Patricia Strach is a professor of political science and public administration and policy at UAlbany's Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy and the director for policy and research at the Rockefeller Institute of Government, a public policy think tank for the 64-campus wide SUNY system. Strach is the principle investigator of the institute's Stories from Sullivan, a series that examines how opioid misuse affects local communities and what kinds of policies could make a difference.

Virginia Eubanks is an associate professor of political science at UAlbany's Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy. On this episode of the UAlbany News Podcast, Eubanks shares about her book, 'Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police and Punish the Poor.'

It's been about three years since the World Health Organization announced that the Zika virus and its possible link to birth defects was an international public health emergency. Eli Rosenberg of UAlbany's School of Public Health describes his ongoing efforts to study the disease with The Dengue Branch of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Samantha Penta is an assistant professor of emergency preparedness in the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity at UAlbany. Her research focuses on health and medical care in crises, decision-making in preparedness and response and humanitarian logistics.

Sarah Mountz is an assistant professor in the School of Social Welfare at UAlbany. Mountz's research focuses on the experiences of LGBTQ youth in child welfare and juvenile justice systems, and among homeless youth populations.

This episode includes sound bites from the 2017 mini-documentary, "From Our Perspectives: Untold Stories of LGBTQ Youth in the Los Angeles Foster Care System," which features community-based, qualitative research by Mountz and Moshoula Capous-Desyllas of California State University Northridge. Watch the documentary: vimeo.com/220431684.

Herbert Fotso is an assistant professor of physics in UAlbany's College of Arts and Sciences. His research focuses on theoretical and computational condensed matter physics. In this episode, Herbert gives insight on the global arms race in quantum computing, and where the U.S. stands in the competition to create the world's next quantum computer.

For the last installment of a three-part series on climate change, we feature Brett Levy, an assistant professor of educational theory and practice in UAlbany's School of Education, and Casey Meehan, the sustainability coordinator for Western Technical College in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Levy and Meehan have researched how textbooks frame the issue of climate change, and the extent to which they prepare today's youth for civic participation.

On the last episode for 2018, we take a closer look at what political scientists call "Opportunity Zones," or economically-distressed communities. Our guest for this episode is Timothy Weaver, an assistant professor of political science at Rockefeller College. His research focuses on urban policy and the role of race, class and culture in American politics. Weaver is the author of 'Blazing the Neoliberal Trail: Urban Political Development in the United States and the United Kingdom' (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016).

Elisabeth O'Rourke is a PhD student in clinical psychology in UAlbany's College of Arts and Sciences. She studies how self-regulation predicts the development of psychopathology in children, adolescents and emerging adults.

Mathias Vuille, a professor of atmospheric and environmental sciences at UAlbany, and his research team project that Peru’s Quelccaya Ice Cap could meet its demise by the mid-2050s.