Roots to STEM Podcast

In this episode, we’re hearing from Dr. Gonzalo Giribet, who is a Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and the Curator of Invertebrates and Director of the Museum of Comparative Zoology. Gonzalo received his bachelor’s degree and his PhD from the University of Barcelona, then did his postdoc at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. While there, his postdoc advisor convinced him to apply for a faculty position at Harvard, which he got, and he has been at Harvard ever since. Gonzalo was an early adopter of the idea of molecular phylogenetics, which he has used to help clarify our understanding of the invertebrate tree of life. 

In this episode, we chat about: 

• What a postdoc at a museum is like and the types of research you can do at a museum

Get in touch with Steph:

• Twitter

Get in touch with the podcast:

• Twitter

In today’s episode we’re talking to Dr. Paula Welander, an Associate Professor in the Earth Systems Science Department at Stanford University. Although she is now a tenured professor at Stanford, this certainly wasn’t the plan from the start. Paula’s parents immigrated from Mexico in the hopes of giving their family a better life, and they really encouraged her to go to college and to pursue one of two careers, medicine or law. So Paula went to Occidental College with medicine in mind, however that path shifted when she worked in a microbiology lab and realized that research like that could actually be a career. Paula has been working with microbes more or less ever since (although with a short hiatus that we talk about in the episode). After getting her undergrad at Occidental College, Paula worked for a few years (this is where the non-microbial work comes in) and then got her PhD in microbiology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with Bill Metcalf. She then did a postdoc at MIT, where she was co-advised by Dianne Newman (who later moved to CalTech) and Roger Summons. After going through three cycles of faculty applications during her postdoc, Paula got her current position at Stanford Earth, where she studies geologically relevant microbes. 

Some of the things we cover in this episode:

• How can you use molecular biology and microbiology to understand geology and the earth’s history?

Get in touch with Paula: 

• Twitter

Get in touch with Steph:

• Twitter

Get in touch with the podcast:

• Twitter

In this week’s episode, we’re hearing from Dr. Rebecca Shaw, the Chief Scientist at the World Wildlife Fund. Rebecca received her MA in environmental policy and her PhD in energy and resources from UC Berkeley. After finishing her PhD, Rebecca did a postdoc at the Carnegie Institution for Science at Stanford, and then worked at the Nature Conservancy and the Environmental Defense Fund before moving to her current role at WWF. 

Some of the things we talk about in this episode include:

• Rebecca’s decision to turn down a faculty position and instead pursue a career that enabled her to combine her interests in climate change science and non-profit work 

Get in touch with Rebecca:

• LinkedIn

Get in touch with Steph:

• Twitter

Get in touch with the podcast:

• Twitter

In this bonus episode, Steph shares some tips for grad school interviews. This episode is broken down into advice for before, during, and after the interviews.

Here are some additional resources that were mentioned in the show:

Template for thank you note to faculty: 

Hi Dr. (NAME),

It was so great to meet you on Friday. Thanks for taking the time to talk with me and discuss your research and what life in (LOCATION) is like. I think being able to work with yourself and Dr. (NAME) would be a really great way to explore all of my research interests and I'm excited about the prospect of exploring (RESEARCH INTERESTS). I had a great time at my visit and I could definitely see myself at (SCHOOL). 

Please let me know if you need anything else from me moving forward, otherwise, thanks again! 

Template for email to faculty when you’re turning down admission:

Hi Dr. (NAME),

Thank you so much for your consideration and for this extremely generous offer of admission. However, I'm writing to let you know that I have decided to pursue my graduate education at (SCHOOL) and therefore, unfortunately I will not be attending (SCHOOL) 

This was certainly a very difficult decision for me, but I wanted to let you know as soon as possible so that you can make decisions regarding other applicants.

Other resources:

Advice from Letters to Young Scientists

LTYS Grad School Interview Questions Extended List

Interviewing Tips & Advice for STEM Graduate Programs from Cientifico Latino

Get in touch with Steph:

• Twitter

Get in touch with the podcast:

• Twitter

In this episode, we’re talking with Nixon Arauz, who is a PhD Student in Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine. Nixon’s personal experiences have shown him how important things like housing, education, and local politics are for health and wellbeing and has prompted him to become a passionate advocate for improving social determinants of health through his research. Nixon got his bachelor’s degree from Cornell, and a Master’s degree from Columbia. After this he worked at the Office of Health Equity within the Division of STD Prevention at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. While working there, Nixon realized he wanted to hone his technical skills, and so returned to school to get his PhD, where he is now researching HPV-related cancers and beliefs about the HPV vaccines in Hispanic/Latino populations in the US. 

Some of the topics we discuss in this episode include: 

• The nitty-gritty of what a PhD in health policy looks like

Get in touch with Nixon: 

• Twitter

Get in touch with Steph:

• Twitter

Get in touch with the podcast:

• Twitter

Dr. Jorge Ramos is the Associate Director for Environmental Education at the Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve of Stanford University. Jorge earned a Bachelor of Science degree from The University of Texas at El Paso and a Master of Science degree at the University of Washington. He then completed his PhD at Arizona State University where he studied biogeochemical cycling in wetland ecosystems. After his PhD, Jorge worked for the non-profit Conservation International, where he developed and managed coastal ecosystem conservation projects around the world. Jorge now combines his scientific expertise with his teaching and communication skills in his current job at Jasper Ridge.

Some of the things we talk about in this episode include:

• The Ecological Society of America’s SEEDS program (Strategies for Ecology Education, Diversity and Sustainability)

• Attending the UN Climate Change Conference 

Get in touch with Jorge:

• Email: [email protected]

Get in touch with Steph:

• Twitter

Get in touch with the podcast:

• Twitter

Dr. Shane Campbell-Staton is an Assistant Professor in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department at Princeton University. Shane’s research looks at how human actions contribute to contemporary evolution of animals, including elephants, wolves, alligators, and anoles. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Rochester, his PhD from Harvard University, and did his post-doctoral training at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champagne and the University of Montana. Shane got his first faculty position at UCLA, and recently moved to a new faculty position at Princeton.

Some of the things we talk about in this episode:

• how science and nature documentaries and TV shows fostered Shane’s interest in science as a kid (which has come full circle, as Shane is now involved in making science and nature TV shows and documentaries himself)

Get in touch with Shane and check out the research in his lab:

• Shane’s Twitter

Check out Shane’s latest paper on the evolution of tusklessness in elephants (get in touch if you want a PDF):

• Ivory poaching and the rapid evolution of tusklessness in African elephants (Science 2021)

Get in touch with Steph:

• Twitter

Get in touch with the podcast:

• Twitter

This week on the podcast we are hearing from our first post-doc, Bryan Juarez. Bryan is a fellow amphibian-loving scientist who received his bachelors degree from UC Santa Barbara, his masters degree from the University of Michigan, and most recently his PhD from Iowa State University. After finishing his PhD, Bryan started a postdoc at Stanford University where he is co-mentored by Lauren O’Connell and Liz Hadley.

I knew I really wanted to have Bryan on the podcast when I heard about his thesis defense, which he held in both English and Spanish so that his parents – who he calls the heroes of his story – would feel included and could better understand his talk. I think this story is very emblematic of how Bryan thinks about inclusion and diversity in science more broadly. Bryan and I talk quite a bit in this interview about how important it is to understand the huge range of backgrounds that people are coming from when they’re entering into science, and how that may impact the way they think about themselves as scientists and how they may be perceived by the scientific community.

Get in touch with Bryan:

• Twitter

PLOS One Paper Bryan referenced: Postdocs’ advice on pursuing a research career in academia: A qualitative analysis of free-text survey responses

Get in touch with Steph:

• Twitter

Get in touch with the podcast:

• Email: [email protected]

Dr. Lauren O’Connell is an Assistant Professor in the Biology Department at Stanford University. She received an associates degree from Tarrant County Community College before transferring to Cornell University where she received her bachelors degree. Lauren then completed her PhD at the University of Texas at Austin and after that she went to Harvard where she was a Bauer Fellow. This program is a post-doctoral fellowship that funds independent research for five years and prepares post-docs to run their future labs. Lauren is now an assistant Professor in the Biology Department at Stanford University and the principal investigator of the Laboratory for Organismal Biology at Stanford University. 

In this episode, we discuss Lauren’s path to becoming a professor, some of the difficulties that community college students face when trying to get involved in research and STEM fields, what good mentorship looks like, the importance of having a life outside of work, and so much more.

Get in touch with Lauren and check out the research in LOBSU (Laboratory of Organismal Biology at Stanford University):

• Lauren’s Twitter

Get in touch with Steph:

• Twitter

Get in touch with the podcast:

• Email: [email protected]

We’re back for season 2! For our first episode of the season, we’re hearing from Dr. Michael Snyder. He is the Stanford Ascherman Professor and Chair of Genetics and the Director of the Center of Genomics and Personalized Medicine at Stanford University. Mike received his Ph.D. training at the California Institute of Technology and carried out postdoctoral training at Stanford University. He is a leader in the field of functional genomics and multiomics. His lab was the first to perform a large-scale functional genomics project in any organism, and has developed many technologies in genomics and proteomics. He launched the field of personalized medicine by combining different state-of–the-art “omics” technologies to perform the first longitudinal detailed integrative personal omics profile (iPOP) of a person, and his laboratory pioneered the use of wearables technologies (smart watches and continuous glucose monitoring) for precision health. He is a cofounder of many biotechnology companies, including Personalis, SensOmics, Qbio, January, Protos, Oralome, Mirvie and Filtricine.

In this episode, we talk about how Mike got started doing research, why he transitioned to doing more translational research, what some of the differences are between working in academia, start-ups, and pharma, and how the skills you learn as a scientist can be helpful no matter what career you choose.

Get in touch with Mike and the Snyder Lab research:

• Twitter

Get in touch with Steph:

• Instagram

Get in touch with the podcast:

• Email: [email protected]