When Science Speaks

In a first father-daughter interview on the podcast, Bill and Emma Dauster discuss important science communication and policy issues, including:

– Approaches that Bill, a longtime public policy expert, has found scientists employ that are particularly effective in getting their message across to politicians and common missteps to avoid

– Notable differences between persuading a scientific advisor compared to a politician that a research project is important and/or deserving of funding

– How Emma's science background as a PhD student in Neuroscience and Behavior informs her views on politics

– When Bill was working in the Senate and the White House, which qualities and skills did effective scientist-staffers he supervised or worked with seem to possess

– The best entry points for scientists who want to get into the policy arena, including at the local, state, or federal level and Legislative Branch compared to Executive Branch

– The importance of diversity in research

– Scientists are trained to "follow the data", but public policies are shaped by, and embedded with, political considerations like the "equity" of a proposal, not just how efficient it may be, or the power of certain group in society to bend a policy to its benefit, for example. How these factors can challenge scientists interested in policymaking, as it's not just "all about the data"

This week's episode features Mike Simonds, the Chief Operating Officer of Unum, a leading provider of disability, life, accident, critical illness, dental and vision benefits through the workplace that serves 39 million people worldwide covering 182,000 businesses in the U.S. and the U.K. that offer benefits provided by Unum.

We discuss a range of workplace culture and skills issues, including:

Unum's strong Multicultural Leadership Development Program

The leadership qualities Unum seeks to cultivate in participants in its talent development programs

The importance of storytelling in presenting data and understanding data doesn't "speak for itself"

The types of skills and attributes Unum considers to be key when recruiting potential new hires

The future of work evolving or transforming as a result of changes in response to COVID?

Mike's career advice for listeners who may be interested in data science outside of academia but don't know where to begin

This episode features Jenny Ro, Ph.D., who's had a fascinating career journey so far.

While a college student, Jenny worked with four companies, including Proctor & Gamble, and commercialized her own invention without a patent.

During our conversation, Jenny describes being mentored by "Super Connectors" and learning how to build human relationships to solve problems. Jenny's goal is to enable everyone to do that.

We discussed a range of topics relating to innovation, mentoring, and the importance of effective communication, such as:

- Jenny's story about her biologist days and how Ohio State football helped her conduct her field research

- How she perfected her "story" as she made her way through the fields of Ohio looking for wild birds

- What led Jenny to start her company CuriousReactor and what her plans are for the future of the company

- How the company can benefit scientists, who often may be introverts

- Jenny's belief that the tech transfer system is broken and what should be done to fix it

- Jenny's thoughts on when an idea is worth patenting and when it's not worth it, as much can be done without a patent

- Why Jenny believes that COVID is accelerating connections

- Why Jenny thinks the peer review process will be affected in the longer term, after we move beyond the current COVID circumstances

Today's episode features Mary Foley Phillips, PhD.

Mary's mission is to empower women to take control of their destinies and make decisions according to their values, with the ultimate goal of growing the pipeline of strong women business leaders, women sitting on governance and scientific advisory boards, and women business mentors.

We discussed a range of topics, including:

- Mary's leadership in her 500 Women Scientists chapter and her motivation for creating monthly pub talks on scientific topics.

- What surprised her about the pub talks

- Why she thinks scientists are attracted to participate in these events and how she thinks participation has affected the way these scientists talk about their research to general audiences

- The reaction from patrons at the pub during the talks and whether they ask questions or engage at all

- As a leader in Research Development for many years, putting together teams to go after grants, for example, what common features Mary found across successful grant winners

- The lessons Mary feels she learned as a start-up founder, and what would she would do differently - if anything - were she to start another company in the future

Richard Nugent is passionate about helping others make the most of their innovations. His expertise is Intellectual Property Strategy, Competitive Intelligence, IP Training, and related services.

On this episode of When Science Speaks, we discuss a range of issues related to translating science into the commercial realm, including;

- Richard's methodology for working with PhDs and researchers to help them translate their ideas and innovations into commercial products

- Some of the common challenges he finds that can trip up scientists as they work to make the journey through translational science

- Some examples of both successful translation to the marketplace and unsuccessful attempts

- Certain attributes Richard has found during his long experience of working with scientists and their IP that are solid indicators a particular scientist or team is more likely to be successful - or not

- The kind of training Richard recommends for scientists interested in translational science to help them improve the likelihood of success

- Some of the blindspots inventors aren't even aware of as they're getting started in translational science

- One piece of advice Richard would give inventors interested in translational science

In this episode, I discuss the roots and applications of effective, authentic persuasion with New York Times best-selling author Jonah Berger, PhD, including topics such as:

How Jonah got interested in persuasion and decision-making What fascinates him about these topics

In The Catalyst, Jonah writes about "Reactance", which he describes as the negative feeling experienced when told what to do, often triggering resistance and rejection of whatever it is. How should policy makers address Reactance if the goal is to encourage widespread mask-wearing and vaccination, now that we have vaccines approved as safe and effective in the U.S.

Jonah writes about another powerful force affecting people's decision-making process- "Endowment" - which he defines as the increased value people place on things they've been doing or owning for a while, like a home, for example. How can those who want to authentically and honestly persuade take Endowment into account in their persuasion efforts.

The role of emotion, not just data, is so important in persuasion. What Jonah says to those who aren't comfortable invoking emotion or the type of training that expressly teaches not to invoke emotion?

Where can listeners go to learn more about your work? Any plans yet for your next book?

In this week's 2-part episode, Mark talks with Jessica Li, who has a range of experience in VC, content development, and growth marketing.

Mark and Jessica discuss a range of topics, including:

Jessica's approach to interviewing guests when she develops content and how it informed her approach when potential portfolio companies wer pitching to her and her former colleagues at Sonoma Capital

What makes a good interview, in Jessica's view

In translating their science to the market, what do many founders get wrong (including the recognition that "translation" is even required)?

In addition to being an investor and entrepreneur with a strong background in quantitative skills, Jessica also is a frequent writer for general audiences. The combination of these two abilities at such a high-caliber is unusual. How did her dual talents develop, and does she see any connections to her approach to writing and how she tackles challenges requiring expertise in quantitative principles?

In addition to her mentoring of founders mentioned in the introduction, Jessica also is Head of Content at Elpha, an online forum for women in tech. Are there specific obstacles that women in tech encounter that are not experienced by their male counterparts? How can men in the industry support their female colleagues who may be faced with these challenges?

Jessica has achieved quite a lot in her career journey so far, which still is in its early stages. What qualities have helped spur Jessica's successes so far?

What advice does Jessica have for listeners who may be scientists or engineers thinking about entrepreneurship as a career choice?

Mike Grandinetti and Dr. Ikhlaq Sidhu first appeared on the show in November 2020 to discuss their plans and the then upcoming launch of the Global Venture Catalyst (GVC) platform and community.

The GVC initiative is aligned with a number of COVID-19 innovation-focused podcasts that I collaborated on with Mike in the Spring and Summer of 2020 to highlight how a number of institutions, from Mass General Hospital to Georgia Tech to Rutgers to the Smith College Picker School of Engineering were breaking down silos and bringing together previously disparate groups to create critically needed ICU-class mechanical ventilators, incubation boxes, and face shields to overcome supply chain bottlenecks and life threatening shortages of this critical Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

In this promised follow-up episode, Iklaq and Mike provide an update on the key take-ways of the GVC event, which operated on five continents simultaneously between January 9-17, 2021

Here's a quick executive summary of this exciting - and groundbreaking - initiative:

170 students participated with representation from the top 25 research universities globally and the top 20 MBA programs globally

Successful global corporate collaboration with Medtronic, Dassault, Next Era Energy, Applied Material, Celonis, Elkem, Axel Springer, and others

Successful participation of global VC funds and tech accelerators, including LearnLaunch EdTechAccelerator, Blockchain Founders Fund, Amazon LaunchPad, and others

Successful participation of global advanced tech startups

Major learnings

Tested AI algorithms for creating student teams

GVC's project-based team collaborations/spring are the new job interview

GVC is creating the education program of the future by:

- Unlocking latent potential of students

- Providing project - based learning in real life situations (STARTUP ventures and firms)

- Developing a professional profile for tech skills and also for proactive team behaviors (IQ/EQ/collaboration skills)

- Delivering a benefit to all stakeholders

- Helping students unlock potential, learn on real projects, and meet industry leaders and learn about industry players they likely would not have otherwise encountered

- Participating companies get visibility with a sought-after talent pool, targeted recruiting opportunities, and can benefit from the solution of, or progress towards resolving, actual problems

- Nurturing emerging ecosystems, diversity slate, and CSR

GVC major take-aways

1. Global community of innovators across 5 continents came together very quickly

2. Validated huge gap between companies and young, hyper-current skilled students

3. Great tech talent is truly globally dispersed

4. Undergraduate students can make huge contributions

5. The design sprint methodology, infused with the innovation-engineering methodology - is powerful and effective across many "use cases" (AI/ Machine Learning; tech assessment; UI/CX; Minimum Viable Product)

6. It's remarkable what can be achieved in a 4-day focused sprint to unleash innovation

7. Some students hired to be interns, for example:

- Czech student with strong hired as intern by Boston EdTech company led by MIT CSEE grad)

- US MechEng student with career goal to work in auto industry to be hired as intern by a European company building next gen EV lithium ion batteries

Going Forward Plans

Build a platform and a community

Continue to grow global community

Provide additional opportunities for students to realize their professional goals and ambitions through a range of programs, including:

- Short term consulting projects - funded by scholarships/ stipends / etc.)

- Fellowships to contribute to building GVC community

- Create additional opportunities for companies to hire the very best students (both EQ/IQ) to support access to critical talent (including racially and ethnically diverse talent) and innovation activation goals through a range of programs

- Leverage hybrid faculty, students

- Launch more sprints, short-term consulting projects

- Provide developing countries and regions with opportunities to help advance their students educational STEM skills by transcending limited local resources and expertise and integrating these participants them into a larger global digital ecosystem

Relevant Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

https://www.globalventurecatalyst.org/

https://www.globalventurecatalyst.org/blog

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/markdanielbayer_entrepreneurship-startups-education-activity-6728332715592040449-rK5U/

https://whensciencespeaks.com/podcast/caring-for-covid-19-patients-creating-ventilator-design-challenge-with-rich-boyer-md-phd/ https://whensciencespeaks.com/podcast/georgia-techs-inventive-responses-to-ppe-shortage-with-chris-saldana-phd/

On this episode of "When Science Speaks", Chiara Bertipaglia, PhD shares her perspectives on a range of issues related to making the transition from researcher to the field of professional development, including:

The work she does at the Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute

What led her to decide she wanted to focus on professional development and community building

How she managed that transition and whether she had supportive mentors to support her along the way

Her training work in transferable skills, which is so important, particularly during this turbulent time, and how she views the dynamic of the increasing need for natural and social science PhDs and trainees to learn skills such as business concepts for scientists

The challenges she experienced as she continued her training (Chiara earned her PhD in Germany), how she embarked on her career in the U.S., and overcome obstacles

Chiara's advice to listeners who may be facing some of the same, or similar, trials and tribulations she experienced

Thinking about her training curriculum, where she typically finds the biggest areas in need of improvement

The one thing listeners can do today to be better communicators of their science to general audiences

In this episode, Mark and his guest, Jaishree Singh, discuss a range of issues related to impact investing, including:

How Jaishree got involved in this dynamic, meaningful field, and what sort of knowledge, skills, and abilities enable her to be effective in her work

The evolution of impact investing, including how it got started and the major industry players in the field

How Jaishree overcomes the challenges of communicating data to general audiences and how she goes about doing it in a way that's relatable and engaging

With Jaishree's public health background and communications expertise, how how she believes information about COVID-19 should be better communicated