in Oceanography from the University of Southampton. He then worked for the New Scientist magazine before accepting a position as a Science Coordinator at the Natural Environment Research Council Autosub Under Ice research Programme, in addition to a position at the University of Southampton. Jon has received many awards and honors during his career, including a University of Southampton Staff Achievement Award, the British Association for the Advancement of Science Charles Lyell Lecture Award, The University of Southampton Vice-Chancellor's Teaching Award and Award for Postgraduate Training, as well as The Biosc

Dr. Andy Piacsek is an Associate Professor and the Chair of the Physics Department at Central Washington University. He received a B.A. in Physics from Johns Hopkins University, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Acoustics from the Pennsylvania State University. He was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory before joining the faculty at Central Washington University. Andy is here with us today to tell us all about his journey through life and science.

Dr. David Spergel is the Charles A. Young Professor of Astronomy, Professor of Astrophysical Sciences, and Chair of the Department of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University. He is also involved in the Princeton Center for Theoretical Science and the Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe in Tokyo. He completed his undergraduate studies at Princeton University and received his Master's degree and PhD in Astronomy from Harvard University. After two years as a long-term member at the Institute for Advanced Study, he joined the Princeton faculty in 1987. David has received a number of awards and honors during his career, including the Shaw Prize, being named a Science Citation Laureate, a MacArthur Fellowship, a Sloan Fellowship, the Presidential Young Investigator Award, and the Gruber Prize (awarded to the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe team). In addition, he is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as well as the National Academy of Sciences. Time Magazine has l

Dr. Michael Scharf is a Professor and the O. Wayne Rollins/Orkin Endowed Chair in Urban Entomology at Purdue University. He received his Masters Degree in Urban Entomology and his PhD in Insect Toxicology from Purdue University. Afterward, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Nebraska. Mike worked as a Research Associate at Cornell University, a staff member at Purdue University, and a faculty member at the University of Florida and the University of Nebraska before joining the faculty at Purdue. Mike is here with us today to tell us all about his journey through life and science.

Dr. Jeffrey Diamond is a Senior Investigator in the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in the National Institutes of Health. He received his PhD in Bioengineering from the University of California, San Francisco and University of California Berkeley. He then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Vollum Institute before joining NINDS. Jeff has received a number of honors during his career, including the Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering. Jeff is here with us today to tell us all about his journey through life and science.

Dr. Cary Pint is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Vanderbilt University. He received his Masters and his PhD in Applied Physics from Rice University. He completed his postdoctoral training in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley. He worked at Intel Labs in the Extreme Technologies Research Group before joining the faculty at Vanderbilt. Cary has received many awards and honors during his career, including the the American Institute of Chemical Engineers STS section Best Applied Paper Award, the American Vacuum Society Dorothy M. and Earl S. Hoffman Award, Intel Corporation’s “High Five” patent Award, and the Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award. Cary is a Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences and was named one of Forbes Magazine’s “30 under 30” disrupters in the field of science and innovation. Cary is here with us today to tell us about his journey through life and science.

Dr. Michael Hagan is an Associate Professor of Physics and Chair of the Biological Physics Program at Brandeis University. He received his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 2003. After completing a a postdoctoral fellowship in theoretical Chemistry at the University of California Berkeley, he started as an assistant professor at Brandeis in 2007. Mike is here with us today to tell us all about his journey through life and science.

Dr. Iliana Baums is an Associate Professor of Biology at Pennsylvania State University. She received her Masters Degree from the University of Bremen in Germany and her PhD from the University of Miami. Afterward, Iliana completed postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Miami and the University of Hawaii before joining the faculty at Penn State. Iliana is with us today to tell us all about her journey through life and science.