From where does it STEM?

Per the National Human Genome Research Institute, Dr. Christopher Donohue is a historian at the NHGRI at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He co-manages the History of Genomics Program.  The History of Genomics Program is a unique history and science communications effort at the NIH that uses the history and present manifestations of eugenics, scientific racism, ableism, heteronormativity and their complex connections to contemporary genomics and medicine to facilitate meaningful and difficult conversations that promote equity and confront past and present wrongs. 

NHGRI Eugenics & Scientific Racism Fact Sheet: https://www.genome.gov/about-genomics/fact-sheets/Eugenics-and-Scientific-Racism

NHGRI Eugenics: Its Origin and Development (1883-Present) Fact Sheet:

https://www.genome.gov/about-genomics/educational-resources/timelines/eugenics

Dr. Chrystal Starbird is an Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who is passionate about DEI in STEM and mentoring the next generation of diverse scientists. We had an insightful conversation ranging from actionable things institutions can do to better support historically underrepresented students to how she bumps "Everyday I'm Hustlin'" by Rick Ross when she's in celebration mode! Enjoy!

To learn more about her research, check out her site! (https://starbirdlab.com/)

Happy #TidyTuesday! Excited to share an awesome conversation with Hadley Wickham (@hadleywickham), Chief Scientist @rstudio! We tried to stay away from #ggplot2 and the #tidyverse and wanted to focus on his journey and life. Enjoy! #RStats 

Angeline Dukes is a PhD candidate and neuroscientist at the University of California, Irvine. She is a proud alumnus of Fisk University and the Founder and President of Black in Neuro! We had great conversations about being a mentor and overcoming imposter syndrome. This fall, she will also be starting at the University of Minnesota School of Medicine as an Assistant Professor!

It was an honor and privilege to interview Dr. Francis Collins M.D., Ph.D. He was appointed the 16th Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by President Barack Obama and continued to serve under Presidents Trump and Biden. Dr. Collins is the only Presidentially appointed NIH Director to serve more than one administration. 

Dr. Collins is a physician-geneticist noted for his landmark discoveries of disease genes (cystic fibrosis) and his leadership of the international Human Genome Project which was completed in 2003. He served as director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at NIH from 1993-2008.

Dr. Collins is an elected member of both the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007, and received the National Medal of Science in 2009. In 2020, he was elected as a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (UK) and was also named the 50th winner of the Templeton Prize, which celebrates scientific and spiritual curiosity.

Christopher Emdin, Ph.D., is the Robert A. Naslund Endowed Chair in Curriculum Theory and Professor of Education at the University of Southern California; where he also serves as Director of youth engagement and community partnerships at the USC Race and Equity Center. He previously served as Director of the Science Education program at Teachers College, Columbia University and alumni fellow at the Hip-hop archive and Hutchins Center at Harvard University. The creator of the #HipHopEd social media movement and Science Genius B.A.T.T.L.E.S., Emdin was named the 2015 Multicultural Educator of the Year by the National Association of Multicultural Educators and has been honored as a STEM Access Champion of Change by the White House. In addition to teaching, he serves as a Minorities in Energy Ambassador for the US Department of Energy. 

Check out his new book, STEM, STEAM, Make, Dream, where he explores the ways that science, technology, engineering, and mathematics can transform young people’s lives through learning. This includes reimagining our collective relationship to STEM by presenting it as more accepting and accessible than previously acknowledged!

Yeraldi Loera graduated from Occidental College as a Biology major in the Fall of 2016. After graduating, she attended California State Polytechnic University in Pomona for a Master’s in Biology. Since receiving her Master’s in 2019, she has started a PhD program in the department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University in the lab of Dr. Shane Campbell-Staton. She emphasizes her gratitude to do what she loves and is outspoken on connecting with others about their obstacles and journeys. She is the daughter of a single mother Mexican immigrant who grew up in an underprivileged household and town in Los Angeles with limited educational resources. She recognizes her time at Occidental College as a pivotal point in her journey where she was able to explore science and find her interests. She attributes the bulk of her success to the awesome mentors she has had throughout her time at Oxy and beyond. These mentors have helped her defy obstacles impeding her path, leading her to grow as a scientist and as a person. Mentoring is now a primary goal for her as she studies to become a PI at an institution like Oxy where she can conduct her research while introducing and immersing students into the wonders of scientific research. She has been the first student in both of her graduate labs, finding the challenges of starting a lab both instructional and as a creative outlet to foster a welcoming lab culture. She is working on her scientific communication skills to reach more students feeling unease throughout their academic journey. She is open to conversations on these topics via email ([email protected]).

Yeraldi Loera graduated from Occidental College as a Biology major in the Fall of 2016. After graduating, she attended California State Polytechnic University in Pomona for a Master’s in Biology. There, she studied ecotoxicology and created a meta-analysis on the effects of ionizing radiation on mutation rates. She also initiated a study using genomic analyses of barn swallows sampled from the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear site. Since receiving her Master’s in 2019, she has started a PhD program in the department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UCLA. Recently, her lab has moved across the country to Princeton University. Her thesis focuses on signatures of contemporary evolution in American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) exposed to endocrine disrupting pesticides. She uses genomic, transcriptomic, and physiological data to build upon her story of possible resistance in contaminated populations. She spent the last summer in South Carolina hatching and studying ~300 baby alligators before returning them to the wild for long-term survival assays.

She emphasizes her gratitude to do what she loves and is outspoken on connecting with others about their obstacles and journeys. She is the daughter of a single mother Mexican immigrant who grew up in an underprivileged household and town in Los Angeles with limited educational resources. She recognizes Oxy as a pivotal point in her journey where she was able to explore science and find her interests. She attributes the bulk of her success to the awesome mentors she has had throughout her time at Oxy and beyond. These mentors have helped her defy obstacles impeding her path, leading her to grow as a scientist and as a person. Mentoring is now a primary goal for her as she studies to become a PI at an institution like Oxy where she can conduct her research while introducing and immersing students into the wonders of scientific research. She has been the first student in both of her graduate labs, finding the challenges of starting a lab both instructional and as a creative outlet to foster a welcoming lab culture. She is working on her scientific communication skills to reach more students feeling unease throughout their academic journey. She is open to conversations on these topics via email ([email protected]). Enjoy!

On this episode, I got the chance to sit down and chat about social justice in science with Dr. Sabah Ul-Hasan, a bioinformatician and postdoc at The Scripps Research Institute in San Diego under Dr. Andrew Su. They are currently working on the NIH-funded Wikidata biocuration project. Enjoy!

Awesome chatting with STEM Twitter celebrity George Iskander, a Physics PhD student at the University of Chicago! I also want to announce that I’ll be bringing in co-hosts to bring in unique perspectives and questions! First one is the wonderful SaraJoy Salib of Occidental College! Enjoy!

Special shout-out to Ethan Lin, a Valencia High School (Santa Clarita, CA) graduate and current undergraduate at the Rochester Institute of Technology, for producing the music used in this episode! The Global Prep Academy product will be majoring in Electrical, Electronic and Communications Engineering and hopefully will continue making music!