People Behind the Science Podcast

By Dr. Marie McNeelyScience

People Behind the Science Podcast episodes

March 01, 2021 594: Dr. Yasmin Hurd: Paving Pathways to Success Studying Substance Abuse and the Brain
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Dr. Yasmin Hurd is Professor of Psychiatry, Neuroscience and Pharmacology and Systems Therapeutics as well as the Ward-Coleman Chair in Translational Neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine in New York. She is also Director of the Center for Addictive Disorders in the Mount Sinai Behavioral Health System. She received her PhD in Medical Science from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and spent time as a Pharmacology Research Associate Fellow with the NIH and Staff Fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health. Afterward, Yasmin returned to the Karolinska Institute where she remained as a faculty member for 13 years before coming to Mount Sinai. She is also a member of the American Society for Neuroscience, New York Academy of Sciences, and the College on Problems of Drug Dependence. Yasmin is with us today to tell us all about her journey through life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science
Yasmin loves cooking, including the challenge of assembling meals from the random ingredients in her pantry and hosting elaborate dinners for her friends. She has also developed a passion for painting.
The Scientific Side
Yasmin studies the brain and addiction. She wants to know how drugs impact the brain, as well as how genetics and other characteristics shape disease vulnerability. Her work also has applications for developing new therapeutic treatments for substance abuse.
A Dose of Motivation
“Nothing will work unless you do.” by Maya Angelou
“Most people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character.” -Albert Einstein
What Got You Hooked on Science?
Yasmin was born in Jamaica, and she has always felt that she doesn’t fit the stereotype of what a neuroscientist looks like. When she was really young, she was fascinated by science and was especially interested in the brain. The questions that drew her into science focused on what makes people the way they are and what is going wrong in the brain in people who have problems.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges
One of the things that you have to learn to accept as a scientist is that things will fail. It is particularly tough when you have been working on a project for months or years and you realize that you made an error earlier on in the process. In these situations, months and maybe years of work and data could be lost.
A Shining Success!
Some of Yasmin’s great successes have been research grant awards. With the tough funding climate, this has been a really important accomplishment. In addition, Yasmin’s work has opened up some really interesting new lines of investigation into addiction, despite the fact that people initially told her what she was proposing to do was not possible.
Book Recommendations
Galileo’s Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love by Dava Sobel, Oh, the Places You’ll Go! By Dr. Seuss, any book by Agatha Christie, any book by Stieg Larsson
Most Treasured Travel
One of the conferences that Yasmin has really enjoyed was for the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology. It was held in Puerto Rico, and she has fond memories of sitting on the beach chatting with the top scientists in her field. Everyone was so accessible, and it was fun to talk science in such a beautiful place.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories
Food is usually the common theme for lab traditions. When Yasmin was a postdoc, the mentor of the lab would have a pasta party and make homemade pesto from his garden. The lab members later found out that the blender he used was the same blender he used in the lab for brains. She also had a lot of fun bringing the tradition of celebrating Thanksgiving with her when she worked in Sweden.
Advice For Us All
Don’t think about what other people are thinking of you. Work hard and accept whatever opportunities that come your way. Make sure to step outside of your comfort zone both personally and scientifically.
Guest Bio
Dr. Hurd is an internationally renowned neuroscientist whose translational research examines the neurobiology of drug abuse and related psychiatric disorders. She is highly published in the field and leads a team of investigators in molecular biology, behavioral neuropharmacology, genetics and neuroimaging to study the human brain as well as translational animal models. Using multidisciplinary research approaches, her work has provided significant insights into the complex neurobiological mechanisms underlying addictive behavior as well as the molecular neuropathology associated with genetic vulnerability to addiction. Moreover, her novel research explores epigenetic mechanisms associated with developmental cannabis exposure that have long-term effects into adulthood and across generations. Additionally, her basic science research is complimented by clinical laboratory investigations for the development of new treatment interventions. Dr. Hurd has served as the Director of the MD/PhD program at the Icahn School of Medicine and was the founding Chair of the Diversity in Biomedical Research Committee. She currently serves on the Executive Committees of the Friedman Brain Institute and Women in Science and Medicine at Mount Sinai. She has also held many national leadership roles including being the current Chair of the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Institute on Drug Abuse and Chair of the NIH Study Section on Pathophysiology of Mental Disorders and Addictions. She has been a member of the MacArthur Foundation Neuroscience network and other notable national scientific organizations.

This episode was originally published on April 8, 2015.
The post 594: Dr. Yasmin Hurd: Paving Pathways to Success Studying Substance Abuse and the Brain appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
42 min
February 22, 2021 593: Dr. George Hajishengallis: Sinking His Teeth in to Exciting Research Questions in Periodontal Disease
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Dr. George Hajishengallis is a Professor in the Department of Microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine. He received his Doctor of Dental Surgery Degree from the University of Athens in Greece and his PhD in Cellular and Molecular Biology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Following postdoctoral studies in Immunology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the University at Buffalo, George served on the faculty at Louisiana State University Health Science Center and the University of Louisville before joining the Faculty at the University of Pennsylvania. George has been elected as a Fellow of the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science and was a recipient of the Distinguished Scientist Award in Oral Biology from the International Association of Dental Research (IADR) in 2012 and the AADR/IADR William J. Gies Award in the Biological Research Category in 2014. In this interview, George shares more about his life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science
Outside of his work life, George spends his time watching soccer, reading books, and hiking and swimming with his wife.
The Scientific Side
Through his research, George is trying to understand how the immune system interacts with oral bacteria. He is curious about why you see destruction of gums and the bone that supports the teeth in some people. They are also working on treatments to prevent gum disease called periodontitis.
A Dose of Motivation
“Chance favors the prepared mind’” by Louis Pasteur
What Got You Hooked on Science?
Early on, George considered becoming a chemical engineer. He was interested in chemistry, but discovered chemical engineering was more about engineering than chemistry. When George looked into biology, he found it more interesting and exciting than pure chemistry. He studied dentistry in university, but was worried that dental practice would become too routine, and he wouldn’t have the excitement of constantly learning new things. This is what convinced him to get his PhD.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges
Getting his first grant was a big challenge. George was totally absorbed in what he thought was really interesting science, and he didn’t think of the potential consequences, including losing his job, if he was not successful. He submitted this grant three times over a period of two years, and it was disappointing to see the rejections. He would give himself one day to feel bad about it and then come back to face a new day and a new opportunity.
A Shining Success!
George’s lab recently had success preventing periodontitis in non-human primates, and they are excited to apply these findings to human clinical trials. They also recently developed the keystone pathogen hypothesis for peridontal disease. Rather than one species of bacteria causing periodontitis, this species actually transforms the oral bacteria community from benign to pathogenic.
Book Recommendations
Changing Places: A Tale of Two Campuses by David Lodge. The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides
Most Treasured Travel
George has attended several international conferences on the Island of Crete in Greece. This island holds a special place in George’s heart with its unique culture and landscape, beautiful beaches, amazing archeological sites, and breathtaking mountains and gorges. He might be biased because his wife is from Crete as well!
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories
One of George’s graduate school experiments involved immunizing mice, and he noticed one of the mice was always getting beaten up by the other mice in the community. They had to put him in isolation and ended up keeping him as a lab pet and naming him Larry. Larry the mouse was soon after promoted to Sir Lawrence and moved into a spacious cage that was actually intended for rats.
Guest Bio
George’s research field of interest lies at the interface of microbial pathogenesis and immunity, and his work has illuminated novel mechanisms of microbial dysbiosis and inflammation. He further combines basic scientific and translational research, leading to innovative approaches to clinical problems, such as are exemplified by periodontal disease. His discoveries have led to several invention disclosures and patent applications. His research program is supported by the NIH/NIDCR and he has published over 120 papers. Dr. Hajishengallis’s studies have been published in prestigious journals of general scientific interest including Nature Immunology, Cell Host & Microbe, PNAS, Science Translational Medicine, Science Signaling, Nature Reviews Immunology, and Nature Reviews Microbiology, as well as leading disciplinary journals such as the Journal of Immunology and Journal of Dental Research.

This episode was originally published on December 5, 2014.
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39 min
February 15, 2021 592: Dr. John Whyte: Researching Human Function and Rehabilitation after Traumatic Brain Injury
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Dr. John Whyte is the Founding Director and Institute Scientist Emeritus at the Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute (MRRI), as well as the Founding Director of the Responsiveness Program at the Drucker Brain Injury Center at MossRehab. John was awarded his MD and PhD in cognitive psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. Afterwards, he completed a residency in physical medicine and rehabilitation at the University of Minnesota followed by a fellowship in traumatic brain injury at Tufts University. Among his many awards and honors, John is a Fellow of the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine and recipient of their Gold Key lifetime achievement award. In addition, he has received the Distinguished Academician Award from the Association of Academic Physiatrists, the Moody Prize for contributions to brain injury research and practice, and he is an elected Member of the National Academy of Medicine. In our interview, John shares more about his life and work.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (2:16)
Beyond science and medicine, John likes to spend his time cooking, listening to music, and going for long walks in the city. In pre-pandemic days, he also enjoyed going to the theater, but he hasn’t been able to do this lately.
The Scientific Side (3:15)
The goal of John’s research is to help people perform the tasks and roles they are interested in doing, regardless of any diseases or disabilities. Much of his work has focused on people with traumatic brain injury (TBI), especially more severe traumatic brain injury. He is also dedicated to advancing the field of rehabilitation research through developing novel methods, new assessment tools, and a specification system to more systematically describe and deliver rehabilitation treatments.
A Dose of Motivation (4:36)
John is motivated by solving complicated problems, and he enjoys chipping away at these difficult problems until he makes progress.
What Got You Hooked on Science? (7:22)
Curiosity has been a big part of John’s life since he was a child. He liked to take things apart and ask questions to better understand how things work. Growing up, John imagined he would become a scientist working in a lab, and he never really considered becoming a clinician. However, during college John worked at a summer camp with kids with developmental disabilities. He took the job to study the application of behavior modification approaches in the real world, but he became fascinated with the kids and the challenges they experienced. John began to realize that his scientific skills could be used to address clinical problems. He switched his major from biology to the pre-med track late in college and planned on going to medical school. However, after enrolling in medical school, he was disappointed with the curriculum. He missed the intellectual and investigative aspects of science. After receiving a flyer about the school’s MD/PhD program, John decided to become a clinician scientist.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (19:12)
John is an optimist, and he tries to view failures and frustrations as challenges to be solved. For example, some of the work he has done to develop assessment methods for people with very severe brain injury arose from the frustrations he experienced when he wasn’t able to measure things well in this population. Further, some of his failures have helped him better understand what is important to patients. In one case, John wanted to create day programs for people with brain injury that would allow him to study their cognitive problems. At the time, there was a lot of feedback from the community that people with brain injury didn’t have engaging activities to do if they were unable to work, so he figured his programs would benefit both him and the patients. However, relatively few people wanted to travel to his clinic daily as the solution to their problem. This taught John that we have to ask the people whose lives are affected about the kinds of solutions they want, rather than developing the solutions that make sense to us.
A Shining Success! (22:49)
The first place John worked after completing his training was a rehabilitation program based in a nursing home that provided patients who were unconscious or minimally conscious with intensive rehabilitation therapy. These patients are classified as having “disorders of consciousness,” and there were about 80 of them all in the same place. This was a tremendous learning opportunity, but John quickly realized that there were no rigorous, standardized methods for determining a person’s state of consciousness or whether it was changing over time. He developed a measurement tool that has since shown that some patients continue to make progress over longer intervals of time than originally thought possible.
A second success was related to drug therapies for people with disorders of consciousness. Physicians used a wide variety of drugs in off-label ways to try to help patients, but there wasn’t a good evidence base to determine the best treatment approach. John and a colleague ran the first ever randomized clinical trial that demonstrated that a particular drug could accelerate the return of consciousness in this population. This study was published in a prestigious journal, and the drug became the standard of care for people with severe disorders of consciousness. Much of John’s work in this area was also incorporated recently into new evidence-based guidelines about the care of people with disorders of consciousness. This was the first consensus document to establish that there is a decent prognosis and treatments that can make a different for these patients.
Book Recommendations (27:14)
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Most Treasured Travel (28:47)
Copenhagen is one of John’s favorite places to visit. He was invited to be a visiting professor there and visited a few times per year for nearly 10 years. It has been fun to give lectures, meet with students, interact with colleagues, and collaborate on projects. In addition to seeing some of the famous sites like Tivoli and the statue of The Little Mermaid, John has enjoyed trying different restaurants, getting to know the people, exploring their culture, and learning about their healthcare systems.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (32:14)
At MRRI, they hold an annual holiday party where everyone brings a gag gift to exchange. There are a few items that make an appearance every year because the person who received them last year try to pass them on to someone else. One year, John brought a Barbie change purse that he found on the floor of an airport, and this was a highly sought-after prize.
Advice For Us All (35:50)
Try to think about your long-term interests in a broad way and have a vision of where you want your research to go. Then you can look for opportunities to fund pieces of your vision, rather than thinking up various projects that may get funded but don’t add up to anything. Also, it is important to like your work. There are many frustrations in science, but if you really enjoy the work you are doing, the people, and the environment, you can survive the ups and downs of external success.
Guest Bio
Dr. Whyte’s research has focused on the cognitive impairments that result from severe traumatic brain injury, with a particular emphasis on attention, executive functioning, and consciousness. His work has addressed the natural history of cognitive recovery, assessment of cognitive impairments in the laboratory and in clinical settings, and the design and testing of pharmacologic and other treatments. In the course of documenting the favorable long-term prognosis for many patients with severe injury, their care needs, and their response to treatment, he has also been active in advocacy efforts to increase access to rehabilitation services for those with the most severe brain injuries. In addition to his empirical work, he has written extensively about the special methodologic challenges posed by rehabilitation research and played a lead role in the development of the Rehabilitation Treatment Specification System (RTSS) that seeks to define all rehabilitation treatments with respect to their known or hypothesized mechanisms of action.
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39 min
February 08, 2021 591: Dr. Amy Vollmer: Science on Stress in Single-Celled Organisms
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Dr. Amy Vollmer is Professor and Department Chair of Biology at Swarthmore College. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from Rice University and her PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Afterward, Amy conducted postdoctoral research in Immunology at Stanford University and served on the faculty at Mills College before joining the faculty at Swarthmore where she is today, conducting research and teaching students. In this interview, Amy shares more about her life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science
Family is really important for Amy, and she likes to spend her spare time on the phone with her sisters and two grown children. Amy and her husband own a small Italian deli and market, and you can often find her at the store when she’s not in the lab.
The Scientific Side
Amy is interested in understanding how bacteria sense and respond to their environment. In addition to her research, she is passionate about teaching through her classroom lectures and public science literacy efforts.
A Dose of Motivation
“Never settle for someone else’s definition of who YOU can be.” by Susan Sarandon
What Got You Hooked on Science?
Both of Amy’s parents are chemists, so she grew up surrounded by science. Amy remembers going in to the lab with her dad on Saturdays between her piano lesson and ballet lesson. She would watch her dad set up experiments and other lab members would show her what they were working on. Donning safety glasses and hanging out in the lab seemed normal and natural to her as a kid.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges
One of her first major struggles was when she started college at Rice University. The school was fantastic, but she was surrounded by smart people who were all used to being at the tops of their class. Though she had previously prided herself in succeeding academically on her own, she realized that she really needed help. Amy quickly discovered that her high school physics class did not prepare her well for college-level courses and she had to reach out to get help.
A Shining Success!
For faculty at small colleges, it can be frustrating when people do not take your research seriously or view your position as a less desirable career path compared to a large research university. It has been really rewarding to participate in a diverse and inclusive community of researchers studying microbial stress response. They meet every other year at a conference and she is pleased to be treated as an equal and for members of the group to recognize that pursuing a position that prioritizes research and teaching is not a lesser career.
Book Recommendations
Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do by Claude M. Steele
Most Treasured Travel
Amy has been delighted by her experiences visiting the city of New Orleans. She has traveled there a few times now for conferences and each time she is impressed by the people she meets and the feel of the city. It has been interesting to see New Orleans before and after Hurricane Katrina because so many things have been restored, but it is also striking to realize that so many things have not.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories
A great tradition in the lab where Amy did her PhD is to take a group lab picture every year. While Amy was there, the group was reviewing previous pictures to prepare for the annual event. They noticed that their advisor was always the only one wearing a tie in the photos so they decided they would all wear ties over their normal lab apparel for the photo that year. The photo came out fantastic, and it was funny to catch up with people years later when their advisor retired and hear about how all of them had adopted the annual group photo tradition.
Advice For Us All
Do what you love. Try to embrace what you do everyday with a sense of wonder and a sense of passion.
Guest Bio
Since 1989, Amy has been a faculty member at Swarthmore College, where she served as chair from 2003-2005. At Swarthmore she teaches courses in microbiology, biotechnology, and team-teaches in the introductory biology course. She has also offered courses in bioethics and adult learning courses about bacteria and viruses. Presently, Amy is planning a new course in astrobiology. Her research focuses in the area of bacterial stress response and she has supervised over 70 undergraduate students in projects in her laboratory. Many of Amy’s students have presented their work at national meetings. She has published numerous papers and has authored a dozen chapters and reviews – in areas of teaching as well as research. Amy lectures on her research, teaching, and promoting science literacy. She is also often invited to speak about mentoring, networking, job hunting and career development. Actively involved in the American Society for Microbiology for many years, in 2006, she was the recipient of the Carski Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award from the ASM’s American Academy for Microbiology. Since 2007, she has served as president of the Waksman Foundation for Microbiology. Vollmer is a first-generation Chinese American. She has 2 adult offspring and three sisters with whom she is very close. Amy lives in north Wilmington, DE with her husband, Anthony Stella.

This episode was originally published on May 13, 2015.
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58 min
February 01, 2021 590: Dr. Luke O’Neill: Investigating Inflammatory Diseases and Developing Novel Therapeutics
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Dr. Luke O’Neill is Professor and Chair of Biochemistry in the School of Biochemistry and Immunology at Trinity College Dublin. He is also an author of three popular science books, including the recently released book Never Mind the B#ll*cks, Here’s the Science: A Scientist’s Guide to the Biggest Challenges Facing Our Species Today. In addition, Luke co-founded Inflazome, a company dedicated to developing therapeutics to address unmet needs in inflammatory diseases. He was awarded his B.A. in Natural Sciences with an emphasis in Biochemistry from Trinity College Dublin and his PhD in Pharmacology from the University of London. Afterwards he accepted a Medical Research Council postdoctoral fellowship to conduct research at Strangeways Research Laboratory in Cambridge. Luke has received numerous awards and honors for his exceptional research, including the Royal Dublin Society & The Irish Times Robert Boyle Medal for scientific excellence, the Royal Irish Academy Gold Medal for Life Sciences, and the European Federation of Immunology Societies Medal. Luke is also an elected Member of the Royal Irish Academy, a Member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation, and a Fellow of the Royal Society. In our interview, Luke shares more about his life and research.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (2:30)
In his free time, Luke enjoys music. He sings and plays guitar in a band called The Metabollix, and they have played a wide variety of gigs over the years, including at scientific conferences.
The Scientific Side (3:29)
Luke is an immunologist. He studies the immune system, focusing mainly on inflammatory diseases like Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis, and Alzheimer’s disease. His lab aims to understand the underlying mechanisms of these diseases and develop new medicines to treat them. Recently, Luke’s lab has also been studying COVID-19 and potential therapeutics.
A Dose of Motivation (5:11)
“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” – Carl Sagan
What Got You Hooked on Science? (7:47)
In school, Luke was fascinated by the lessons he received in biology. When he was about 12 years old, he learned that the nearby mountain range had been covered in ice in the last ice age. It was incredible to reflect on the fact that glaciers carved out the valleys near his home that he had hiked through. Though there were no scientists in Luke’s family, he was intensely curious about the world and interested in understanding the scientific explanations for why things were the way they were. He realized that he needed to eventually get a job, and he was excited to discover that there were jobs in which people could do scientific work, such as being a clinical biochemist in a hospital. Luke pursued clinical biochemistry in college, but there he discovered that it would be possible to make a career out of doing research and making discoveries. This led him to apply to graduate school. During his PhD research, Luke worked on developing an anti-inflammatory medicine. This piqued his interest in therapeutics, and Luke still thoroughly enjoys the thrill of discovery and working in an area that can have an impact on patients.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (14:39)
Recently, Luke and a postdoc in his lab made an interesting discovery that they were excited to publish. The postdoc had been working on this project for about two and half years, they wrote a paper, and sent it off to a scientific journal. It was extremely disappointing when they received the reviews, and the feedback was harsh. After working through the comments together, Luke and the postdoc made a plan for what to do next, and this has been helpful for getting over the initial disappointment.
A Shining Success! (17:31)
Over ten years ago, Luke began studying a protein called NLRP3 that had been shown to have an important role in driving inflammation. His lab discovered that in type 2 diabetes, NLRP3 was driving some of the inflammatory damage that occurs. Shortly afterwards, papers came out from other groups implicating NLRP3 in heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and gout. Luke decided to search for a drug that might be able to block NLRP3 activity, and they found it. This drug was originally discovered by Pfizer about 15 years earlier, but it was never fully developed for various reasons. Luke and his colleagues formed a company and began to improve upon Pfizer’s original NLRP3-inhibitor. They developed a new molecule, and they have shown that it can stop Alzheimer’s disease and other inflammatory diseases in animal models. Luke is looking forward to starting six new clinical trials to test the drug on these diseases in humans.
Book Recommendations (23:14)
The Intelligent Man’s Guide to Science by Isaac Asimov, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari, The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal by Jared M. Diamond, Catching the Worm: Towards Ending River Blindness, and Reflections on My Life Hardcover by William Campbell and Claire O’Connell, Never Mind the B#ll*cks, Here’s the Science: A Scientist’s Guide to the Biggest Challenges Facing Our Species Today by Luke O’Neill, Humanology: A Scientist’s Guide to Our Amazing Existence by Luke O’Neill, The Great Irish Science by Luke O’Neill
Most Treasured Travel (22:10)
Though Luke will never forget a scientific conference he attended on Mauritius, a beautiful island off the coast of Africa, his favorite city is San Francisco. About a year ago, Luke stayed in San Francisco on sabbatical. While there, he spent time at Stanford University and worked with a biotech company there. With all of the universities and biotech companies in the area, he found it an exceptional place for science.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (24:56)
Over the years, Luke has discovered that many of his scientific colleagues share a passion for music. Prior to the pandemic, he and his colleagues would often play music during the big dinner events at the end of their scientific conferences. This is how their band The Metabollix was created. In 2017, Luke helped organize a large conference in Dublin, and he was asked to put a good band together. It was a lot of fun to perform at the conference, and they were impressed when some of the leading scientists in the field joined in the jam session.
Advice For Us All (27:50)
Just keep going. It is easy to find so many reasons not to do something. However, it is important to have grit, determine what your dreams are, stay focused, and keep your eye on your long-term goals. Never feel like failing is the end. Remember there is always a way out.
Guest Bio
Luke’s research investigates the molecular and cellular processes involved in inflammation. Inflammation has important roles for protecting the body in the case of infection or injury, but it can also give rise to a wide variety of inflammatory diseases which can be difficult to treat. In his work on the innate immune system, Luke and his colleagues have uncovered new molecules and biochemical processes that are triggered by infection and injury, including toll-like receptors and inflammasomes, as well as cytokines that stimulate inflammation. Luke’s work also examines immunometabolism and metabolic reprogramming in immunity. He is dedicated to applying his findings from the lab to develop novel anti-inflammatory therapeutics to address a myriad of inflammatory diseases, from rheumatoid arthritis to Alzheimer’s disease.
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30 min
January 25, 2021 589: Dr. Cassandra Extavour: Researching the Role of Genes in the Evolution and Development of Reproductive Systems
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Dr. Cassandra Extavour is a Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University. She received her PhD from the Severo Ochoa Center for Molecular Biology at the Autonomous University of Madrid. Cassandra then conducted postdoctoral research at the Institute for Molecular Biology and Biotechnology in Crete, Greece as well as at the University of Cambridge. Afterward, she worked as a Research Associate in the Department of Zoology at Cambridge before joining the faculty at Harvard. In this interview, Cassandra shares more about her journey through life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science
In addition to her passion for science, Cassandra is also passionate about music. She enjoys listening to music and is a professional singer as well. Other activities that occupy her free time are dancing, hosting parties, and cooking for her friends.
The Scientific Side
Scientifically, Cassandra spends her time examining the evolution of embryonic development. Her lab seeks to understand how genes direct cells during development to become different kinds of cells. They are also interested in the evolutionary origin of these genes.
A Dose of Motivation
“We refuse to be what you wanted us to be. We are what we are. That’s the way it’s going to be.” by Bob Marley in Babylon System
What Got You Hooked on Science?
Cassandra came to science relatively late. As a child she loved music and was planning on pursuing a career as a musician. Science was not really on her radar until her best friend in high school expressed an interest in psychology. This got Cassandra thinking about the brain and behavior, and she decided to pursue a career in neurosurgery. This meant working really hard over the summer to learn science so she could take the advanced courses in her final year of high school to get into a college biology program.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges
As a PhD student, Cassandra moved to Madrid and selected a project that both she and her advisor thought was really interesting. Unfortunately, 2.5 years into graduate school, nothing was working. She struggled with the technical challenge of creating flies with reproductive cells (germ cells) that were not genetically identical. Cassandra tried a myriad of different methods to address the issue, but time was running short and her advisor was not thrilled about the possibility of her switching projects.
A Shining Success!
Cassandra and a collaborator established a workshop for the North American evolutionary developmental biology community to discuss the state of the field, major achievements, future directions, and barriers to success. This was a productive workshop that lead to the writing of a paper as well as the creation of a new professional society, called the Pan American Society for Evolutionary Developmental Biology, that will help propel the field forward.
Book Recommendations
Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism by Derrick Bell
Most Treasured Travel
Her favorite place where she has lived and conducted science was Crete, Greece. Cassandra went there for a posdoctoral fellowship, and the island and the landscape was absolutely beautiful. She also really enjoyed talking to people and learning about the history and culture there. Scientifically, the institute where she worked was doing excellent research, and made very good use of the resources they had.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories
During a postdoc at the University of Cambridge, Cassandra’s lab group heard that another research group went on a lab retreat to Sicily, so they decided it would be awesome to do a lab retreat somewhere nice and warm. They proposed the idea of a lab retreat to their boss, and he agreed. He chose the location in Wales, and the group was really disappointed by the thought of spending their retreat surrounded by sheep, farms, and lots of damp fog. It turned out they all had a great time and they still laugh about these memories.
Advice For Us All
Don’t let anybody push you around.
Guest Bio
Cassandra Extavour is a native of Toronto, where she attended the University of Toronto Schools and went on to obtain an Honors BSc at the University of Toronto with a specialist in Molecular Genetics and Molecular Biology, a Major in Mathematics and a Minor in Spanish. She obtained her PhD with Antonio Garcia Bellido at the Severo Ochoa Center for Molecular Biology at the Autonomous University of Madrid. She performed postdoctoral work first with Michalis Averof at theInstitute for Molecular Biology and Biotechnology in Crete, Greece, and subsequently with Michael Akam at the University of Cambridge. At Cambridge she received a BBSRC Research Grant and became a Research Associate in the Department of Zoology. In 2007 she established her independent laboratory as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, where she was promoted to Associate Professor in 2011 and to Full Professor of both Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, and Molecular and Cellular Biology, in 2014.
Dr. Extavour has received numerous honors and awards, including a graduate training fellowship of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Research as a graduate student; the EMBO Short Term Fellowship as a postdoctoral researcher, and the Ellison Medical Foundation New Scholar in Aging Award as an Assistant Professor. For her teaching and mentoring activities, she has been nominated for the Joseph R. Levenson Memorial Teaching Prize and the Harvard Graduate Women in Science and Engineering Mentoring Award.
Outside the lab, Dr. Extavour has been a musician and performer since the age of five, and a professional classical singer since her undergraduate days in Toronto, when she was a member of the Tafelmusik Chorus. She currently performs with the Handel and Haydn Society and Emmanuel Music in Boston.

This episode was originally published on April 13, 2015.
The post 589: Dr. Cassandra Extavour: Researching the Role of Genes in the Evolution and Development of Reproductive Systems appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
1 hr
January 18, 2021 588: Dr. Aleix Martinez: An Algorithm for Success! Using Computational and Imaging Approaches to Study Cognitive Science
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Dr. Aleix Martinez is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Director of the Computational Biology and Cognitive Science Laboratory at the Ohio State University. He is also affiliated with the Department of Biomedical Engineering and to the Center for Cognitive and Brain Sciences. Aleix received a Master’s degree and PhD in Computer Engineering from the Autonomous University of Barcelona and a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Paris. Afterward, he conducted postdoctoral research at Purdue University, and also spent some time working as a Researcher at the Sony Computer Science Laboratory in Paris before joining the faculty at OSU. Aleix and his research have been widely featured in the media by sources like CNN, The Huffington Post, Time Magazine, CBS News, NPR, and The Guardian. During our interview, Aleix discussed his research, his career, and his life outside of science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science
Some of Aleix’s favorite activities are hanging out with his family, reading, and running (he runs 50-60 miles per week!).
The Scientific Side
The work in Aleix’s lab focuses on cognitive science. They hold the view that the brain operates like a big (very complicated) computer. To understand the brain, they need to understand the algorithms that are encoded in that computer. His lab uses fMRI and computational methods to understand what areas of the brain are activated or work together to solve certain problems.
A Dose of Motivation
Aleix doesn’t have a particular quote, but is instead motivated by really enjoying what he does everyday and wanting to learn everything he can about his area of study.
What Got You Hooked on Science?
When he was in middle school, Aleix remembers wanting to be a scientist and telling people he was going to design a robot that was going to be able to do lots of different things and was going to make our lives easier and better. Though people laughed at him then, he didn’t waver in his dedication to pursue science and his goal to help people.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges
His area of research is really interdisciplinary, so to be successful, you have to be proficient with a variety of research tools and mathematical analyses. This means there is a lot to learn, and picking up a completely new skill or research area can be a really slow process. There have been times where Aleix has put in three or four years of work with almost no results.
A Shining Success!
One of the great types of successes in Aleix’s career is seeing his PhD students graduate and move on to do great things independently in the world. A recent graduate from his lab has gone on to work at a Non-Profit Research Institute that works to help autistic children, and it is very rewarding to have been a mentor to these students.
Book Recommendations
The Color Purple by Alice Walker, The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann, Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness by Erich Fromm, The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins, Reading Faces by Leopold Bellak, and Eye, Brain, and Vision by David Hubel.
Most Treasured Travel
Aleix has had phenomenal opportunities to visit places like Tokyo, Venice, and Paris, but has really enjoyed a lot of the travel he has done within the United States as well. Being able to visit all of the museums and historical sites in Washington D.C. Has been a great experience in particular.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories
In Aleix’s lab, they like to get together in the summer outside of the lab by having lab BBQs. It’s a great way to get to know each other and just hang out, and he has enjoyed just how funny his students and postdocs over the years have been.
Advice For Us All
Pursue a career that you love so you are excited to go to work each morning.
Guest Bio
Aleix M. Martinez’s research interests include learning, vision, linguistics, and their interaction. His lab combines computational modeling with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and behavioral data to acquire a broader understanding of how the human brain functions. Another emphasis of the lab is in building computational systems that can interact with people in a human-like manner. This involves research on human-computer interaction and computer vision. Aleix’s current research obsession is to understand why he is so bad at recognizing faces. In addition to his research efforts, Aleix was an associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence and currently serves in the editorial boards of Computer Vision and Image Understanding and IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing. He was a Program co-Chair for CVPR 2014 in Columbus, OH, and has previously been an area chair of many conferences, including CVPR, ICCV and F&G. He is also a member of the Perception and Cognition study section at NIH.
This episode was originally released on October 31, 2016.
The post 588: Dr. Aleix Martinez: An Algorithm for Success! Using Computational and Imaging Approaches to Study Cognitive Science appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
51 min
January 11, 2021 587: Dr. Rebecca Richards-Kortum: Engineering Solutions to Improve Global Healthcare Quality and Access
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Dr. Rebecca Richards-Kortum is the Malcolm Gillis University Professor of Bioengineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rice University. She is also Director of the award-winning Rice 360 Institute for Global Health and founder of Beyond Traditional Borders Program at Rice University. Rebecca received her B.S. in Physics and Mathematics from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln and went on to receive her M.S. in Physics and PhD in Medical Physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She served as a faculty member at the University of Texas at Austin, where she was the Cockrell Family Chair in Engineering, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, and a Distinguished Teaching Professor. Rebecca has received many awards and honors during her career, including very recently being named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow. Some of her other recent awards include the Pierre Galletti Award (the highest honor from The American Institute for Medical and Biomedical Engineering), the Lemelson-MIT Award for Global Innovation, and the Michael S. Feld Biophotonics Award from the Optical Society of America. She is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Academy of Arts and Sciences, as well as a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Biomedical Engineering Society, the Optical Society of America, and the National Academy of Inventors. Rebecca is with us today to tell us all about her journey through life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (3:03)
When she’s not working, Rebecca loves to spend time with her children. Rebecca also enjoys getting up early in the morning to go running, and she often participates in half marathon and marathon races.
The Scientific Side (3:48)
Rebecca and her colleagues are developing technologies to improve healthcare as well as improve access to healthcare. They are dedicated to making medical technology less expensive and finding ways to modify medical technology so it can be used in different environments and settings across the world.
A Dose of Motivation (4:32)
For Rebecca, having an opportunity to visit healthcare settings, particularly in under-resourced areas is really motivating. Seeing the limitations in healthcare that exist in places all over the world inspires her to continue working to develop solutions to improve the medical care people receive.
What Got You Hooked on Science? (6:16)
Growing up, math and science were Rebecca’s favorite subjects in school. However, the only career path she was aware of in these fields was teaching high school math or science. As a result, she started in college with the plan to become a teacher. The professor who taught her freshman physics class was phenomenal, and he really encouraged people who liked physics to pursue it. Having great teachers and mentors helped show Rebecca what was possible. As a sophomore, she was invited to work in a lab, and she really enjoyed it. When deciding on her next career step, Rebecca was torn between graduate school and medical school, because she was passionate about both research and medicine. Fortunately, she discovered and was admitted to a medical physics program that allowed her to pursue both of her passions.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (16:29)
A pediatrician in Africa who treated children with HIV/AIDs proposed a problem to Rebecca’s group related to providing patients with the proper doses of medicine. Not all of the caregivers of these children had a good understanding of numbers, and this made it hard for them to give the correct amounts of liquid medicine with a standard syringe. This problem was assigned as a design challenge to a group of senior undergraduate students, and they developed a solution that worked but was too complicated to be practical for daily use. Getting negative feedback from the pediatricians on what didn’t work may not have been easy for the students, but it helped one of the subsequent teams design a simple and inexpensive solution that the pediatricians were really excited about and wanted to implement immediately.
A Shining Success! (19:48)
Rebecca and her students developed a bubble CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machine to help improve newborn infant survival. This machine delivers a constant flow of air that helps pre-term babies breathe for the first few weeks until their lungs fully mature. CPAP machines typically used in the neonatal intensive care units (NICU) in the U.S. cost about $6,000. A group of Rebecca’s students came up with a $160 solution using aquarium pumps that provided the same air flow rate and pressure as the expensive hospital equipment. When they brought the prototype to Melawi for the clinicians to review and evaluate, their CPAP prototype improved pre-term baby survival rates from 24.5% to 64.6%. Rebecca’s group partnered with a company to commercialize this technology, and it is now being used in 23 countries to save newborn baby lives.
Book Recommendations (24:31)
Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley, The Invisible Life of Ivan Isaenko by Scott Stambach, Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
Most Treasured Travel (26:52)
The first time Rebecca went to Melawi was her most memorable travel experience. While she was familiar with many of the challenges in global health, seeing the challenges firsthand had a huge impact. Rebecca remembers going to a neonatal newborn unit where there were so many resources needed, and it was ironic that just down the hall there was a room full of broken, donated equipment which was exactly what they needed, but it wasn’t designed to work well in their environment. For example, common challenges are power outages, inconsistent access to clean water, and running out of basic medical supplies and medicines. This inspired Rebecca to change the direction of what she was working on to come up with solutions to these problems.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (29:45)
They submitted their CPAP project proposal to the U.S. Agency for International Development for their Saving Lives at Birth Program. Rebecca and her team were excited to be invited to participate in the final round of the funding competition. The event was run like a science fair for adults, where they had to stand next to their posters and answer questions about their projects. The judges came around to interview each competitor and timed their answers with stopwatches. At the end, there was a public ceremony to present the awards. With their initial seed funding award, Rebecca was able to hire 3 wonderful nurses in Melawi. When it came time to go through the nerve-wracking science fair process again for a second round of funding, the pressure was even higher because the jobs of these three women depended on getting funded again. Ultimately, they emerged victorious and were able to share the good news with their nurses in Melawi.
Advice For Us All (33:36)
Think about where your heart is in terms of what you want to do, and find a job that aligns with that. When there is a mismatch, it is difficult to be happy and to feel like you are doing the work that you are meant to do. Also, we often forget that as scientists, we have the power to transform the world. We need to take this seriously and be intentional about it.
Guest Bio
Guided by the belief that all of the world’s people deserve access to health innovation, Rebecca’s research and teaching focus on developing low-cost, high-performance technology for low-resource settings. She is known for providing vulnerable populations in the developing world access to life-saving health technology, focusing on diseases and conditions that cause high morbidity and mortality, such as cervical and oral cancer, premature birth, and malaria. Rebecca’s research group is developing miniature imaging systems to enable better screening for oral, esophageal, and cervical cancer and their precursors at the point-of-care. Her group has also integrated advances in nanotechnology and microfabrication to develop novel, low-cost sensors to detect infectious diseases at the point-of-care, including HIV, cryptosporidium, malaria, and Tuberculosis. Her group developed a low-cost sensor to detect hemoglobin concentration; the device reduced per test cost by more than 100-fold (less than US$0.01 per test) compared to the standard of care. She led development of novel nucleic acid tests to enable diagnosis of HIV in infants in low-resource settings, introducing the first integrated paper and plastic device to enable isothermal amplification of HIV DNA. Rebecca has also led the development and dissemination of low-cost, robust technologies to improve neonatal survival in sub-Saharan Africa, including a bubble CPAP device to treat premature infants with respiratory distress syndrome. The device has been implemented at all government hospitals in Malawi, and introduced in Zambia, Tanzania, and South Africa. At Rice University, Rebecca founded the Beyond Traditional Borders (BTB) program in which undergraduate students from multiple backgrounds learn to think beyond geographic and disciplinary boundaries to solve challenges in global health. This program has received numerous awards recognizing its success as an innovative form of delivering engineering education and real-world experience to students. Rebecca is married and has three sons, Alexander, Maxwell and Zachary and three daughters, Katie, Elizabeth, and Margaret.
This episode was originally released on October 31, 2016.
The post 587: Dr. Rebecca Richards-Kortum: Engineering Solutions to Improve Global Healthcare Quality and Access appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
38 min
January 04, 2021 586: Dr. Carolyn Bertozzi: Combining Chemistry and Biology in Search of the Solution for How Cell Surface Interactions Contribute to Human Health and Disease
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Dr. Carolyn Bertozzi is the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Chemical and Systems Biology and Radiology at Stanford University. She is also an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Carolyn received her undergraduate training in Chemistry at Harvard University and was awarded her PhD in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley. She went on to complete postdoctoral research at the University of California, San Francisco and then accepted a faculty position at UC, Berkeley. Carolyn just recently joined the faculty at Stanford in 2015. She is the recipient of the UCSF 150th Anniversary Alumni Excellence Award, the Hans Bloemendal Award from Radboud University, the Heinrich Wieland Prize, the Royal Society of Chemistry Organic Division Bioorganic Chemistry Award, the Lemelson-MIT Prize for Inventors, a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, and many other national and international awards and honors. In addition, Carolyn is an elected Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, the Institute of Medicine, the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. Carolyn is with us today to tell us all about her journey through life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (02:45)
Carolyn has three young boys, and she keeps busy taking them to swimming lessons, gymnastics, and out to the movies.
The Scientific Side (03:30)
Carolyn’s research combines chemistry and biology. Her lab develops tools from chemistry that can be used to study biology with the goal of ultimately creating new molecules that can cure diseases and help us live better, healthier lives.
A Dose of Motivation (04:15)
“Just keep swimming.” -Dory from Finding Nemo
What Got You Hooked on Science? (05:44)
As a kid, Carolyn remembers playing with the gadgets, electronics, and computers that her father (a Professor of Physics at MIT) would bring home. He wanted all three of his daughters to go into science, but Carolyn was more interested in music. She played piano, had a college band, and seriously considered being a professional musician. Carolyn took her parents advice to give science a try, and when she took her first organic chemistry course in college, she knew she made the right choice. Organic chemistry was a perfect fit.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (32:12)
When Carolyn started as a new faculty member, she struggled to manage and mentor students. She took on several new students her first year, thinking they would all be exactly like her. However, she quickly found out this was not the case, and it took her a while to figure out how to be a good mentor.
A Shining Success! (36:33)
Many of Carolyn’s important successes are the successes of her students. It has been really rewarding to work with students and help them in their careers. Carolyn has a growing network of graduated students and now the students working in their labs that has become almost like a family. Seeing many of her former students at the most recent American Chemical Society meeting and reflecting on their time together was wonderful.
Book Recommendations (45:30)
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain
Most Treasured Travel (38:22)
Carolyn was invited once to give a series of lectures across different cities in Australia including Sydney, Queensland, and others. The places she visited were beautiful, the people were friendly, and the science was superb. Another memorable travel opportunity brought her to Williams College in Massachusetts for a high school summer mentorship program called the Catalyst Program. Scientists, artists, and high school students worked together on various projects and learned about different forms of science and art.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (42:36)
Many years ago, Carolyn attended the Gordon Natural Products Conference that brought together a diverse group of organic and synthetic chemists. There was a tradition of enjoying a rock band jam session after the conference, but they keyboardist wasn’t able to make it. Carolyn ended up filling in last minute, and it was a lot of fun. She has also shared many fantastic memories with her lab, including a singing birthday telegram, a lab trip to Las Vegas, and more.
Advice For Us All (51:16)
You have to talk to a lot of people to hear a lot of different perspectives. Find the perspective that resonates with you. Don’t worry about impressing people with your knowledge or accomplishments. Instead, focus on doing what you can to help other people.
Guest Bio
Carolyn’s lab studies cell surface interactions that contribute to human health and disease with specific projects in the areas of cancer, inflammation and bacterial infection. She uses the techniques of organic synthesis, genetics, and biochemistry as tools to study and manipulate complex cellular processes. Much of her research involves cell surface oligosaccharides, biopolymers that contribute to cell surface recognition and cell-cell communication.

This episode was originally released on January 4, 2016.
The post 586: Dr. Carolyn Bertozzi: Combining Chemistry and Biology in Search of the Solution for How Cell Surface Interactions Contribute to Human Health and Disease appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
55 min
December 28, 2020 585: Dr. Talid Sinno: Using Models to Zoom in on Microscopic Aggregation Events in Nature and Man-Made Materials
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Dr. Talid Sinno is a Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering as well as Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also Director of Graduate Admissions. Talid received his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and served as a Lecturer and Postdoctoral Associate there before joining the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania. Talid has received various awards and honors during his career, including an NSF Career Award. Talid is here with us today to tell us all about his journey through life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science
Talid loves to spend his free time cycling. He started in graduate school and still carves out a few hours a week to get on his bike. He also is a big beach aficionado, particularly beaches of the Caribbean.
The Scientific Side
In Talid’s lab they develop computer models and simulations focused on how very small, microscopic objects come together or aggregate to form larger structures in both man-made materials or in natural situations.
A Dose of Motivation
He is not a big fan of motivation quotes but really loves what he does, and that is all the motivation Talid needs.
What Got You Hooked on Science?
Talid was surrounded science and engineering from an early age since his father was an electrical engineer. He was good at math and chemistry, so chemical engineering seemed a natural choice in college.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges
One of the biggest struggles that stands out in Talid’s mind was applying for academic faculty positions. He started applying as a 5th year graduate student to test the waters. After sending out a few applications with absolutely zero feedback, he was a little concerned. In his final year, he was able to get a few papers published and had better luck with the next round of applications.
A Shining Success!
A great success for Talid was one of the grants his lab received. The purpose of the grant was to gather a group of people who hadn’t previously worked together to propose a project where no one was really sure how all the pieces would fit together. This grant shows there is still room for innovation and that funding agencies are still willing to take risks for interesting endeavors.
Book Recommendations
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Most Treasured Travel
Talid fondly remembers a trip to Shanghai, China. He referred to this city as a great microcosm of the country because it is evolving at such a quick pace. There were so many sights, sounds, and smells to absorb. He was able to take off one of the afternoons during the conference and spent 8 hours walking around and exploring the city.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories
In his graduate school lab at MIT they had a very eclectic mix of people. They had one of the few 24 hour operations on campus because all of the people working in that office had radically different work schedules. They never closed the door, and you could go in any time of day and someone would be there.
Advice For Us All
Find balance in life. This is one of the most challenging things in academic life.
Guest Bio
Talid Sinno received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering and B.A. in Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania. He received a Ph.D. (1998) in Chemical Engineering from M.I.T. after which he pursued postodoctoral work, also at M.I.T., until 1999. He has been a member of the faculty of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Penn since 1999. Talid’s research interests are in the broad area of multiscale computational materials science with a focus on nucleation and aggregation processes in crystalline electronic materials and metals, colloidal systems, and blood flow. Talid has received the NSF Career Award (2001) and was selected to attend the Sixth NAE Frontiers of Engineering Symposium meeting in 2000.
This episode was originally released on December 10, 2014.
The post 585: Dr. Talid Sinno: Using Models to Zoom in on Microscopic Aggregation Events in Nature and Man-Made Materials appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
43 min

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