Skype a Scientist Live

​Jaida Elcock is a graduate student at the University of Washington. Her research focuses on elasmobranch ecology and conservation. She is particularly interested in the movement ecology of migratory elasmobranchs, as this information is still unknown for many species. Jaida received her B.S. in Biology with University Honors from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona. She has been recognized as an American Elasmobranch Society Young Professional Recruitment Fund Scholar and an Honorable Mention for the National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship Program. Jaida is a science communicator through social media and enjoys doing outreach with any age group.

Nichole Broderick is an Assistant Professor of Biology at Johns Hopkins University. Her research focuses on impacts of the microbiome on animal health. Nichole’s teaching portfolio includes Tiny Earth, a microbiology-based authentic research course in which students search the soil and other environments for antibiotic-producing microbes. Through her role as the Director of Science and Training for Tiny Earth, she has helped train over 200 college and high school instructors to implement this course.Broderick received her PhD from University of Wisconsin-Madison and was a postdoctoral fellow at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland. She has won several awards including a Human Frontiers Long-term Postdoctoral Fellow, the 2020 Faculty Mentor Award from the University of Connecticut McNair & LSAMP Scholars Programs, and the 2021 American Society for Microbiology Award for Education.

Michael Baym is an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Informatics at Harvard University. His research is centered around the problem of antibiotic resistance, at the intersection of experimental, theoretical and computational techniques. His work ranges from understanding the basic mechanisms of evolution to the development of algorithms for computation on massive biological datasets. Baym received his PhD in Mathematics from MIT and was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School in Systems Biology. He has won several awards including a Packard Fellowship, a Pew Biomedical Scholarship, and a Sloan Research Fellowship. He is also a part-time inventor, holding over four dozen issued US patents.

I grew up in New Philadelphia, OH and have always been interested in animals. I participated in 4-H equine projects and milked cows at local dairy farms in high school, but did not decide I wanted to pursue veterinary medicine until I was in college at Colgate University in Hamilton, NY. There I earned a BA in Molecular Biology and minor in Environmental Studies. I went to veterinary school at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine and have worked for the 5 years since serving the dairy, beef, equine, sheep, goat, and camelid patients and clients of Western NY state with the Perry Veterinary Clinic.

Watch her session here: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83167298401

Caitlin Cunningham is a PhD candidate in Interdisciplinary Studies at Dalhousie University. Her research looks at how cities can be better designed to support wildlife and meet biodiversity conservation goals. She is especially interested in how small spaces, like lawns and roadside verges can be used as wildlife habitat in the city. In her spare time, she is on a mission to find the best climbing tree in Halifax and the best recipe for peanut butter baked goods.

Wieteke Holthuijzen is a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow at Northern Illinois University, where she studies the ecological impacts of introduced house mice on Midway through a collaborative research effort with Island Conservation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Previously, Wieteke served as the Invasive Plant Control Specialist on Midway, helping to restore the atoll to a bustling seabird colony. She is intrigued by the nexus of nature and human presence and seeks to study and contribute to the conservation of imperiled species. In her spare time, she enjoys playing the cello, ukulele, banjo, and electric bass, and competing in roller derby with her local league (The Barbed Wire Betties).

An internationally renowned archaeologist with more than thirty seasons of excavation experience, Prof. Eric H. Cline has conducted fieldwork from Greece and Crete to Egypt, Israel, and Jordan. Drawing on his forthcoming book, Digging Deeper, Cline will answer questions that archaeologists are most frequently asked: How do you know where to dig? How are excavations actually done? How do you know how old something is? This session will be filled with insights and practical advice about how archaeology really works. The webinar will begin with a short introduction and then will be opened up to the audience for a live Q&A session with Prof. Cline.​

An archaeologist's daily life is quite different than the images portrayed in popular movies and media. However, there is still plenty of discovery, adventure, and personality. Blogging has offered archaeologists the opportunity to communicate both their work and their lives in a personalized and ongoing way that departs from printed books and documentaries. This session explores the speakers' experience in blogging archaeology for the past 5 years and how this medium has impacted her archaeological research, as well as other facets of her life. 

This webinar presents evidence for the late Roman/early Byzantine leprosy epidemic that affected Thebes, and probably a much wider area of Greece. It  also will look at individuals who were buried in two mass graves, suggesting that they died in a catastrophic event, such as an epidemic disease. The Justinianic plague, known to be the first wave of bubonic plague to sweep through Europe, was ravaging the Mediterranean world during the centuries this cemetery was in use.  We anticipate that DNA analysis will identify the disease that killed the individuals in these mass graves, but we know already that many of them also were suffering from leprosy when they died.