People Behind the Science Podcast

By Dr. Marie McNeelyScience

People Behind the Science Podcast episodes

September 27, 2021 624: Dr. James Pipas: Making Valuable Contributions to the Proliferation of Exciting Discoveries in Virology
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Dr. James Pipas is the Herbert W. and Grace Boyer Chair in Molecular Biology and Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. He received his PhD in Molecular Biophysics from Florida State University and completed his postdoctoral training at Baylor College and the John Hopkins School of Medicine. Jim has been a faculty member in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh now for over 30 years. Jim joined us for an interview to tell us more about his life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science
Outside of science, Jim’s passions include entertaining and exploring. He composes music, sings, and produces shows with his brother all over the world. The other activity that brings him great joy is immersing himself in nature in remote forests and mountains.
The Scientific Side
Jim’s lab studies how viruses work, how they interact with us, and where they come from. They also use viruses as tools to understand how our own biology works. For example, they study viruses that cause cancer.
A Dose of Motivation
Spend as much time as you can with highly motivated individuals.
What Got You Hooked on Science?
During his childhood, Jim was definitely a science enthusiast. He remembers the lab in his basement where he performed chemistry experiments and occasionally kept snakes and frogs (to his mother’s horror). Jim’s curiosity was supported by his family, and his grandmother was always happy to bring him books on the subjects he wanted to learn more about.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges
Right now they are struggling with how to study very rare viral events. In particular, they are examining a type of virus that is responsible for much of the world’s food-borne illnesses. These viruses are challenging to study because they are constantly mutating and changing. They initially struggled to find the one virus sequence of interest amongst all of the sequences in their samples, but may have found a method that will provide the solution.
A Shining Success!
For viruses that cause cancer, much of the emphasis is on the genetic mutations that lead to generation of tumors. However, Jim’s lab was able to show with a particular viral protein that it’s not just the genetics, but also where the virus is acting that matters. Specifically, viral infection of certain types of cells causes tumorigenesis, but the same infection of other cell types does not.
Book Recommendations
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Most Treasured Travel
Jim’s favorite trip occurred in 1989 and was dubbed “Around the World for Science and Music”. During a sabbatical, Jim and his brother went on a four and a half month trip around the world through Finland, Estonia, the Soviet Union, China, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, and more! He was giving lectures, his brother was doing concerts, and they worked together on some performances as well. He was particularly impressed by the fascinating biology, beauty, and remoteness of Siberia.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories
In one of the lab groups Jim worked in, the students and postdocs would go out together and try to do something none of them were good at. This included white water canoeing and kayaking trips, as well as playing tricks on each other.
Advice For Us All
Stay low and bend your knees – this way you’ll always be prepared for anything that you might encounter. Also, in life you should define your dreams, create a plan to achieve your dreams, perform frequent reality checks, have fun, and go for it!
Guest Bio
Jim’s research focuses on various aspects of virology. They utilize SV40 as a model system for understanding molecular events involved in viral productive infection and tumorigenicity. Their studies have focused on the virus-encoded master regulatory protein, large T antigen. Large T antigen controls several aspects of viral infection including DNA replication, transcription and virion assembly. In addition, T antigen is necessary, and in most cases, sufficient for SV40-mediated tumorigenesis. Another area of their work focuses on virus discovery and functional viral metagenomics. All viruses encode proteins that are involved in replicating the viral nucleic acid or in the assembly of progeny virions. In addition, viruses must encode activities that block or diminish host defenses against infection. This latter group of proteins is known as HIPs (Host Interactive Proteins). They have developed computational methods for identifying HIPs and are now in the process of applying these methods to all known viruses that infect multicellular organisms. Their strategy is to develop a retrovirus library that expresses viral HIPs and to use the library in high throughput screens to identify viral proteins that modulate cell proliferation, death or the innate immune response. They then use a combination of proteomics and genetics to identify the cellular target and pathway that is altered. Given that there are over 50,000 virus-encoded proteins listed in Genbank and that fewer than 5% are of known function, they expect these HIP screens will identify novel cellular pathways and regulatory proteins.

*This episode was originally published on February 18, 2015.
The post 624: Dr. James Pipas: Making Valuable Contributions to the Proliferation of Exciting Discoveries in Virology appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
39 min
September 20, 2021 623: Dr. Autumn-Lynn Harrison: Examining the Migration of Marine Animals to Inform Management and Conservation
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Dr. Autumn-Lynn Harrison is Program Manager of the Migratory Connectivity Project and a Research Ecologist at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center. She is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Duke University and an Affiliate Professor at George Mason University. Autumn-Lynn received her B.S. degrees in Environmental Science and Fisheries and Wildlife Science from Virginia Tech, a Graduate Diploma of Science in Tropical Marine Ecology and Fisheries Science from James Cook University in Australia, and her Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She worked for the Society for Conservation Biology for 11 years prior to accepting a postdoctoral fellowship with the Institute for Parks at Clemson University. Next, Autumn-Lynn joined the team at the Smithsonian Institution in 2014. In our interview, she shares more about her life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (2:16)
When she’s not working, Autumn-Lynn loves to be out on the water paddling in a canoe or kayak. She also enjoys watching college football as well as playing the flute and piccolo in a community band.
The Scientific Side (3:06)
Autumn-Lynn’s research focuses on the migration of marine animals such as seabirds and seals. In order to help manage and conserve these animals, she uses data from small tracking tags to understand where these animals go, the habitats they depend on, and the places that are important to them.
A Dose of Motivation (5:15)
“The tide always changes.”
What Got You Hooked on Science? (8:12)
Her interest in nature and the environment started early, but Autumn-Lynn had a wide variety of interests growing up. In addition to thinking about becoming a scientist, she considered pursuing a career as a fashion designer or a history teacher. Ultimately her passion for nature and being outdoors led her to pursue science. Autumn-Lynn signed up to major in environmental science with a plan to work as an ecologist investigating estuaries (the transition zones between river and marine environments). However, a study abroad project in Kenya studying the management of migratory species sparked her interest in animal migration.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (20:05)
Like many PhD students, Autumn-Lynn faced challenges in completing her dissertation research. A few years into her degree program, she faced uncertainty about whether she would be able to do the project she wanted to work on. There were also concerns that her project was being scooped at one point, and it was a struggle to manage all of the different personalities and levels of competition of people working on the project. Going into her PhD, Autumn-Lynn didn’t really know what academia was like and didn’t really know what she was getting into. There were moments where she was sad, upset, and felt like an outsider. However, Autumn-Lynn’s passion for the project, combined with her desire to finish what she started, helped her make it through. She also benefited from working part-time at the Society for Conservation Biology throughout her PhD program. This experience introduced her to wonderful colleagues and gave her perspective on how to tackle problems and difficult situations as a working professional.
A Shining Success! (23:51)
After completing her PhD, Autumn-Lynn published a research paper that was important for wildlife management, and she was invited to present her findings at the United Nations (UN) as part of negotiations to craft a new treaty for the oceans. This was a really meaningful success because her work was being used to inform policy-makers, develop a new treaty, and improve the management process. Presenting her work in the UN general assembly room was a surreal experience that Autumn-Lynn will never forget.
Another exciting success was the Smithsonian’s recent receipt of funding to create a new collaboration called the Shorebird Science and Conservation Collective (Shorebird Collective). Through this project, people tracking shorebirds all over the Americas can contribute data to be used immediately to inform conservation and management efforts. In many cases, it may be years before data collected are published in scientific journals and made available for use. The Shorebird Collective has so far received data from over 30 collaborators on 34 species of shorebirds, and these data are available immediately to help conserve and manage these species.
Book Recommendations (30:05)
Nancy Drew books, Ten Poems to Change Your Life by Roger Housden
Most Treasured Travel (31:57)
One of Autumn-Lynn’s favorite travel experiences involved studying marine mammals in a diamond mine in South Africa. She traveled to the De Beers diamond mine in northern South Africa with a large research team for ten days of field work collecting data on Cape fur seals. A long stretch of beach is closed to the public where the mine is located, and it is home to a large colony of Cape fur seals. The team camped on the beach surrounded by vibrant marine life, and they marveled at the chattering fur seals and their pups. The scenery was remarkable, the people were great, and Autumn-Lynn was delighted to be able to return to this site a few times over the course of a couple years for this project. Much of her current work is in Alaska, and she has also had phenomenal experiences working in the Alaskan wilderness, including a few memorable close encounters with bears!
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (39:03)
In a previous lab, Autumn-Lynn worked on a project studying northern elephant seals. During field work, all of the physiologists on the team carried physiology kits (“phys kits”) which were tackle boxes containing all the supplies they needed to collect samples and data from the seals. One of Autumn-Lynn’s labmates was a tall, tough field biologist who decided to decorate her phys kit with lots of sparkly stickers. It became a tradition in the group for everyone to decorate their phys kits in different ways. One day while Autumn-Lynn was working in the field with the team, they were charged by a male elephant seal, and the enormously heavy seal smashed her colleague’s sparkly phys kit into the ground. Everyone got away safely, and the juxtaposition of the huge seal and the remains of the small sparkly box was pretty funny. In her own lab, it has become a tradition to decorate their metal clipboards and other field gear with fun stickers.
Advice For Us All (43:40)
When you are facing a problem, take a step back and think about it in a professional way. Also, don’t lose who you are on your path to becoming a scientist. It is okay for a scientist to like fashion, wear high heels, and be enthusiastic about their work. Be yourself, and remember that there are ways to maintain your scientific rigor and integrity while demonstrating enthusiasm and feeling for what you are studying. Sharing your excitement for your work is the best way to get non-scientists and the general public to connect with you and your work.
Guest Bio
Autumn-Lynn studies the migrations and habitat use of marine and coastal animals and applies scientific research to policy questions related to transboundary conservation and management. She has led field projects to track the migrations of seabirds and shorebirds breeding in the Alaskan Arctic, and seals and sea lions in South Africa and California. She has participated in many conservation initiatives, including presenting her work at United Nations negotiations to create a new treaty for the oceans. Autumn-Lynn grew up on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, USA and as a part of her work at the Smithsonian, she returned home to track the migrations of Brown Pelicans nesting on Chesapeake Bay islands all the way to Cuba. Outside of work, she has played flute and piccolo since she was young and plays in a community band in Annapolis, Maryland. Autumn-Lynn loves to kayak, ride her bike, watch Virginia Tech football, and go hiking with her husband and corgi.
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48 min
September 13, 2021 622: Dr. Jennifer Grandis: Surgeon and Scientist Studying Signal Transduction in Head and Neck Cancer
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Dr. Jennifer Grandis is a Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, Director of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute, and Associate Vice Chancellor of Clinical and Translational Research at the University of California, San Francisco. She is also an American Cancer Society Professor. Jennifer received her B.A. in Biology and Art History at Swarthmore College and was awarded her M.D. from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She completed her residency and an Infectious Disease Fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and went on to serve on the faculty there for over 20 years before accepting her current position at UCSF. Jennifer has received many honors and awards during her career, including the Peggy Wheelock Award for Excellence in Research, Mentoring, and Promotion of Women in Science from the University of Nebraska, as well as the University of Pittsburgh’s Provost’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring, Philip Hench Distinguished Alumnus Award, Chancellor’s Distinguished Research Award, Scientific Leadership Award, promotion to Distinguished Professor of Otolaryngology, and more. Jennifer is also an Elected Member of the Association of American Physicians, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. Jennifer joined us in this interview to tell us all about her journey through life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (02:48)
Jennifer and her husband like to go running every morning with their dogs near their home in San Francisco. She makes sure to dedicate time in her day for reading, and she also listens to books on her phone when traveling. Reading and cooking are two activities that bring Jennifer great happiness.
The Scientific Side (04:10)
Jennifer is a Cancer Biologist as well as a head and neck surgeon. Her research revolves around understanding the key features of head and neck cancer that can be used to develop more effective treatments.
A Dose of Motivation (04:40)
Quotes aren’t a major source of motivation for Jennifer. Her strategy for staying motivated involves creating situations where she is in control. For Jennifer, being the rate-limiting step for making progress is great because then she doesn’t become frustrated by factors that she is not able to change.
What Got You Hooked on Science? (08:46)
As an undergraduate, Jennifer attended a small liberal arts college where she majored Art History (because she loved it) and Biology (because she thought it was practical). She then went to medical school (because she wanted to help people). Becoming a surgeon was appealing because it gave her the feeling of being able to cure people by cutting out bad things, but there were limitations to surgical approaches, particularly for cancer. Though she didn’t plan on becoming a scientist, Jennifer was motivated to begin working in the lab to try to solve the problems she was facing in the clinic.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (17:28)
Jennifer developed a gene therapy approach to treating cancer, but around the same time, there was a death at another institution and all gene therapy trials were stopped. Scientists had to re-test all the components of these treatments, and in examining their own experiments, Jennifer’s lab discovered a problem. The lab that made the gene for them got the wrong material, and her lab had been administering the (harmless and ineffective) control gene to participants, rather than the therapeutic gene. This was a major setback and she faced a lot of outrage from the public and other scientists.
A Shining Success! (20:50)
There was a big change in Jennifer’s laboratory approach when they started sequencing human tumors. In 2011, Jennifer and her collaborators published a high impact paper in the journal Science that talked about mutations in human head and neck cancer, and this was followed by a paper on The Cancer Genome Atlas Consortium published earlier this year in the journal Nature. Being a part of a team devoted to understanding cancer biology has been incredibly satisfying.
Book Recommendations (23:24)
The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert, H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
Most Treasured Travel (24:28)
Jennifer has brought her mother along as a travel companion on most of her journeys. One of her favorite memories is going to a conference in Barcelona. The city was beautiful, and this was a great meeting with a small number of excellent scientists in her field giving stimulating presentations. What was most memorable though was how everyone at the conference adopted her mother, taking her out to dinners and spending time with her.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (27:25)
Jennifer started baking cakes for everyone’s birthday in her lab and that worked out well when there weren’t many people in the lab. As the lab grew though, they reached a point where she was baking a cake nearly every week. They had to put a stop to the birthday cake tradition, but found other ways to have fun, including exploring the city together.
Advice For Us All (31:43)
Get to know yourself. Know who you are, what your capacities are, and what makes you happy. Make sure on regular basis you do the things that make you happy, because if you are happy, everything else is tolerable. Also, accept imperfection. You will particularly have to do this if you want to do it all.
Guest Bio
In her capacity of Associate Vice Chancellor, Jennifer oversees clinical trials infrastructure and spearheads initiatives to strengthen and streamline clinical and translational research on campus. Prior to joining UCSF, she was the Endowed Chair in Head and Neck Cancer Surgical Research and Distinguished Professor of Otolaryngology at the University of Pittsburgh. At Pittsburgh, she also led the Head and Neck Cancer Program and was the Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Otolaryngology. Jennifer’s research focuses on the signal transduction in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) development and progression, with the ultimate goal of targeting key pathways for therapeutic benefit. She is responsible for a number of patents in this area and has published extensively on the topic of head and neck cancer. Additional research interests include precision medicine approaches, experimental therapeutics, preclinical cancer models and receptor crosstalk.

*This episode was originally published on September 4, 2015.
The post 622: Dr. Jennifer Grandis: Surgeon and Scientist Studying Signal Transduction in Head and Neck Cancer appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
36 min
September 06, 2021 621: Dr. Robert Malenka: Making Critical Connections to Clarify the Molecular Mechanisms of Synaptic Transmission and Plasticity
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Dr. Robert C. Malenka is the Pritzker Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Director of the Pritzker Laboratory, and Deputy Director of the Stanford Neurosciences Institute at Stanford University. He received his Bachelor’s degree from Harvard College and his MD and PhD in Neuroscience from the Stanford University School of Medicine. Rob conducted postdoctoral research at the University of California, San Francisco and completed his residency in Psychiatry at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He served on the Faculty at the University of California, San Francisco for 10 years before joining the faculty at Stanford where he is today. Rob is a recipient of the Medical Research Award in Neuropsychiatry from the Pasarow Foundation, the Julius Axelrod Mentorship Award from the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, and the NARSAD Goldman-Rakic Prize for Outstanding Cognitive Neuroscience Research. In addition, Rob is a Member of the National Academy of Sciences, a Member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology. In our conversation, Rob tells us more about his journey through life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (02:40)
Rob is an avid tennis player, and he likes to get out on the court 2-3 times per week. He also spends his free time watching sci fi and spy thriller movies, as well as sampling and collecting wines. Travel is a big part of Rob’s life, and he enjoys immersing himself in different cultures, meeting people, and navigating public transportation systems.
The Scientific Side (05:15)
As a neuroscientist, Rob is working to improve our understanding of the brain. Specifically, his research focuses on how brain cells communicate with each other through chemical and electrical signals. They examine how the connections between neurons (synapses) work at a molecular level. He also studies the molecular mechanisms involved in changes to our nervous system (plasticity).
A Dose of Motivation (08:25)
“Academic politics are so vicious precisely because the stakes are so small.” by Henry Kissinger
What Got You Hooked on Science? (17:20)
Growing up, Rob was exposed to an academic lifestyle since his father was a physics professor. He remembers his mom sending him to demonstrations at the science museum where they showed you snakes and looked at the stars. Despite an early inclination towards science, Rob also really liked sports and thought he might one day play tennis or basketball professionally. It wasn’t until his first college course about the brain that Rob became committed to a career in science.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (31:30)
There have been numerous times in Rob’s career when experiments just didn’t work. Fortunately, his research involved recording data in real time from neurons. This way, he knew immediately if he had failed and could make changes to get back on track. Rob gave up on a few projects altogether when he was a young Assistant Professor, including a technique that would use viruses to manipulate neurons. This has become a common approach and he regrets walking away from the project after only 4-6 months of trying.
A Shining Success! (37:20)
About 30 years ago, Rob was involved in a big scientific controversy about a phenomenon in neural plasticity known as long-term potentiation (LTP). He was arguing with some very smart, powerful, and influential neuroscientists who disagreed with his stance. With the help of some talented colleagues, Rob accumulated evidence to support their silent synapse hypothesis which suggested that specific neurotransmitter receptors at neuronal connections were involved in LTP. This was one of the biggest achievements of his career.
Book Recommendations (42:24)
The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert Caro
Most Treasured Travel (45:00)
Rob recently attended a very small and intimate meeting on the Greek Island of Santorini with about 20 other attendees. He was impressed by this spectacularly beautiful island. They stayed in a hotel with phenomenal views, and some of the sessions were held on balconies overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (47:40)
Ultimately, Rob believes that science should be fun, so he tries to maintain a positive atmosphere in the lab. He can be a harsh critic sometimes, for the benefit of his students and postdocs, but the lab also has a lot of fun together. They have a tradition of heading up to Northern California for rafting trips twice a year and have also done wine-tasting day trips by bicycle. These fun outings are great bonding experiences for the group.
Advice For Us All (56:36)
Find your passion and pursue it. Pursue it with creativity, hard work, and intelligence. Hopefully what you’re passionate about will be rewarding for you and productive for society.
Guest Bio
Rob is a world leader in elucidating the molecular mechanisms by which neural circuits are reorganized by experience. His many contributions over the last 30 years have laid the groundwork for a much more sophisticated understanding of the mechanisms by which neurons communicate and the adaptations in synaptic communication which underlie all forms of normal and pathological behavior. He has been at the forefront of helping to apply the knowledge gained from basic neuroscience research to the treatment and prevention of major neuropsychiatric disorders. His public service includes serving on the National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse and as a Councilor for the Society for Neuroscience and the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology. He is the co-author of the textbook Molecular Neuropharmacology: A Foundation for Clinical Neuroscience and has served on the editorial boards of many prominent journals including Neuron, Trends in Neuroscience, Biological Psychiatry, and the American Journal of Psychiatry.

*This episode was originally published on August 10, 2015.
The post 621: Dr. Robert Malenka: Making Critical Connections to Clarify the Molecular Mechanisms of Synaptic Transmission and Plasticity appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
59 min
August 30, 2021 620: Dr. Wendy Chung: Hunting Down Genes that Cause Human Disease
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Dr. Wendy Chung is the Herbert Irving Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine and Director of Clinical Genetics at Columbia University. She received her undergraduate training at Cornell University and went on to receive her PhD in Molecular Genetics from Rockefeller University and her M.D. from Cornell University. Afterward, Wendy completed her Internship and Residency in Pediatrics, a Fellowship in Clinical Genetics, and a Fellowship in Molecular Genetics at the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. Wendy is the recipient of an American Academy of Pediatrics Young Investigator Award, the Charles W. Bohmfalk Award for Distinguished Contributions to Teaching in the Clinical Years, the Medical Achievement Award from Bonei Olam, as well as the Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching from Columbia University. In our interview, Wendy discusses her journey through life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (02:20)
Wendy spends most of her free time with her family. She has two sons, and they like to get outside to go hiking, swimming, and bicycling. They can also frequently be found working through puzzles and going on mystery scavenger hunts together.
The Scientific Side (02:54)
Scientifically speaking, Wendy is a human molecular geneticist. She seeks out rare and unexpected causes behind health problems in people. Her laboratory works to identify genes that cause human diseases and use this information to inform the creation of novel treatments in the future.
A Dose of Motivation (03:56)
“Don’t let perfection be the enemy of good.”
What Got You Hooked on Science? (8:00)
Her father was an organic chemistry professor and her mother worked in a medical laboratory, so Wendy was surrounded by science and medicine growing up. With a logical, mathematical, and analytical mind, Wendy found that science came naturally to her. She became determined in high school to achieve the ultimate trifecta of becoming valedictorian, winning the Westinghouse (now Intel) Science Talent Search, and becoming a National Merit Scholar. With the promise of a new car from her father and a growing passion for science to motivate her, Wendy achieved all three goals. All these years later, she is still waiting for that car.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (21:15)
When she started as a faculty member, Wendy was naïve about the grant process. When she applied for her first major grant from the National Institutes of Health, the responses from reviewers were devastating. She had made a lot of rookie mistakes, and it took her over six months afterwards to really get over her worries of whether she could make it in science. Wendy also experienced a major tragedy when she lost her second son. This made her re-evaluate her life, and Wendy dramatically shifted her research direction so she could work on questions that could really make an impact on the world.
A Shining Success! (26:20)
One of the things Wendy loves about her job is being able to work with the families and patients who are living with the conditions she is studying. Seeing the science advance over the years, watching the children grow up, and knowing her research has helped them has been really rewarding. It is phenomenal to be able to directly see the impact that their efforts in the lab are having for the patients.
Most Treasured Travel (32:20)
There are times when Wendy has to go on house calls for emergency genetic testing. In some cases, her patients are newborn babies with serious genetic conditions. These house calls might involve flying all the way to the Middle East on a Friday and hurrying home by Sunday Evening to be back at work on Monday. It can be tiring, but it usually only happens a few times a year, and it is wonderful to be able to help.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (29:10)
Wendy’s lab has a tradition of holding an eating competition each summer with all of the summer students. The tradition has been going on for about ten years, and they switch the food each year. Previous challenges have included hot dogs, garlic knots, pies, Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups, and fries. The winners of the contest receive a pig-shaped trophy (and serious bragging rights).
Advice For Us All (36:24)
When you’re thinking about what to do for your career, choose something that you love doing and are honored that someone will pay you to do. That way, you can go to work each day to do your hobby. If you’re interested in a career in science, be open-minded. There are so many excellent career options for scientists in addition to the traditional academic research positions.
Guest Bio
Wendy is a clinical and molecular geneticist who directs NIH funded research programs in human genetics of obesity, breast cancer, pulmonary hypertension, and birth defects including congenital diaphragmatic hernia and congenital heart disease. She leads the Simons VIP study characterizing genetic forms of autism and tests novel treatments for autism in clinical trials. She has authored over 200 peer reviewed papers and numerous chapters in medical texts. Wendy is renowned for her teaching and mentoring. She is a member of the Glenda Garvey Teaching Academy and has won many awards for teaching including the Charles W. Bohmfalk Award for Distinguished Contributions to Teaching, American Medical Women’s Association Mentor Award, and Columbia University Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching. She was the original plaintiff in the Supreme Court case that overturned the ability to patent genes and is a member of the National Advisory Council for Human Genome Research and the Genomics & Society Working Group. Dr. Chung enjoys the challenges of genetics as a rapidly changing field of medicine and strives to facilitate the integration of genetic medicine into all areas of health care in a medically, scientifically, and ethically sound, accessible, and cost effective manner.

*This episode was originally published on September 11, 2015.
The post 620: Dr. Wendy Chung: Hunting Down Genes that Cause Human Disease appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
41 min
August 23, 2021 619: Dr. Randi Martin: Long-Term Success in Research on Memory, Language, and the Brain
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Dr. Randi Martin is the Elma Schneider Professor in the Department of Psychology at Rice University and an Adjunct Professor of Otorhinolaryngology and Communicative Science at Baylor College of Medicine. She received her Master’s Degree and PhD in Psychology from Johns Hopkins University. Randi served as a Visiting Lecturer at the University of California, Santa Cruz and an Associate Research Scientist at Johns Hopkins University before joining the faculty at Rice. She has received many honors and awards during her career, including being named a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, a Fellow of the American Psychological Society, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, as well as election to the Society of Experimental Psychologists. In our interview, Randi shares more about her journey through life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science
Randi revealed that she is quite the dancer when she’s not hard at work in the lab. She and her husband go out to to dance country western, swing, salsa, ballroom, and other styles. However, she also enjoys a quiet evening with a good mystery novel.
The Scientific Side
Randi is a cognitive neuroscientist. In particular, her lab studies how the brain carries out language and memory functions. To do this, they work with people who have had damage to specific areas in the brain (a stroke, for example) to see what abilities are affected and unaffected. This allows them to map problems in language and memory function to the specific areas of the brain that have been injured.
A Dose of Motivation
“Remember that what you now have was once among the things you merely hoped for.” -Epicurus
What Got You Hooked on Science?
Her fascination with science can be traced all the way back to third grade. In response to the launch of Sputnik, there was a renewed emphasis on encouraging U.S. students to pursue careers in science. Randi had the opportunity to go on special field trips to the beach and mountains in Oregon to learn about marine life and geology. She loved these field trips, but also really liked the session they did on breaking codes.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges
After getting her PhD at Johns Hopkins, Randi struggled to get an academic position. The academic job market wasn’t great at the time, and the only thing she was able to find was a one year position that included a lot of teaching and very little time for research. Randi was feeling really uncertain about her career prospects, and her situation was further complicated by the need to find academic jobs for both her and her husband.
A Shining Success!
Randi is excited about a large grant she and her collaborators at Rice University have been awarded to build out a new lab on campus to study neural plasticity. They got a large, beautiful lab space in a building that houses an interdisciplinary group of other labs. She is also thrilled about the new equipment that will allow them to study event-related potentials and transcranial magnetic stimulation.
Book Recommendations
The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert
Most Treasured Travel
One of the most memorable travel opportunities for Randi was a small conference held at Lake Como in Italy. The conference was in a palace on a hill overlooking the lake, and it was a stunning place. This was early in her career, and she was delighted to have the opportunity to get to know some of the big names in her field with great discussions over multi-course Italian meals.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories
Randi’s lab celebrates the birthdays of all the graduate and undergraduates students in the lab. They have a twist on their tradition though because it is the responsibility of the birthday person to bring in a cake or dessert for the celebration. This way, they can have exactly what they want, and it takes out the stress of trying to keep track of everyone’s birthdays.
Advice For Us All
Just hang in there and keep trying in the face of rejection.
Guest Bio
Randi’s major research interests are in the psychology and neuropsychology of language. One interest of her lab is the nature of verbal short-term memory and its role in language comprehension and production and in long-term learning. The basic premise being investigated is that there are separable phonological and semantic contributions to short-term memory which play differing roles in sentence comprehension and production. With regard to long-term learning, it is hypothesized that the short-term retention of phonological information is necessary for the development of a long-term memory representation for new phonological forms (i.e., new words) whereas the short-term retention of semantic information is necessary for the long-term learning of new lexical-semantic representations. A new direction in this research is relating basic cognitive processes of inhibition, set-shifting and updating to short-term memory patterns. She hypothesizes that patients who show a deficit in retaining semantic information in short-term memory have difficulty inhibiting irrelevant semantic information.

*This episode was originally published on February 9, 2015.
The post 619: Dr. Randi Martin: Long-Term Success in Research on Memory, Language, and the Brain appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
51 min
August 16, 2021 618: Dr. Gabriella Vigliocco: Investigating How the Brain Allows Us to Learn and Use Language
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Dr. Gabriella Vigliocco is Professor of Psychology and Language Sciences in the Department of Experimental Psychology at University College London. There, she is also Director of the Cognition and Language Laboratory and Director of the Leverhulme Doctoral Training Programme in the Ecological Study of the Brain. In addition, Gabriella is a Scientist in Residence at the Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute in Philadelphia. Gabriella completed her Bachelor of Science at Padua University and Ph.D. degree at the University of Trieste in Italy. Afterwards, she conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Arizona. Before joining the faculty at UCL, Gabriella served as a faculty member at the University of Wisconsin and a visiting scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. Throughout her career, Gabriella has received various awards and honors, including being awarded a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award, being named a Fellow of the Cognitive Science Society, and being named a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Sciences.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (2:36)
When she’s not working, Gabriella enjoys spending time with her 15 year old son, cooking delicious Italian and fusion dishes for family and friends, reading science fiction and fantasy books, and listening to classical music concerts.
The Scientific Side (6:12)
Gabriella’s lab studies how children learn language and how adults use language. She is interested in determining the mechanisms in the brain that allow us to produce language, understand language, and create representations in our thoughts. Her work spans spoken languages and sign language, and she also works in various populations to better understand how language abilities break down after brain damage.
A Dose of Motivation (8:25)
“A good scientist is a person in whom the childhood quality of perennial curiosity lingers on. Once he gets an answer, he has other questions.” – Frederick Seitz
What Got You Hooked on Science? (11:25)
Gabriella grew up in a small village in rural Italy at the foot of the Alps. During her childhood, she wasn’t particularly interested in science; however, as Gabriella began considering options for her undergraduate education, she was eager to leave home and experience living in a new place. She chose to pursue a degree in experimental psychology because it gave her an opportunity to move away from home and enroll at the University of Padua. Through her coursework, Gabriella discovered she was fascinated by the brain, and she became especially interested in cognitive neuropsychology. She planned to get a job after graduating college, but she also followed the advice she was given to apply to a PhD program as well. While her job applications didn’t pan out, she was admitted into an experimental psychology PhD program. As a graduate student, Gabriella was interested in developing a mechanistic understanding of speaking. When she heard that one of the leading scientists in this area Dr. Merrill Garret would be at a nearby conference, she knew she couldn’t let this opportunity pass her by. Gabriella reached out to the conference organizers to see if she could sneak into the conference to find and talk to Dr. Garrett. This conversation led to her postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Arizona and launched her international research career.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (24:34)
Though Gabriella has advanced in her scientific career, she still struggles with getting papers and grants rejected as well as imposter syndrome. Focusing on her successes and remembering that her life is not only defined by her lab are both things that help her stay positive and keep moving forward. Being flexible and being able to adapt are critical in life and in research. Gabriella has enjoyed some fantastic opportunities but also unexpected difficulties. She became a single mother when her son was only three weeks old, and a few years later, she had a major health scare of her own. Gabriella made it through these challenging times by being flexible and having a great network of friends and colleagues to support her.
A Shining Success! (27:18)
Celebrating the big and small successes of her lab members is really important to Gabriella. She recently received the news that an abstract written by one of the undergraduate students in her labs was selected as the best abstract for a major international conference. This gave Gabriella an amazing sense of pride. Not long before, one of the postdocs in her lab received a job offer for a lectureship position, and this was another exciting success. Prior to the pandemic, Gabriella used to bring cake to their lab meetings to celebrate each success, and they have a lot of catching up to do in terms of celebration cakes when the group is able to get together again.
Book Recommendations (4:10)
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Most Treasured Travel (29:57)
Many years ago, Gabriella traveled to Japan with a delegation from UCL to visit a company in Kyoto. Afterwards, Gabriella went to Koba to visit a colleague there. Staying in a traditional Japanese hotel outside of Kyoto, sampling traditional Japanese food, and going to the public bath all made this trip particularly memorable. Also, the architectural contrast was striking, and she remembers seeing a peaceful temple right next to a bustling western shopping mall. When she was in Koba, people eagerly approached her on the street hoping to practice speaking with her in English. More recently, Gabriella has enjoyed many trips to Philadelphia to visit colleagues at the Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute (MRRI). She loves the size and the buzz of the city, and MRRI is a fun and welcoming place to visit.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (32:47)
Gabriella’s lab has a wonderful tradition of going on lab walks together to explore different places in the Greater London area. They typically go on one walk during the summer and one around Christmas in the winter. The group plans the route so they can stroll through parks, woods, and fields, and they make sure the endpoint of each of their walks is set at a great gastropub.
Advice For Us All (36:09)
Follow your nose. Don’t base your research on what is trendy or what other people say you should study. If you pursue the questions you are most interested in, you will be much more motivated and perhaps more likely to discover something new. Also, for parents who are trying to balance work and raising a child, don’t be afraid to invest in good quality childcare. Doing so will allow you to feel more relieved and focused at work because you’ll know your child is receiving great care. Then you can enjoy the rest of your time when you are with them.
Guest Bio
Gabriella’s research focuses on the cognitive and neurobiological basis of human communication and how, through communication, humans can learn about new objects and ideas – including imaginary worlds. More specifically she is interested in how we learn and process language in face-to-face, real-word settings, how our semantic knowledge interfaces with perception, action and emotion and how these systems are recruited during language learning. Her current efforts focus on the study of language and cognition in their ecology. She also leads an interdisciplinary PhD programme (the Ecological Brain programme) aiming at training graduate students in real-world research.
Her work is interdisciplinary, bringing together theoretical insights from psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, philosophy and computer science. She uses methods from psychology, cognitive neuroscience and computational modeling, integrating evidence from different languages and different populations (adults, children, deaf individuals using British Sign Language, as well as individuals who have developed aphasia or apraxia after brain damage).
Outside of work, Gabriella loves to spend time with family, friends and cook. Watch out for a fusion cuisine recipe book coming out shortly after she finishes her next sabbatical!
The post 618: Dr. Gabriella Vigliocco: Investigating How the Brain Allows Us to Learn and Use Language appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
40 min
August 09, 2021 617: Dr. Jim Hudspeth: Restoring a Sense of Hope for People with Hearing Loss Through Research on Hair Cell Regeneration
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Dr. Jim Hudspeth is the F.M. Kirby Professor at The Rockefeller University, and he leads the Laboratory of Sensory Neuroscience there. In addition, he is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. Jim received his bachelor’s degree in biochemistry, as well as his MD and PhD, from Harvard University. Afterward, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. Jim has since served on the faculty at California Institute of Technology, the University of California, San Francisco, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center before joining the faculty at Rockefeller. Jim has received the Charles A. Dana Award for Pioneering Achievements in Health and the W. Alden Spencer Award from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Additionally, he is a recipient of the Ralph W. Gerard Prize from the Society for Neuroscience, the K.S. Cole Award in membrane biophysics from the Biophysical Society, the Award of Merit from the Association for Research in Otolaryngology, and the Guyot Prize from the University of Groningen. He is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In our interview, Jim shares more about his life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science
As a resident of New York City, Jim enjoys spending his free time taking in the spectacular art work at the Metropolitan Museum, the Neue Galerie, and the Museum of Modern Art. He and his wife also like to sample great restaurants in the city and indulge in excellent theater performances.
The Scientific Side
In the lab, Jim studies hearing to address common hearing problems and to understand how the ear is able to accomplish impressive feats such as allowing us to hear very high frequencies, sensing extremely small vibrations, and detecting sounds across a large range of amplitude or power.
A Dose of Motivation
Jim is motivated by a deep curiosity about the world and about our sense of hearing.
What Got You Hooked on Science?
From when he was very young, Jim was fascinated by science and the natural world. He had vast collections of rocks, fossils, and insects, as well as quite the collection of pets. Jim and his brother often visited the nearby park after school and enjoyed learning about the animals they found there. They collected box turtles, built them a stately enclosure, and fed them with discarded produce from the local grocery store. After a short time in captivity, the turtles were released back into the park.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges
A low points in Jim’s career occurred when he was department chair in neuroscience at another university. Jim was promised resources to recruit excellent faculty to the department, but this promise was not upheld and the much-needed resources were never provided. The situation turned from bad to worse, and after his office was moved to the basement next to the morgue, Jim decided it was time to move on to another opportunity.
A Shining Success!
One of the areas Jim’s lab studies is related to the active processes by which the ear can amplify and begin to process sound. They were trying to assimilate many observations from different researchers, and he and a collaborator discovered that a mathematical theory called the Hopf bifurcation explained the complex results in a wonderfully simple way. This was a really surprising and exciting discovery.
Book Recommendations
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel, The Circle by Dave Eggers, The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes, Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos: With Applications to Physics, Biology, Chemistry, and Engineering by Steven Strogatz
Most Treasured Travel
Jim had an opportunity to travel to Japan to give a series of lectures in Niigata. Niigata is a small town that has been named the sake capital of the world. He was impressed by the fantastic sea food, including some particularly exotic entrees. Jim had a great time interacting with the students, and it was nice to get to know some of them since he was there for two weeks. This was much longer than his usual whirlwind tour traveling.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories
Having a career in science allows you to connect with people across the world, and you form wonderful friendships and collaborations internationally. There is generally a sense of openness in science that you don’t see as often in other careers. Currently, Jim has people working in his lab from many different countries, and they all get along, share ideas, and work well together. Having this extensive network means that Jim has friends and colleagues to visit no matter where he goes in the world.
Advice For Us All
Maintain your curiosity.
Guest Bio
Jim was born in 1945 in Houston, Texas, USA. After completing his undergraduate training at Harvard College in 1967, he received his PhD from Harvard Graduate School in 1973 and his MD from Harvard Medical School in 1974. Following a year’s postdoctoral training at the Karolinska Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden, he joined the faculty of California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California in 1975. Jim moved in 1983 to the University of California, San Francisco, where he directed the Cell Biology Program; in 1989, he relocated to University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, where he chaired the Department of Cell Biology and Neuroscience and founded the Neuroscience Program. After joining Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 1993, he moved in 1995 to The Rockefeller University, where he is F. M. Kirby Professor and Head of the Laboratory of Sensory Neuroscience. Jim conducts research on hair cells, the sensory receptors of the inner ear. He and his colleagues are especially interested in the active process that sensitizes the ear, sharpens its frequency selectivity, and broadens its dynamic range. They also investigate the replacement of hair cells as a potential therapy for hearing loss.

*This episode was originally published on June 26, 2015.
The post 617: Dr. Jim Hudspeth: Restoring a Sense of Hope for People with Hearing Loss Through Research on Hair Cell Regeneration appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
48 min
August 02, 2021 616: Dr. Vic Arcus: Excellent Research Examining Enzymes and Protein Engineering
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Dr. Vic Arcus is a Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Waikato in New Zealand. He received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Organic Chemistry from the University of Waikato and his PhD in Molecular Biology from Cambridge. Afterward, Vic became a fellow of Trinity College, and then served on the faculty at Auckland University before returning to Waikato where he is today. Vic joined us for an interview to tell us more about his journey through life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science
Vic’s interests outside of science include music and exercise. He is an amateur triathlete and also takes a piano lessons once a week.
The Scientific Side
In the lab, Vic works as a biochemist to understand the function of enzymes both within and outside of cells. Lately, he has also been studying the evolution of enzymes.
A Dose of Motivation
“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.” by Dr. Seuss.
What Got You Hooked on Science?
Growing up, he was inspired by David Attenborough and the BBC Series Life on Earth. Going through school, Vic assumed he was going to be a lawyer, a doctor, or an engineer, so he never considered becoming a scientist before heading off to university. Once there, he started with general classes in chemistry, math, and philosophy that really sparked his interest in science.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges
After being awarded his PhD from Cambridge, Vic declined a prestigious postdoctoral fellowship to return to New Zealand for an opportunity there. He had accepted a postdoctoral fellowship in a government research agency that was being completely restructured which made for a really rocky transition. It got so bad that he even considered leaving science and going back to law school to pursue a completely different career.
A Shining Success!
Vic considers his idea of scaling up their thermodynamics model from enzymes to large ecosystems as one of his greatest achievements. After having his paper on the subject rejected by some of the best journals, he finally got lucky with his fourth journal submission. This journal initially rejected the paper, but a thoughtful letter to the editor explaining their difficult position of being at the intersection of multiple fields got the paper in the hands of reviewers. With three glowing reviews, the paper was immediately published.
Book Recommendations
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton, Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty
Most Treasured Travel
During a conference in Santa Fe, he was able to visit Los Alamos and the Los Alamos Museum which was home to the Manhattan Project in the 1940s. This had a really big impact on him because it brought to light the tensions that exist between science, politics, and global conflict. At the time Vic was also reading the biography of Richard Feynman who had worked there, and this provided an even deeper perspective.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories
Vic’s laboratory has a tradition of celebrating each student’s PhD completion with champagne and a gift of the book Oh, The Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss. His lab’s tradition of giving this book and a general love of sharing baked goods came from his fantastic lab manager.
Advice For Us All
Spend the one third of your life sorting out your ideas and what you want to do. Spend the second third of your life doing it. The final third of your life should be spent giving back and mentoring others. Also keep in mind that patience and diligence are the keys to achieving what you want in this world.
Guest Bio
Vic leads a group of researchers looking at the molecular biology of tuberculosis. Tuberculosis has been described by the World Health Organization as a global epidemic. It kills more people every year (~3 million) than any other single infectious disease. New Zealand has relatively low incidence rates of tuberculosis but vigilance is still required even here. Vic is also very interested in the thermodynamics of enzyme function. He and his friend Louis Schipper have developed a theory that they have called Macromolecular Rate Theory (MMRT) to describe the temperature dependence of biological rates from enzymes to ecosystems. Vic did his undergraduate science degree at the University of Waikato and then flew off to Cambridge UK to do a PhD in molecular biology. He then spent eight years at Auckland University before returning “home” to Hamilton in 2006. Vic likes music and football (soccer). He likes to swim, bike and run. Up until recently, he and his wife Fiona, undertook these activities with their two kids, Leon and Grace. Unfortunately for Fiona and Vic, the kids have got faster and they have got slower.

*This episode was originally published on June 29, 2015.

The post 616: Dr. Vic Arcus: Excellent Research Examining Enzymes and Protein Engineering appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
44 min
July 26, 2021 615: Dr. Jennifer Graham-Engeland: Studying Stress and its Connection with Chronic Pain
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Dr. Jennifer Graham-Engeland is an Associate Professor in the Biobehavioral Health Department at The Pennsylvania State University. She graduated from Cornell University majoring in Psychology and English and went on to receive her M.A. and Ph.D. in Social and Health Psychology from Stony Brook University. Jennifer then conducted postdoctoral research at The Ohio State University before joining the faculty where she is today at Penn State. She has been awarded the American Psychosomatic Society Scholar Research Award as well as the Psychoneuroimmunology Research Society Scholars Award. In our interview, Jennifer shares more about her journey through life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (02:14)
Jennifer believes that it is very important to have balance in your life as a scientist. These days she spends much of her time with her two children, renovating her home, hiking in the mountains, and getting out of the house to enjoy her town and explore other cities.
The Scientific Side (03:09)
In the laboratory, Jennifer investigates how psychological stress affects physical health. Though there are some instances where stress can be beneficial, severe or chronic stress can be harmful and debilitating. Jennifer’s research has been focusing specifically on how people with chronic pain respond to stress and how psychological, behavioral, and physiological changes may explain the connection between stress and chronic pain.
A Dose of Motivation (07:10)
“Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes.” by Walt Whitman – Leaves of Grass
“I too am not a bit tamed—I too am untranslatable; I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.” by Walt Whitman – Leaves of Grass
What Got You Hooked on Science? (12:04)
Jennifer started her pursuit of a career in science relatively late. She had been planning to graduate college with an English major, and enjoyed conducting close analyses of books and poems. During a meeting with a faculty member to discuss a potential senior thesis, Jennifer revealed her plan to evaluate the role of memory in the poems of a modern poet. Based on her interests, she was referred to the faculty in the psychology department and was soon introduced to the excitement of research.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (21:20)
The first time Jennifer applied for a tenure track job was the first time that she tried really hard to do something and completely failed. She was attempting to go straight from graduate school into a faculty position and set off on her first interview just four weeks after the birth of her first child. The interview went poorly. Jennifer was exhausted, unprepared, and did not make the impression she had hoped to make. She was disappointed that things didn’t work out, but those experiences were helpful when she applied again after her postdoctoral work.
A Shining Success! (24:20)
Jennifer and her colleagues have had some really exciting papers published recently. She was one of the principal investigators on a longitudinal project measuring how stress is related to cognitive aging. They are just starting to look at the data this summer, and it has been thrilling to begin to run analyses.
Book Recommendations (30:20)
Perdido Street Station by China Miéville
Most Treasured Travel (27:30)
Whenever she goes for International conferences, Jennifer always tries to include extra time in the trip to travel at the end of the conference. She is often able to travel with her husband who works in a similar scientific field, and they have gone to some wonderful conferences together. Jennifer recalls the breathtaking fjords, scenic train rides, beautiful cities, and phenomenal people she met on a trip to Norway prior to a conference.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (33:00)
Jennifer believes it is really rewarding to get a glimpse at the behind-the-scenes lives of the people you work with, particularly your mentors. One of Jennifer’s previous mentors invited the whole lab over for a BBQ, which was a lot of fun. The group was surprised by the professor’s impressive daffodil gardens with thousands of daffodils. Seeing that her mentors had families and hobbies showed that they had lives outside of science.
Advice For Us All (38:30)
It is important to collaborate and talk to people within and outside of your field. It is also important to maintain a sense of balance. You can be very passionate about science and have fun as well.
Guest Bio
Jennifer has obtained funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as well as the Social Science Research Institute at Penn State and other sources for her research. She investigates the impact of psychological stress on physical health and the psychological, physiological, and behavioral mechanisms underlying stress and health connections. She emphasizes the impact of cognitive and emotional responses to stress (e.g., rumination, meaning-making, anger) and their potential as targets for non-pharmacological intervention. Specific topics of her research program include: 1) adaptive consequences of recognizing and expressing negative emotion; 2) how emotion, depressed mood, inflammation, and physical pain are bi-directionally connected; 3) the use of immune-related biomarkers (particularly inflammatory markers) as outcomes or mediators of stress and health phenomena, and 4) the relevance of situational forces (e.g., relationship dynamics) and individual differences (e.g., hostility, loneliness, gender) on stress and health connections, with particular emphasis on chronic pain and inflammation. Her original research in these areas is published in biomedical and psychological journals. Dr. Graham-Engeland has also been invited to present her work at different forums worldwide, and has chaired several symposiums at international conferences, such as the American Psychosomatic Society and the Psychoneuroimmunology Research Society. Dr. Graham-Engeland is a dedicated instructor as well, and teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Biobehavioral Health, including Gender and Biobehavioral Health and Interdisciplinary Integration in Biobehavioral Health.

*This episode was originally published on August 14, 2015.
The post 615: Dr. Jennifer Graham-Engeland: Studying Stress and its Connection with Chronic Pain appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
43 min

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