People Behind the Science Podcast

By Dr. Marie McNeelyScience

People Behind the Science Podcast episodes

September 04, 2023 724: Dr. Ellen Arruda: Heading Up Research Designing New Materials for Helmets to Prevent Brain Injury
Dr. Ellen Arruda is the Maria Comninou Collegiate Professor of Mechanical Engineering with joint appointments as Professor of Biomedical Engineering, as well as Macromolecular Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan. She received her B.S. with Honors in Engineering Science and her M.S. in Engineering Mechanics from Pennsylvania State University. Ellen was awarded her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She joined the faculty at the University of Michigan afterwards in 1992. Ellen has received numerous awards and honors for her outstanding research, teaching, and service, including the Ann Arbor Spark Best of Boot Camp award, the Excellence in Research Award from the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine, the Ted Kennedy Family Team Excellence Award from the University of Michigan College of Engineering, the Research Excellence Award from the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan, the Cadell Memorial Award, the Outstanding Engineering Alumnus Award from the Pennsylvania State University, the Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award from the University of Michigan, and the Trudy Huebner Service Excellence Award from the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan. Ellen is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Academy of Mechanics, and the Society of Engineering Science. She was also named a Centennial Fellow of the Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics at Pennsylvania State University. She was also recently named a Member of the National Academy of Engineering. Ellen joined us for an interview to discuss her experiences in her career, her life, and her engineering research.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (3:06)
Ellen’s hobbies include running, cooking, and knitting. Running is one of her favorite ways to get exercise and generate great ideas for her work. She is a skilled sweater knitter who learned how to crochet from her mother and picked up knitting from her mother-in-law.
The Scientific Side (4:47)
Ellen studies the mechanical behavior of soft materials, including polymers, plastics, and soft tissues of the body. Her research group focuses on understanding how to design with soft materials so the materials don’t break in different applications, as well as how to design replacements for soft tissues in our bodies when they are damaged.
A Dose of Motivation (7:14)
“You must do the things you think you cannot do.” -Eleanor Roosevelt
“Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.” – Henry Ford
What Got You Hooked on Science? (10:06)
Though she knew she wanted to go to college, Ellen wasn’t sure what she wanted to study once she got there. Her older sister was majoring in engineering, so she was aware that it was an option, but Ellen didn’t know much about what engineers did. As Ellen paged through the big blue book of all the majors at her university, the Engineering Science major caught her eye. With this major, she was exposed to a mixture of engineering disciplines which gave her a chance to figure out what she was most interested in. Ellen also had her first forays in conducting research, and she loved it. Once she realized she could have a career doing the research she liked, her decision was made.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (19:24)
Ellen received the dreaded rejection letter the first time she submitted an NSF CAREER Award proposal. She took responsibility for the instances where the reviewers didn’t understand the importance of her work because she didn’t write it as clearly and concisely as she could have. In the reviewer feedback, it was also stated that she didn’t know much about engineering education principles. She saw the truth in this critique and quickly worked to remedy it. Her former PhD advisor gave her advice and a helpful book on engineering education. Armed with this new knowledge, Ellen modified her proposal, and the next submission was successful.
A Shining Success! (23:12)
For the past few years, Ellen’s research group has been working on designing a sports helmet that will do a better job of preventing or reducing brain injury than current helmets. This research project was selected as a finalist in a national competition called the Head Health Challenge. This was a big victory because it was the first time Ellen felt that their mechanics approach to the problem really resonated with people. She was able to help them understand that the research they were doing was important, and they could make a difference. The funding included with the award has allowed them to pursue the idea and the possibility of making a prototype of a new, safer helmet that may help many athletes.
Book Recommendations (26:47)
Watership Down by Richard Adams
Most Treasured Travel (28:27)
While she doesn’t have a favorite travel destination, Ellen loves going on adventures to new places, experiencing different cultures, and sampling cuisine from other places. She recently visited Hong Kong for the first time to attend a research conference. The conference was great, and she was able to use the break hours in the middle of the day to go on a boat tour, explore the city, and enjoy some phenomenal dim sum.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (30:31)
While at Penn State for her undergraduate and master’s degrees, Ellen had a wonderful experience working in a research lab. They had a tradition of playing little tricks on their advisor, including replacing his standard white lab coat with a brightly colored tie dyed lab coat and programming his new computer to shout “yabba dabba doo!” in the voice of Fred Flintstone every time it was turned on. She maintains this sense of humor and camaraderie in her lab today. Ellen’s research group enjoys getting together for meetings, but they also meet up for excursions like bumper car basketball outside of work.
Advice For Us All (36:36)
It is important to recognize that engineering requires people with interests and capabilities that are much broader than what most people are told in high school. It’s not just about being good at math or physics because the field of engineering also needs people who think creatively, are collaborative, are enthusiastic about solving problems, and are passionate about making an impact. Even if no one has told you that you would make a great engineer, a career in engineering might be the perfect fit for you. It is important to find what you are passionate about and do what you love.
Guest Bio
Ellen teaches and conducts research in theoretical and experimental mechanics of macromolecular materials, including polymers, elastomers, composites, nanocomposites, soft tissues, and proteins. Her research also includes projects focused on tissue engineering of soft tissues (such as muscles, ligaments, and tendons) and their interfaces. Ellen is internationally recognized for her research in polymer and tissue mechanical behavior and application of these materials in commercial products. Research in Ellen’s lab includes the experimental characterization, and analytical and computational modeling of soft materials, including native and engineered tissues. Different projects examine models of soft tissue growth, remodeling and functional adaptation in soft tissue, soft tissue biomechanics, deformation mechanisms in polymers, crystal transformation mechanisms in semi-crystalline polymers, nanoscale design and manufacturing of nanocomposites, design of blast and impact resistant materials and structures, and experimental and analytical investigations of high strain rate response of polymers and polymer composites including crashworthiness in automotive applications.

*This episode was originally released on November 6, 2017.
The post 724: Dr. Ellen Arruda: Heading Up Research Designing New Materials for Helmets to Prevent Brain Injury appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
40 min
August 28, 2023 723: Dr. John Kress: Analyzing Complex Networks of Plant-Animal Interactions
Dr. John Kress is a Distinguished Scientist and Curator of Botany at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. John received his B.A. in biology from Harvard University and his Ph.D. in botany from Duke University. John formerly served as the Interim Undersecretary for Science for the Smithsonian Institution, Executive Director of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation, and Director of the Consortium for Understanding and Sustaining a Biodiverse Planet, which is one of the four grand challenges of the Smithsonian Institution’s strategic plan. He is also Chairman of the Board of the Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS) and an Affiliate Faculty member at George Mason University. He has previously served as an Adjunct Professor at George Washington University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Among John’s awards and honors are receipt of the Parker-Gentry Award for Biodiversity and Conservation from the Field Museum of Natural History, the Lifetime Achievement Award from Heliconia Society International, and the Edward O. Wilson Biodiversity Technology Pioneer Award for Co-Development of Leafsnap – the First Mobile App for Plant Identification. John is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and an honorary Fellow of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation. In this interview, he discusses his experiences in life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (3:19)
Not only does John enjoy investigating the natural world at work, he also enjoys spending his free time outside exploring nature. John often goes on walks or hikes with his wife and dog to see nature in action. In addition, John is an avid gardener. Among the plants he cultivates in his own yard are some of the ginger and banana plants that he studies.
The Scientific Side (4:38)
John’s research involves exploring the natural world and all the organisms that make up the natural world. Since graduate school, he has been exploring different areas, particularly tropical areas, to determine what grows there now, what grew there in the past, and how the plants and animals there interact.
A Dose of Motivation (5:20)
“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”
What Got You Hooked on Science? (8:11)
John began acting in high school and was convinced this was what he wanted to do for his career. When John enrolled in college, he aspired to become a dramatic actor. Once in college though, John quickly realized the theater was not for him. He was attracted to biology and botany because the subject matter was more tangible and there was so much to learn. At Harvard, John crossed paths with influential mentors in biology who inspired him, and he continued along the academic path to his position today.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (15:05)
Developing colleagues in a new country is a big challenge, and John has done a lot of international field work to study plants in different regions. The country of Myanmar had been isolated from Western scientists for so long that it was difficult to find research partners and get permission to conduct research there. He spent days and weeks in the capital city of Yangon (formerly Rangoon) trying to connect with the right people to make his research possible. John and his colleagues nearly gave up because it took long, and they didn’t seem to be making progress. They were eventually successful, but they had to spend a lot of time up front getting to know people, talking to people, learning about their experiences, and building trust.
A Shining Success! (18:51)
The Smithsonian Institution usually maintains a neutral stance on controversial issues. However, as a scientific and knowledge-based institution, John thought it was really important that they make a bold statement about climate change. After conversations with the Secretary of the Institution and other key stakeholders, John was able to convince them of the importance of such a statement. He helped gather pieces of evidence from scientists from various fields, and the Smithsonian’s statement on climate change was effectively published.
Book Recommendations (23:18)
Living in the Anthropocene: Earth in the Age of Humans edited by John Kress and Jeffrey Stine, The Wild Places by Robert Macfarlane, Natural History of Trees by Donald Peattie
Most Treasured Travel (26:28)
John’s favorite places include the Amazon rainforest and the Andes Mountains in South America. He has enjoyed traveling up the Amazon and Rio Negro Rivers for hours, completely enveloped by lush forests. John has also spent weeks exploring the Andes, particularly in Columbia. During these trips, he has discovered new species of plants, visited small villages, met wonderful people, and studied fascinating plants.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (28:54)
A number of years ago, John was working at a field station with a taxonomist who collected poisonous snakes to study. One night, John heard that the taxonomist was planning to search for snakes with a group of students, and John couldn’t resist playing a little prank. Before dinner, John snuck out and hid a six foot long inflatable snake in the bushes along the main trail. The prank snake was found and had its intended effect.
Advice For Us All (34:51)
Get to know nature and biodiversity while you can. Never take it for granted that the species and habitats present today will be there tomorrow. The life on Earth is what makes our planet unique, so it is important to see and understand the living things that surround us. There are many problems plaguing the world today, but it is not hopeless. We can still fix some of the major problems of the planet if we act quickly.
Guest Bio
John studies the biology, reproduction, evolution, genetic diversity, and conservation of tropical and temperate plants, including heliconia and other Zingiberales (a type of flowering plant including gingers and bananas). In addition to his research with the Smithsonian, John is the author of multiple popular science books including Plant Conservation – A Natural History Approach, The Weeping Goldsmith – Discoveries in the Secret Land of Myanmar, The Ornaments of Life – Coevolution and Conservation in the Tropics, DNA Barcodes – Methods and Protocols, and, most recently, Editor of the book Living in the Anthropocene – Earth in the Age of Humans.

*This episode was originally released on October 30, 2017.
The post 723: Dr. John Kress: Analyzing Complex Networks of Plant-Animal Interactions appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
39 min
August 21, 2023 722: Dr. Young-Hui Chang: Taking Critical Steps to Elucidate Mechanisms of Limb Movement in Locomotion
Dr. Young-Hui Chang is a Professor of Biological Sciences at Georgia Institute of Technology where he directs research in the Comparative Neuromechanics Laboratory. Young-Hui received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and his M.S. in Animal Physiology from Cornell University. Next, he conducted his doctoral studies at the University of California, Berkeley, earning his PhD in Integrative Biology in 2000. Prior to joining the faculty at Georgia Tech, Young-Hui was a postdoctoral researcher at Emory University. While at Emory, he was awarded the Association of Korean Neuroscientists President Outstanding Research Hanwha Award. Young-Hui has also been awarded an NSF CAREER Award. In this interview, he discusses his experiences in life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (2:27)
Young-Hui likes to spend his free time with his family. He, his wife, and his two boys enjoy exploring the outdoors, hiking, and camping together. Though Young-Hui was not always a particularly outdoorsy person, enrolling his sons in the Scouts program has provided an avenue for him and his family to learn more and get outside.
The Scientific Side (3:38)
Research in Young-Hui’s lab aims to examine how the control of movement by the nervous system is influenced by mechanics and physics during locomotion. He is interested in broad mechanisms for behaviors like walking, running, and hopping that apply within and across species.
A Dose of Motivation (5:43)
“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t – you’re right.” – Henry Ford
What Got You Hooked on Science? (9:29)
Growing up in a suburban neighborhood, Young-Hui adored watching wildlife programs on TV with his dad, but he didn’t have a lot of first-hand experience with the natural world. From a very young age, there was an expectation from his family that Young-Hui would attend medical school. His interests as he left high school centered around English, math, and science. Young-Hui began college in the pre-med track, majoring in engineering, but he wasn’t passionate about going to medical school. During his senior year, a lecture on biomechanics from a faculty member in one of his courses piqued Young-Hui’s interest in research. After spending some time working in this faculty member’s lab studying how vampire bats jump and how gibbons swing through trees, Young-Hui was hooked.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (17:01)
During his postdoctoral fellowship, Young-Hui had collected substantial data on locomotion in cats. He tried for years to make sense of the data. As an untenured assistant professor, high productivity was critical. Young-Hui was frustrated that he wasn’t getting anywhere looking at the data on joint movements in cats. When he stepped back and started thinking more wholistically about the functional goal of the limb movements, rather than the individual joints, everything fell into place. He discovered there were some overall limb positioning patterns that generalized across all cats and later found that these patterns also occurred in other species. This suggested that locomotion is controlled more at the level of the limb, with more variability at the joint and muscle levels.
A Shining Success! (21:28)
Young-Hui and one of his colleagues have been working on and off on an unfunded side project examining how flamingos stand on one leg. They both primarily do biomedical research, but whenever they had time, they would make progress on this flamingo project. After years of work, they discovered that flamingos stand on one leg without much muscular effort, and they are very stable standing on one leg. The paper was recently published, and it was a big win for Young-Hui as well as a big win for curiosity-driven research.
Book Recommendations (27:38)
Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! By Richard P. Feynman
Most Treasured Travel (29:07)
One of the most memorable travel experiences Young-Hui had was when he was a graduate student at UC, Berkeley. He went with his advisor to a small town in Southern California called Paris. There is an amazing elephant training facility there, and the research team spent a week studying how a baby elephant walks and moves. Young-Hui helped set up their equipment in the dirt paddock and was responsible for running the computer to collect the data. The elephant did a great job running back and forth through their data collection area, and Young-Hui was eager to take a peek at the data when they took a short break. He was horrified when he realized that there was an issue, and they had failed to collect any data during this first session. They were able to fix the problem and get things back on track, but they lost a lot of good data.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (32:16)
Young-Hui’s advisor at Cornell worked in the anatomy department and was able to secure many fantastic specimens of deceased exotic animals for the students there to study. One day, he brought in a five foot long 300-pound hammerhead shark. Along with some of his fellow graduate students, Young-Hui carefully packed up the shark specimen and brought it to a local gorge for a photo. They had fishing tackle and posed like they just caught the shark in the shallow fresh-water gorge there. Young-Hui brought the framed photo to a local brew pub, and it decorated the wall there for years.
Advice For Us All (38:10)
When you are looking at a problem or a dataset, the simplest explanation is probably right. Also, when you are facing a difficult problem or looking for inspiration, go outside of your own field. Some issues that seem insurmountable within your field may have already been addressed or approached differently by people in completely different fields.
Guest Bio
Young-Hui’s research focuses on trying to understand how animals move through and interact with their environment. He integrates approaches and techniques from biomechanics and neurophysiology to elucidate both passive mechanical and active neural mechanisms that control limbed locomotion in humans and other terrestrial vertebrates. This multidisciplinary approach allows him to test hypotheses about the basic design and function of the locomotor apparatus throughout a variety of conditions. His current goal is to understand the extent to which muscular reflexes can influence limb coordination during locomotion and how global limb control strategies may be affected by sensorimotor perturbations.

*This episode was originally released on June 12, 2017.
The post 722: Dr. Young-Hui Chang: Taking Critical Steps to Elucidate Mechanisms of Limb Movement in Locomotion appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
42 min
August 14, 2023 721: Dr. Sonia Mayoral: Unraveling Mysteries Surrounding the Development and Function of Glial Cells
Dr. Sonia Mayoral is the Robert J. and Nancy D. Carney Assistant Professor of Brain Science at Brown University. She received her bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from San Jose State University and her PhD in neuroscience from Stanford University. Afterwards, she conducted postdoctoral research at the University of California, San Francisco. She joined the faculty at Brown University in 2021. In this interview, she shares more about her life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (2:26)
Sonia loves spending as much time outside of work as possible with her four-year-old son. Lately, they’ve been enjoying playing Plants vs. Zombies on the iPad and also acting the game out around the house.
The Scientific Side (3:35)
In the lab, Sonia studies glial cells, the cells in your brain that aren’t neurons. These cells perform a lot of different functions and could hold promise for developing therapies for neurologic diseases.
A Dose of Motivation (4:18)
“If it’s not hard, it’s not worth doing.”
What Got You Hooked on Science? (7:44)
Growing up, Sonia never really considered a career in science. Her parents were immigrants from Mexico, and they had very little formal education. When she started college, she wasn’t sure what to do for a career. While she loved art, she knew that her brother was a better artist, and she didn’t want to compete with him. Sonia wanted to find her own thing and pursue a career that would make her parents happy and proud. She knew she didn’t want to be a lawyer or an engineer, so she thought she could pursue medicine. She enjoyed a biology course she took in high school, and she decided to sign up to take the pre-med classes in college. One of her chemistry professors suggested that she get involved with research and mentioned that there was a program for underrepresented students in the sciences that would pay Sonia to do research. Sonia didn’t exactly know what she was getting into, but she signed up. She decided to inquire about a position in a genetics lab and was fortunate to have chosen a lab with an outstanding and supportive professor who introduced her to the field of neuroscience. She became increasingly curious about how a brain is built and found her way eventually in later years to studying glial cells.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (16:07)
Doing science can feel like a struggle every day. However, the challenges are part of what makes Sonia want to keep doing it. It is always interesting, and she is constantly striving to get better. Also, she recognizes that there aren’t very many Mexican American and Latinx scientists, and she is passionate about changing this. Sonia has struggled with wondering if there is a place for her in science and finding a feeling of belonging. She wants to make science a career where everyone feels welcome, and having a supportive environment can make a big difference. Being from a marginalized background, Sonia also feels a connection with the under-represented and often under-appreciated glial cells that she studies.
A Shining Success! (20:10)
After launching her independent research lab, it has been difficult to get projects going, run experiments, analyze the data, and have something to show for all of her effort. Over the past two years, Sonia has been training people and setting up systems, and it seems like everything that could go wrong did. However, she was recently able to present her lab’s work at an international conference for glia researchers. At first, Sonia was disappointed because she didn’t get as much done as she was hoping to for the presentation. Shifting her perspective though, it was really exciting to have some research from her new lab to share with colleagues. They had done some solid experiments, and they had some good data and images thanks to the hard work of multiple people in the lab.
Book Recommendations (24:22)
Community as Rebellion A Syllabus for Surviving Academia as a Woman of Color by Lorgia García Peña
Most Treasured Travel (27:26)
When Sonia was a graduate student, she had an opportunity to go to a conference in Hawai’i, and her hotel expenses were reimbursed. This was a fantastic opportunity to invite her family to travel with her and enjoy a trip to a place they may have otherwise never gone. They were crowded in a small room, but exploring Hawai’i was amazing. It was Sonia’s first time there, and it was wonderful to explore the beaches with her family after the conference events. The annual Spam Jam Festival also happened to be scheduled during their trip, and there was a parade and local restaurants had a bunch of different spam dishes. Sonia’s family still talks about this trip years later.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (30:18)
The lab Sonia worked in as a postdoc had the quirky tradition of going to group fitness classes together. This was a major topic of conversation in the group, and she had never been in better shape. It was fun to be challenging both their minds and their bodies, and there was a lot of friendly competition.
Advice For Us All (35:08)
Do what scares you. It’s normal to be afraid of things, especially failure. To conquer that fear, you have to go for it. Don’t let your fears or doubts hold you back from accomplishing your goals and following your dreams. Keep pursuing them, and you’ll get there.
Guest Bio
Sonia is a cellular neuroscientist who is passionate about understanding how the different cells that make up our brains guide and support one another. She’s especially interested in myelinating glia, also known as oligodendrocytes in the CNS. Her research focuses on the signals that guide oligodendrocyte and myelin development, as well as the impacts that myelin has on neuron function. She balances her work in the lab with helping to raise a toddler at home with her husband. She loves dancing at weddings and breakfast sandwiches.

Support for this episode of People Behind the Science was provided by Innovative Research, Inc.
The post 721: Dr. Sonia Mayoral: Unraveling Mysteries Surrounding the Development and Function of Glial Cells appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
40 min
August 07, 2023 720: Dr. Steve Ramirez: Stimulating Research on the Mechanisms of Memory and Applications of Memory Modulation
Dr. Steve Ramirez is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Boston University. He attended Boston University for his undergraduate studies in neuroscience, was awarded his PhD in Brain and Cognitive Sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, served as a Visiting Lecturer of Neuroscience at Tufts University while a graduate student, and spent two years at the Center for Brain Science at Harvard University as a Junior Fellow of the Society of Fellows before returning to Boston University as a faculty member. Steve has received many awards and honors thus far in his career, including an NIH Early Independence Award, a NARSAD Young Investigator Award, the Gordon Research Conference Travel Award, the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology Travel Award, Smithsonian Magazine’s American Ingenuity Award in the Natural Sciences, the Walle Nauta Award for Continuing Dedication to Teaching at MIT, and the Angus MacDonald Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching at MIT. Steve has also been named among Forbes Magazine’s 30 Innovators Under the Age of 30 in the area of Science and Technology, a National Geographic Breakthrough Explorer, one of Science News’s Top 10 Bright Young Minds, Pacific Standard Magazine’s Top 30 Thinkers Under the Age of 30, and the MIT Technology Review World’s Top 35 Innovators Under the Age of 35 Award. He has also given two TED talks. In this interview, Steve talks more about his experiences in life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (3:02)
Steve was born and raised in the Boston area, so accepting a faculty position at Boston University meant reuniting with his family, friends, and beloved New England Patriots. He spends his down time watching Netflix with friends and hanging out with his family. Steve appreciates all that his parents have endured and the positive influence they have had on his life, and he has brunch with them every Sunday and chats with them twice each day on the phone.
The Scientific Side (5:31)
In his research, Steve is studying learning and memory, and he is interested in discovering whether it is possible to artificially turn memories on and off. His research focuses on understanding the brain and what we can do when processes in the brain break down. They are working on turning on positive or negative memories in animal models to gain a better understanding of how the brain and memory work. In addition, they use animal models of conditions like depression, anxiety, and PTSD to study whether artificially manipulating memories may alleviate some of the symptoms of these conditions.
A Dose of Motivation (8:08)
-“Become the change you want to see in the world.” – Mahatma Ghandi
-“Just put your head down, ignore the noise, trust your team, and throw the ball, and that’s how you end up winning championships.”
– “Start the dance, and everyone else around you is going to start dancing.”
– “I believe in hard work and good luck, and that a lot of the former leads to a lot of the latter.” – J.K. Rowling
What Got You Hooked on Science? (9:50)
Throughout his school years, Steve wasn’t an exceptional student, but he had a wide variety of interests. He enjoyed literature, music, philosophy, religion, science, physics, and astronomy. It was difficult for him to chose a major in college and a direction for his career. Sophomore year, Steve volunteered to work in a research lab because he wanted to see what it was like to do science. One fateful day, a piece of machinery broke in the lab, and Steve had to visit another lab to use the equipment there. When he arrived with sample in hand, Steve was stunned to see the girl he had a crush on at the time. They chatted about their interests and career plans, and she recommended that Steve talk to a faculty member who later became the Director of Undergraduate Neuroscience at Boston University. This Professor encouraged Steve to pursue neuroscience since, after all, the brain is the most interdisciplinary organ. By studying the brain, Steve could indirectly better understand many of the things in which he was interested.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (30:36)
For one of his past experiments, Steve had to train their model organisms to go to a lick spout that delivered sugar water. Normally, animals really like sugar water, and this is a pretty basic behavioral task. No matter what Steve tried, the animals wouldn’t do the task. It was insanely frustrating because every day he would put the animals in and try all sorts of different things to get them to go to the sugar water spout. Nothing worked. Weeks turned into months. Around nine months into the project, Steve finally consulted colleagues for help. The very next day, he was able to get it to work. A very different challenge that Steve has experienced as a faculty member is related people’s perception of his lab group. Steve has a very paternal view of his role in the lab, and he was really excited and proud to go to the annual Society for Neuroscience conference with his lab for the first time. This is a huge conference with over 35,000 attendees each year. He felt like he had really made it as he hosted their lab dinner, attended socials with the group, played foosball with his lab members, and enjoyed the events of the conference. One of his friends alerted him to an inappropriate off-the-cuff comment that a colleague had made about Steve and his lab. Steve was offended by the comment and what it insinuated. Rather than add fuel to the gossip fire, Steve encouraged his group to ignore the noise, do the best science they could, and let the quality of their work speak for itself.
A Shining Success! (39:25)
In his first year of graduate school, Steve worked on a project with a close friend and colleague named Xu. Xu had developed all of the tools they needed, and they were working on applying the tools to turn on a memory in a rodent. The goal was to re-activate brain cells in a particular region of a part of the brain called the hippocampus that is involved in memory. They thought that if these cells were re-activated, they could initiate a chain reaction to recall a memory. In four out of the five animals that underwent surgery, it didn’t work. When they looked closer at the one animal where memory activation appeared to work, they discovered that they had made a mistake during surgery and accidentally targeted a group of cells in a different region of the hippocampus. When they aimed for this new area of the hippocampus in the next group, nearly all of the animals showed evidence of artificially recalling a memory when the targeted cells were stimulated. They had been looking for the right thing in the wrong place, and they accidentally found it. This mistake in their experiment launched Steve’s career.
Book Recommendations (43:01)
Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence has Declined by Steven Pinker
Most Treasured Travel (45:53)
Many of Steve’s papers and grants were written at a ski lodge in Maine or in Cape Cod. The writing has been hard work, but changing the scenery and stepping outside of the lab really helps him write. For example, the grant for the Early Independence Award Steve received from the National Institutes of Health was mostly written in Cape Cod. In terms of more exotic destinations, Steve traveled to Grenada in the Caribbean this past February to attend a conference on learning and memory. The beaches were beautiful, and escaping the Boston winter to soak up the sun was magnificent, but Steve’s most memorable experience of the trip involved watching the Super Bowl in a bar with a stranger. The New England Patriots played an intense game with an astounding come-from-behind victory, and Steve and his recent acquaintance (who also happened to be a big Patriots fan from Massachusetts) shared the whole emotional roller coaster ride together. In the end, the two of them were jumping up and down in the bar in celebration. On the way back from the bar, Steve unexpectedly witnessed the grandeur of Mars and Venus vividly illuminating the night sky.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (50:15)
Going out to happy hour together has become a tradition in Steve’s lab. When they’re out together, the group talks about lab projects as well as their interests and lives outside of science. They also have a pretty serious foosball competition in the lab. Steve is generally not a competitive person, except for when he’s playing foosball or ping pong. At a recent conference, he played a heated game of ping pong with the Director of the National Institutes of Mental Health. The game began innocently enough as they chatted and got caught up, but by the end, they were both attacking the ball with fierce determination to win.
Advice For Us All (1:00:59)
Find something more important than you are, and dedicate yourself to it. If there is something you might be interested in doing, get your hands dirty and try it firsthand. Also, ask other people for advice, and remember that it’s okay if mistakes happen because they could lead you somewhere great. It can be difficult to have conversations with people who disagree with you on a topic, but it is important to have these conversations and make them constructive dialogues. When you do, you should never dismiss or alienate the person. If your goal is to change someone’s mind, you need to meet them halfway, and then rope them in, little by little, ideally without them even realizing it.
Guest Bio
Steve began researching learning and memory as an undergraduate at Boston University, and he went on to complete his PhD at MIT working on projects involving artificially modulating memories in the rodent brain. Current work in Steve’s lab focuses on understanding the neural circuit mechanisms of memory storage and retrieval, and leveraging memory manipulations to alleviate symptoms associated with psychiatric diseases, such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). To answer understand how memory works and can be modified, they use a wide variety of multi-disciplinary approaches, including virus engineering strategies, immunohistochemistry, physiology, optogenetics, functional imaging of targeted populations in vivo, and behavioral assays. When he’s not in the lab, Steve is enjoying a round and cheering on all sports teams in Boston.

*This episode was originally released on September 25, 2017.
The post 720: Dr. Steve Ramirez: Stimulating Research on the Mechanisms of Memory and Applications of Memory Modulation appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
1 hr 9 min
July 31, 2023 719: Dr. Abby Smith: Studying the Sea through Shells, Skeletons, and Sediments
Dr. Abby Smith is an Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Marine Science at the University of Otago. She Received her B.A. Degree in Geology and Biology from Colby College, her M.S. Degree in Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and her PhD in Earth Science from the University of Waikato. Abby joined us in this interview to share stories from her life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science
Abby is a mother of two, and she keeps busy with family life and taking care of her kids. In her free time, she likes to watch cricket, knit, and cook. In particular, Abby has been experimenting lately with making different fruit jams and preserves.
The Scientific Side
In the lab, Abby is dedicated to studying shells and the animals that make shells. She is interested in how shells are made, what they are made out of, and how fast they grow. Abby also examines how shells break down over time and uses old shells to understand what the water was like in the past.
A Dose of Motivation
“If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn’t be called research.” by Albert Einstein
What Got You Hooked on Science?
Abby grew up in Boston and spent her summers on the coast of Maine. As she learned more about the animals and plants on the beaches, Abby began leading her own guided tours to share her knowledge with guests. After high school, Abby worked at the New England Aquarium, and she enjoyed telling visitors stories about the sea life there. This fascination with ocean life has stayed with Abby throughout her career.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges
The workload of an academic scientist is a challenge. It seems like there is constantly more and more to do, and expectations are constantly on the rise. This was particularly challenging when Abby was raising her children, and she knew that female graduate students in the program were looking to her as a role model. There were times where she just had to accept that sometimes things weren’t going to be perfect.
A Shining Success!
Abby has worked in her department for over 20 years, and it was really wonderful when her colleagues in the department unanimously selected her as their department leader. It was great to know that they respected her and her work. In particular, Abby was pleased to know that the dean wanted to appoint her to the position because she had excellent work/life balance.
Book Recommendations
Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers, The Little Women Letters by Gabrielle Donnelly
Most Treasured Travel
One place that Abby will never forget is Sicily. She traveled there for a meeting of the International Bryozoology Association and was delighted to enjoy the phenomenal food and sunshine with her colleagues. Her sisters also visited her the week before the conference, and they enjoyed sampling the fresh foods of Sicily together as they explored the city.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories
When Abby went on sabbatical to a friend’s laboratory in the United States, she was surprised to discover how different their work styles were. In New Zealand, they are very particular about tea breaks. Every day part-way through the morning and part-way through the afternoon, everyone at Abby’s University stops for a short tea break in the tea room. These are scheduled breaks in their contracts, and it was a stark change not to have them while she was away.
Advice For Us All
If you plan ahead and stay organized, you can get an enormous amount done, even more than you may think you are capable of. There is no reason to work nights and weekends if you are really organized.
Guest Bio
Abby Smith is a marine geo-bio-chemist; she studies shells. At work she is also the Director of the Ocean Acidification Research Theme at Otago University, and Head of the Marine Science Department. After hours, she is married and a mother of two boys, a keen cricket fan, knitter, baker, and singer.

*This episode was originally published on June 12, 2015.
The post 719: Dr. Abby Smith: Studying the Sea through Shells, Skeletons, and Sediments appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
40 min
July 24, 2023 718: Dr. Antoine van Oijen: Making Molecular Movies of Complex Chemical Reactions in Live Cells
Dr. Antoine van Oijen is a Distinguished Professor and Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow in the School of Chemistry at the University of Wollongong in Australia. Antoine received his MSc and PhD in Physics from Leiden University in the Netherlands, where his graduate work was recognized with the C.J. Kok prize for best doctoral thesis. Afterwards, he conducted postdoctoral research in Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University. Antoine served on the faculty at Harvard Medical School and Groningen University in the Netherlands before his recent move to the University of Wollongong where he is today. Antoine has received a wide array of honors and awards for his research, including the Armenise-Harvard Junior Faculty Award, a Searle Scholarship, a NSF CAREER Award, a Vici Award from the Dutch Science Foundation, the Dutch Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Award for the most promising young scientist, and the prestigious Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship. In this episode, Antoine talks about his research and tells us about his journey through life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (2:42)
Antoine and his family enjoy spending much of their free time exploring the beautiful beach and hiking in the wonderful parks nearby.
The Scientific Side (4:15)
The work Antoine does combines physics, chemistry, and biology. He develops new types of microscopes to visualize complex biochemical reactions at the level of individual molecules. In particular, his group is interested in how DNA is copied before a cell divides. Antoine is also doing research examining how bacteria acquire antibiotic resistance.
A Dose of Motivation (5:52)
Do what you love, and love what you do.
What Got You Hooked on Science? (6:57)
In high school, Antoine had a fantastic physics teacher who really got him excited about physics. He majored in physics in college, but wasn’t convinced he wanted to be a scientist until he got experience working in a lab. Doing experiments and thinking of ways to solve problems at an experimental level sold Antoine on a career in science. His interest in the biology of DNA replication came later while sitting in a freshman molecular biology course during his postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (18:08)
The first two years of Antoine’s postdoctoral fellowship were really difficult. He couldn’t get anything to work, and he started to doubt his decision to pursue academic science. Antoine sent out 50-70 applications for industry jobs and didn’t get a single positive response. Though disheartening at the time, this turned out to be a good thing. Around that time, his projects in the lab started to work, and his motivation and enthusiasm for science returned.
A Shining Success! (21:15)
Recently, Antoine had a paper accepted that described a fantastic series of experiments done by a postdoctoral fellow in his lab. It took them more than 2 years of battling reviewers, performing additional experiments, and revising the the paper to get it published, so this was an exciting victory.
Book Recommendations (23:21)
For the Love of Enzymes by Arthur Kornberg, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Most Treasured Travel (25:59)
Antoine’s first trip to Japan occurred during the end of his time as a postdoc, and his wife was able to accompany him. From the moment he stepped off the plane, he was attracted to the sense that the country was different from many of the other places he had been, both physically and culturally. The food was phenomenal, and Antoine particularly remembered visiting an old palace with a large, creaky wooden floor that served to alert the occupants of intruders.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (29:09)
In his lab in the Netherlands, whenever someone graduated with their PhD, the lab would make a short movie to commemorate the event. Different people in the lab would dress up and play the role of the new graduate, complete with quirks and funny memories from their time in the lab. Also, Antoine has enjoyed learning about the unexpected hobbies and interests of the people in his group over the years. In terms of his own interests, Antoine got his pilot’s license a few years ago and has fun flying whenever he can.
Advice For Us All (38:08)
Focus on what you think are the important questions, rather than other people’s expectations of what you should be working on. Try to identify something in life that you get really excited about, and pursue that thing with all your heart and effort.
Guest Bio
After receiving his PhD in Physics from Leiden University (the Netherlands) in 2001, Antoine van Oijen was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University’s Chemistry department. In 2004, he started his own group at Harvard Medical School, followed by a move back to the Netherlands in 2010 as a full professor at Groningen University. In 2015, he moved to the University of Wollongong, Australia, as an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow. Trained as a physicist, Antoine develops new microscopes to visualize individual protein molecules and how they behave inside living cells. In particular, he is interested in understanding how cells duplicate their genome before cell division and how they repair their DNA upon damage. Using novel single-molecule fluorescence imaging and mechanical manipulation techniques, his work has allowed the first direct visualization of the dynamics of individual replisomes, the large multi-protein machines that replicate DNA. He also works on the visualization of the proteins responsible for introducing resistance mutations in bacterial cells when they are exposed to antibiotics.

*This episode was originally released on November 14, 2016.
The post 718: Dr. Antoine van Oijen: Making Molecular Movies of Complex Chemical Reactions in Live Cells appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
42 min
July 17, 2023 717: Dr. Hongkui Zeng: Developing Tools and Resources to Accelerate Neuroscience Discovery
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Dr. Hongkui Zeng is Executive Vice President and Director of the Allen Institute for Brain Science. She received her B.S. degree in biochemistry from Wuhan University and her PhD in molecular and cell biology from Brandeis University. Next, she conducted postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Hongkui then worked for several years at Omeros Corporation before joining the Allen Institute in 2006. Hongkui has received numerous awards for her work, including the National Academy of Sciences’ Pradel Research Award, Gill Transformative Investigator Award from Indiana University, the NIH BRAIN Initiative Cell Census Network Award, and the Award for Scientific Advancement from the Association for Women in Science. She is also an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences. In this interview, Hongkui shares more about her life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (2:48)
Living in the beautiful city of Seattle, Hongkui enjoys getting outside and exploring nature. This includes kayaking and hiking in the nearby mountains. When she’s at home, Hongkui likes to relax with a good book, listen to music, and indulge in watching shows and movies.
The Scientific Side (4:49)
The Allen Institute is dedicated to understanding how the brain is organized and how the different components of the brain work together to generate behaviors and functions. Hongkui and her colleagues examine the cellular basis of brain circuit formation and how those circuits produce function. They generate foundational tools and resources for the neuroscience community to help scientists around the world advance their research on neurological disease, potential treatments, and more.
A Dose of Motivation (6:28)
Hongkui is driven by curiosity and problem-solving. She views the brain as a big mystery, and she enjoys working to explore the unknown. In addition, doing something meaningful for the community is important to Hongkui, and her work has already been beneficial to many people.
What Got You Hooked on Science? (10:53)
When she was young, Hongkui excelled at science and math. This, combined with her curiosity, independent thinking, and love of problem-solving, made pursuing science a natural fit. In college, Hongkui started thinking more seriously about her career path and the kind of work she wanted to pursue. She decided to move to the United States to attend graduate school, and she had a great experience working with phenomenal mentors during her academic training.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (15:53)
A major challenge that is relatively unique to the Allen Institute is related to scaling up the new methodologies that they adopt. When they are working with new methods, one person may get it to work well, but then another person is unable to replicate the results with the same procedure. With each new methodology they use, they’ve had to figure out how to make the process standardized enough so that multiple people are able to learn the process and produce data of similarly high quality. This takes a lot of troubleshooting and quality control. As a leader at the Allen Institute, Hongkui is also responsible for the difficult tasks of coordination and communication across the different teams of people she manages. This is critical for making sure people are working together, following a set process, and establishing reliable pipelines that will constantly, consistently generate high-quality data.
A Shining Success! (19:52)
Almost ten years ago Hongkui and her team completed a groundbreaking effort developing the first comprehensive connectivity atlas for the mouse brain. This was a major success, but it wasn’t particularly well-appreciated at the time. The project was Hongkui’s first pipeline project at the Allen Institute in which she played a leading role. Hongkui and her small team of 2-3 people started the project in 2009, and it took several years to complete. Ultimately, they published a paper in the prestigious journal Nature, but their work was initially criticized as not being novel or innovative enough. However, this atlas really was exceptional in terms of the comprehensiveness of the project, the fact that the data were made freely available in an easy-to-use online platform, and the development of an algorithm that allowed them to co-register thousands of individual brains together into a single coordinate framework to computationally compare pathways in the same spatial framework. Over the years, the atlas has become more popular and is now commonly used by others in the field. Colleagues have since told Hongkui that the project was really ahead of its time, and it has been rewarding to see the work finally being recognized.
Book Recommendations (3:28)
Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty by Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo
Most Treasured Travel (28:07)
Hongkui has enjoyed traveling to many countries around the world for scientific conferences. The foundational work Hongkui does at the Allen institute has the potential to accelerate research in a wide variety of areas of neuroscience. As a result, she isn’t a regular attendee of any particular conference each year, but instead she goes to an assortment of conferences spanning different neurological diseases and functional systems (sensory, motor, emotion, cognition). Hongkui has learned so much from the people she has met at these conferences. Two years ago, she attended a memorable meeting in Puerto Rico where she gave a plenary lecture on their cell atlas work. This was a clinical conference, and the attendees were interested in different psychiatric disorders. It was refreshing to interact with clinicians and clinical researchers and to think about how her foundational knowledge could be applied to help advance their clinical work. The meeting was fantastic, and it was wonderful to take some time to stroll down the beaches in sunny Puerto Rico in December!
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (32:20)
Scientists at the Allen Institute often go out and have fun together. Whether they are meeting up at a local bar to socialize, competing for the best costume at the annual Halloween party, or enjoying tea and cookies at their usual Thursday afternoon tea time, they find ways to weave in time for conversations and festivities. When Hongkui worked in Michael Rosbach’s lab at Brandeis, everyday life in the lab was infused with humor. Dr. Rosbach had a notebook where he would collect jokes, and he always included a joke at the beginning of his presentations. This became a tradition in the lab, and there was some serious pressure to find good jokes to include in any lab presentation. They also incorporated humor into the Secret Santa gift exchange at their annual Christmas parties, and everyone would get each other funny gifts.
Advice For Us All (37:50)
Important tasks and unimportant tasks both take time and effort. Choose wisely how you will spend your time and effort. Don’t focus on unimportant tasks thinking that they will somehow be easier. You should figure out what is the most important thing to you and focus your energy and effort on doing that one thing. Also, be humble. For leaders in particular, it is important to be open about your limitations and vulnerabilities. Doing this can help others realize that they also have the potential to realize their goals and dreams.
Guest Bio
Since joining the Allen Institute in 2006, Hongkui has led several efforts to develop and operate high-throughput pipelines to generate large-scale, open-access datasets and tools to accelerate neuroscience discovery. Her current research interests are in understanding neuronal diversity and connectivity in the mouse brain-wide circuits and how different cell types work together to process and transform information. Through her leadership of multiple scientific teams at the Allen Institute for Brain Science, she has built several research programs using transcriptomic, connectomic and multimodal approaches to characterize and classify the wide variety of cell types that constitute the mammalian brain, laying the foundation for unraveling the cell type basis of brain function. Her work has led to widely adopted community resources and standards, including transgenic mouse lines, Allen Mouse Brain Connectivity Atlas, the Common Coordinate Framework (CCF), and the brain-wide transcriptomic cell type taxonomy and atlas. In her free time, Hongkui enjoys watching movies and shows, reading, kayaking, and hiking.

Support for this episode of People Behind the Science was provided by Innovative Research, Inc.
The post 717: Dr. Hongkui Zeng: Developing Tools and Resources to Accelerate Neuroscience Discovery appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
43 min
July 10, 2023 716: Dr. Dominic D’Agostino: Metabolic-Based Therapies As a Key Component in Treating Cancer and Other Diseases
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Dr. Dominic D’Agostino is an Associate Professor in the Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology at the University of South Florida. He is also a Research Scientist Institute for Human and Machine Cognition. Dom received his B.S. in Nutritional Sciences and Biological Sciences as well as his Ph.D. in Neuroscience and Physiology at Rutgers University. Afterwards, Dom conducted postdoctoral research at Wright State University and at the University of South Florida before joining the faculty at the University of South Florida. In this episode, Dom talks more about his research and tell us about his experiences in life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (1:58)
Dom and his wife enjoy outdoor activities like going to the beach, hiking, kayaking, mountain biking, and horseback riding. They also do quite a bit of scuba diving together for his wife’s marine biology research on manta rays. Data collection has taken them to Indonesia, Fiji, Palau, Hawaii, and many other phenomenal dive sites.
The Scientific Side (4:33)
Dom’s lab develops technology that allows them to investigate the molecular, cellular, and physiological changes we experience in extreme environments, including those that would occur undersea, at high altitude, or in space. They are also designing and evaluating metabolic-based therapies as treatments for cancer and other diseases.
A Dose of Motivation (9:12)
“To avoid criticism say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.” by Elbert Hubbard
What Got You Hooked on Science? (24:21)
In high school, Dom wasn’t a particularly good student, but his academic advisor challenged him to take an honors biology course in his senior year. Dom had an existing interest in fitness, nutrition, and understanding the human body as they related to improving his performance in football. As he progressed through the course, Dom became completely engrossed in biology. His interest in physiology and medicine continued to grow in college. Though Dom first got involved in research to fill his CV with activities that would help him get into medical school, he discovered that a career in research was a great fit for his personality and career goals.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (29:20)
Certain types of research are considered lower priority for funding by government agencies like the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Unfortunately for Dom, nutrition research is not commonly funded by the NIH. Traditionally, tenure track faculty members in a medical school apply for funding from the NIH, and it is important to secure NIH grants to be successful. Dom failed repeatedly in his applications to the NIH, but he discovered that other organizations including the Department of Defense, the Office of Navy Research, and NASA were more open to funding his research. Dom also faced challenges as a graduate student conducting electrophysiology experiments. The technique he used is very difficult on the types of cells and neurons he was studying. It took him two years to get his first usable data, and there were dozens of times he considered giving up. Throughout Dom’s research career, his resourcefulness and persistence have paid off.
A Shining Success! (35:20)
The successes Dom finds most rewarding are the achievements of his trainees in the lab. Dom has an amazing group of people working with him. Recently, one of his undergraduate students received an American Physiology Society summer fellowship, as well as two additional awards. She collected fantastic data for this project, and having such excellent students has contributed substantially to Dom’s success in being productive, being competitive for grants, and being awarded tenure.
Book Recommendations (37:53)
Tripping Over the Truth: The Metabolic Theory of Cancer by Travis Christofferson, Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday, A Man on the Moon: They Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts by Andrew Chaikin.
Most Treasured Travel (39:48)
During his PhD program, Dom’s advisor asked him to travel to New Zealand to present their work. At the time, Dom had never been outside of the U.S., and it was a truly surreal experience. He engaged audiences in the cities of Auckland, Christchurch, and Rotorua. This was a fantastic opportunity for him to share his science and connect with other scientists in the field. Dom enjoyed the beautiful landscapes of New Zealand and was able to participate in different tours with his scientific colleagues as well.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (42:08)
One postdoc Dom worked with previously knew about his serious fear of spiders and intense startle reflex. They did some of their work in basement labs where there was no shortage of spiders. The postdoc would collect the spiders and put them in places where Dom was likely to encounter them. This prankster spirit permeates other groups Dom has worked with as well. Recently, one of Dom’s colleagues installed a historic train whistle into the hypobaric chamber so that when the chamber was pressurized, he could release some of the pressure using the whistle. It was incredibly loud and made them all jump. It has been fun to work with people who don’t take themselves too seriously and can make you laugh.
Advice For Us All (50:40)
You may begin a project with a specific hypothesis, but it is important to remain open and adaptable to what your data and the findings of others may show. As scientists, it is our job to seek the truth and let no kind of bias prevent us from this mission. Seek mentors who are flexible in their thinking and have integrity. Find people who have achieved what you want to achieve, and figure out how they got to that point.
Guest Bio
The primary focus of Dom’s laboratory is developing and testing metabolic-based therapies, including ketogenic diets, ketone esters, ketone supplements and metabolic-based drugs. Their research also explores the use of these metabolic therapies for a broad range of disorders linked pathophysiologically to metabolic dysregulation, including seizures, neurological disorders, wound healing, muscle wasting and cancer. Dom’s laboratory uses in vivo and in vitro techniques to understand the physiological, cellular and molecular mechanism of metabolic therapies. This research is supported by the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the Department of Defense (DoD), private organizations, and foundations. With a wide range of research interests, Dom holds membership in the Aerospace Medical Association, Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine Society, Society of Neuroscience, and the American Physiological Society. He also serves on the Editorial Board for the Journal of Applied Physiology. In addition, Dom teaches students of the Morsani College of Medicine and the Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology, with a focus on such topics as neuropharmacology, medical biochemistry, cell metabolism, and signaling. Beyond his scientific pursuits, Dom has volunteered his time, energy, and resources to a variety of worthy causes in the United States and abroad, helping children and families in underserved communities. A member of Tampa International Mission Empowerment (T.I.M.E.), Dom frequently travels with this group on humanitarian missions to Mexico and Honduras, where he and his colleagues provide essential services to orphanages and other organizations in need. In addition, Dom serves as a Big Brother/mentor for Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America, volunteers at the Humane Society of Tampa Bay, and helps various nonprofit organizations.
The post 716: Dr. Dominic D’Agostino: Metabolic-Based Therapies As a Key Component in Treating Cancer and Other Diseases appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
56 min
July 03, 2023 715: Dr. Molly Peeples: An Astrophysicist Studying the Elements of Galaxy Evolution
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Dr. Molly Peeples is an Aura Assistant Astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. She received her B.S. in Physics from MIT and went on to complete her MS and PhD in Astronomy at Ohio State University. Molly was then awarded a Southern California Center for Galaxy Evolution Fellowship during which she worked at UCLA. In 2013, Molly joined the Space Telescope Science Institute as a postdoctoral fellow, and a year later she became a member of the staff and continues to do amazing research there. Molly joined us for an interview to tell us more about her life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (2:01)
There are a lot of great parks around Baltimore, so Molly likes getting outside to go hiking in her free time. She also enjoys cooking, reading, trying new cocktails, exploring new bars in town, and playing board games with friends.
The Scientific Side (3:46)
Molly’s research is improving our understanding of galaxies and helping to reveal why galaxies are different from each other and how galaxies have changed over time. To do this, she traces the origins and fates of heavy elements that were all originally produced within stars. Examining where the elements end up gives us information on how gas flows into and out of galaxies. Molly also does modeling and runs simulations to better understand what is going on in the universe.
A Dose of Motivation (6:37)
“Go big or go home.”
What Got You Hooked on Science? (9:06)
Molly started off really interested in math. During high school, she did a few science fair projects, and through these, Molly discovered she was interested in pursuing a career in scientific research. She preferred the physical sciences to biology, but she wasn’t sure what field to pursue. In college, a combination of being paired with an unsupportive particle physics advisor, working with a really helpful relativity professor, and the release of exciting results from a NASA space probe (WMAP1) prompted Molly to chose astrophysics as her field of study.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (21:58)
Towards the end of her postdoctoral appointment at UCLA, Molly started applying for jobs and had a really tough time. She was shortlisted for a few jobs but didn’t get any offers. With time running short and a limited support network in LA, Molly wasn’t sure what to do next. Luckily, one of her contacts at the Space Telescope Science Institute was able to secure enough funds to pay her for a year. This was a big relief, but it also meant she had to start applying for jobs again right away. It worked out in the end, but having a plan B would have been a good idea. Another ongoing challenge Molly faces is balancing efforts on her own research with her work supporting other telescopes and projects. The latter may have more pressing deadlines, pressure from people knocking on her door asking for things, and more open-ended tasks, but it is important for her to make sure she dedicates enough time to her research.
A Shining Success! (26:06)
Molly spent most of the summer co-authoring a long review article, and there was a time crunch at the last minute to get it submitted by the deadline. Looking back, she was pleased with how it turned out since it was a nice article, had superb graphics and figures, and going through the literature allowed them to gain a more holistic perspective on the field. They spent a few months working really hard on the paper, and it felt good to get it done. As a bonus, she’s looking forward to getting a cool mug from the journal when the paper is published.
Book Recommendations (31:13)
The Three Body Problem Trilogy by Liu Cixin
Most Treasured Travel (33:07)
There was a conference in a remote area in Tuscany that Molly attended with about 60 other scientists working on astrochemistry. The conference events were held in a building that used to be a monastery, and the attendees stayed in nearby farmhouses. Each day, they had a gorgeous scenic walk overlooking the Tuscan countryside on their way to the conference, and the food and wine were phenomenal. On the final night of the conference, there was a walking buffet with a wide variety of amazing food items and wines to sample.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (37:02)
The people Molly works with are wonderful. Even after pushing really hard for a deadline and exchanging hundreds of emails with these people, she still gets excited to send them texts with pictures of her celebratory drinks. They have a developed a habit now of texting each other pictures of martinis after finishing proposals or papers.
Advice For Us All (42:48)
Work with the people who you want to work with and who you enjoy spending time with. You’ll enjoy your science and your career much more if you do.
Guest Bio
Molly mainly works on topics in galaxy evolution, using the heavy elements as tracer particles of the flows of gas into, within, and out of galaxies. She is particularly interested in the interplay between galaxies and the intergalactic and circumgalactic media, with a focus on how star formation and stellar deaths affect galaxies and their surroundings. Molly uses different theoretical models (empirical, semi-empirical, analytic, semi-analytic, hydrodynamic simulations, etc.) to both extract from the data as much information as possible and to get at the underlying physical processes giving rise to the observations. As part of her duties at the Space Telescope Science Institute, Molly is on the Hubble’s Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) team. The STIS acts like a large prism to separate light from the cosmos into its component colors. With this “wavelength fingerprint”, she can determine the chemical composition, temperature, density, and motion of an object they are observing. She is also one of the creators of the Hubble Spectroscopic Legacy Archive. In addition, Molly is a member of NASA’s WFIRST team which aims to answer important questions about dark energy, exoplanets, and infrared astrophysics. She is a co-chair of the WFIRST Wide Field Imager Simulations Working Group.

*This episode was originally published on January 9, 2017.
The post 715: Dr. Molly Peeples: An Astrophysicist Studying the Elements of Galaxy Evolution appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
46 min

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