From where does it STEM?

Per Pallav's website, he studied physics in college at KTH in Stockholm, Sweden (where I’m from). As a PhD student in the lab of Julio Fernandez at Columbia University, he studied the mechanics of protein folding and discovered that we can modulate this process to alter the elasticity of muscles. He then moved to Harvard University as a postdoc in the lab of Xiaowei Zhuang, where he used DNA to invent and build nanosensors that make it possible to see molecular movements. Since starting my lab at the Salk Institute in 2021, he has been excited about building a diverse and thriving research community, while training future leaders in biophysics. When I’m not in the lab, you can find him rock climbing, skiing, or learning to surf.

Dr. Michael Summers is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and the Robert E. Meyerhoff Chair for Excellence in Research and Mentoring and Distinguished University Professor at UMBC. He is also an Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Research in his laboratory is aimed at understanding how HIV-1 and other retroviruses assemble in infected cells and package their RNA genomes. He was an instrumental figure in the success of the amazing Meyerhoff Scholars Program!

In this episode, I interviewed Dr. Antentor Hinton Jr. Per his biosketch on his lab website, he is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics in the Vanderbilt School of Medicine Basic Sciences at Vanderbilt University and a member of the Vanderbilt Diabetes Research and Training Center and the Ernest E. Just Early Career Investigator.

Dr. Hinton’s laboratory has a strong commitment to diversity. Dr. Hinton has published 8 STEM education papers and 32 diversity, equity, inclusion, mentoring, and career development commentaries. Dr. Hinton is currently a national leader on matters related to diversity, equity, inclusion and mentoring. Some of Dr Hinton’s publications include Cell, 2023 (First DEI cover article), Cell, 2022, Cell, 2020, EMBO, 2020 (a), EMBO 2020 (b) Nature Biotechnology, 2020, Trends in Cancer, 2021, Trends in Biochemical Sciences, 2021, Trends in Biochemical Sciences 2022, Cell Reports Medicine, 2021 (Shared 2nd Anniversary Cover), Cell Reports Medicine, 2022, Trends in Immunology 2022, Trends in Cell Biology 2022 (a), Trends in Cell Biology (b), Trends in Biochemical Sciences, 2022 (First DEI/career development cover article for a scientific journal), Trends in Plant Sciences, 2022 (Second DEI/Career development cover article for a scientific journal, Trends in Parasitology, 2022 (Third DEI/Career development cover article for a scientific journal), Trends in Chemistry, 2023 (Fourth DEI/Career Development cover article for a scientific journal) and Trends in Pharmacological Sciences, 2022 (First mentoring cover article for a scientific journal). These pieces are constructive and heavily use the literature to make recommended suggestions.

In this episode, I interviewed Dr. Crystal Schiller, a clinical psychologist specializing in women’s mental health. She studies how hormones trigger changes in mood over the course of the reproductive life span—during the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, postpartum, and the transition to menopause.

She is also passionate about teaching others about the impact of hormones on mood and tools that have been scientifically shown to help.

In this episode, I interviewed Dr. Ubadah Sabbagh & Dr. Daniel Gonzales. Ubadah is a Syrian neuroscientist and NIH K00 Fellow at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, and Daniel just started a faculty position at Vanderbilt University in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. They met over social media, are freakin' HILARIOUS, and I am so glad I got to put them together in a Zoom room!

In this episode, I co-hosted Dr. Eric Green, Director of the NHGRI with Parth and Chinmay, the co-hosts of Biocast. He is the third NHGRI director, having been appointed by NIH director Dr. Francis Collins in 2009. In this episode, we talked about mentorship, baseball, and what it's like to head an institute of the NIH.

In this episode, I co-hosted Dr. Karolin Luger with Chinmay and Parth, the co-hosts of a partner podcast with From where does it STEM? called Biocast. Biocast is a biology podcast made to serve as a resource for anyone interested in biology: whether it be about recent breakthroughs in research, common topics, or even just a general interest, they hope to encourage people to explore the world of biology and help them delve deeper into the wonderful science of life itself.I hosted Karolin in a previous episode back in 2021, and this is the first time I’ve done a follow-up with a previous guest! If you forgot, she is a scientist at the University of Colorado, Boulder who solved the structure of the nucleosome using X-ray crystallography. More recently, she was awarded the 2023 World Laureates Association Prize in Life Sciences or Medicine.

In this episode, I interviewed Dr. Murry Burgess. When I interviewed Murry in 2023, she was a PhD candidate at North Carolina State University, and now she is a tenure-track Assistant Professor at Mississippi State University. She is an ornithology and urban ecology researcher, but she is also a huge advocate for field safety in the natural sciences as an aspect of accessibility and inclusion. In 2022, she co-founded a non-profit organization called Field Inclusive, which amplifies and supports marginalized and historically excluded field biologists. She is also a children’s book author with both self-published work and contracted pieces with Little, Brown Young Readers and Christy Ottaviano Books. She is the author for a nature book series featuring a 5-year old Black girl exploring the nature around her suburban home.  

In this episode, I interviewed Dr. Dimie Ogoina. Dr. Ogoina is a Nigerian Infectious Disease Physician-Scientist and Professor of Medicine at the Niger Delta University. He is also the chief medical director at its teaching hospital and the President of the Nigerian Infectious Diseases Society. He was named one of the 100 most influential people of 2023 by TIME magazine and was named Nature’s Top 10 in 2022. He sounded the alarm on a new presentation of Mpox (formerly known as monkeypox) and his research became critically important to developing better strategies to prevent and control outbreaks. 

In this episode, I had a conversation with Dr. Muhammad Mohiuddin. Dr. Mohiuddin and his team transplanted the first gene-edited pig heart into a human. Currently, he is the Director of the Cardiac Xenotransplantation Program at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore. He received his MD from Dow Medical College in Pakistan and moved to the United States after completing his surgical training. 

In this episode, I had a conversation with Lisa McCorkell, a Long COVID Patient-Researcher and Advocate. She received a Masters in Public Policy from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles. Currently, she is a co-founder, team lead, and researcher with the Patient-Led Research Collaborative. She regularly presents recommendations and the patient perspective to government agencies and has been awarded the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Distinguished Public Service Award and was named Nature’s 10 in 2022. My favorite fun fact about her is that she's a huge Noah Kahan fan!

Dr. Mike Levine is the Director of the Lewis Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics at Princeton University. Originally from Southern California, Mike sat down with me and Marielle Bond to talk about his scientific journey and how he ended up in New Jersey ("of all places!"). He was an absolute joy to talk to, and I was excited to get him on the show because of his passion for training the next generation of scientists and for inspiring fellow Dodger fans (like myself).

Dr. Diana Greene Foster is a Professor at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and the Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH) program. She was just named a 2023 MacArthur Fellow and in 2022, was named by Nature as one of the top 10 scientists shaping science today. She was a leader in the Turnaway Study, a longitudinal prospective study of almost 1,000 women who received or were denied wanted abortions from 30 facilities across the US. She is now leading a Global Turnaway Study, documenting the experience of women and denied abortions in five other countries where it is legal: Bangladesh, Colombia, Nepal, South Africa, and Tunisia.

Per the National Human Genome Research Institute, Dr. Christopher Donohue is a historian at the NHGRI at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He co-manages the History of Genomics Program.  The History of Genomics Program is a unique history and science communications effort at the NIH that uses the history and present manifestations of eugenics, scientific racism, ableism, heteronormativity and their complex connections to contemporary genomics and medicine to facilitate meaningful and difficult conversations that promote equity and confront past and present wrongs. 

NHGRI Eugenics & Scientific Racism Fact Sheet: https://www.genome.gov/about-genomics/fact-sheets/Eugenics-and-Scientific-Racism

NHGRI Eugenics: Its Origin and Development (1883-Present) Fact Sheet:

https://www.genome.gov/about-genomics/educational-resources/timelines/eugenics

Dr. Chrystal Starbird is an Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who is passionate about DEI in STEM and mentoring the next generation of diverse scientists. We had an insightful conversation ranging from actionable things institutions can do to better support historically underrepresented students to how she bumps "Everyday I'm Hustlin'" by Rick Ross when she's in celebration mode! Enjoy!

To learn more about her research, check out her site! (https://starbirdlab.com/)

Happy #TidyTuesday! Excited to share an awesome conversation with Hadley Wickham (@hadleywickham), Chief Scientist @rstudio! We tried to stay away from #ggplot2 and the #tidyverse and wanted to focus on his journey and life. Enjoy! #RStats 

Angeline Dukes is a PhD candidate and neuroscientist at the University of California, Irvine. She is a proud alumnus of Fisk University and the Founder and President of Black in Neuro! We had great conversations about being a mentor and overcoming imposter syndrome. This fall, she will also be starting at the University of Minnesota School of Medicine as an Assistant Professor!

It was an honor and privilege to interview Dr. Francis Collins M.D., Ph.D. He was appointed the 16th Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by President Barack Obama and continued to serve under Presidents Trump and Biden. Dr. Collins is the only Presidentially appointed NIH Director to serve more than one administration. 

Dr. Collins is a physician-geneticist noted for his landmark discoveries of disease genes (cystic fibrosis) and his leadership of the international Human Genome Project which was completed in 2003. He served as director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at NIH from 1993-2008.

Dr. Collins is an elected member of both the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007, and received the National Medal of Science in 2009. In 2020, he was elected as a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (UK) and was also named the 50th winner of the Templeton Prize, which celebrates scientific and spiritual curiosity.

Christopher Emdin, Ph.D., is the Robert A. Naslund Endowed Chair in Curriculum Theory and Professor of Education at the University of Southern California; where he also serves as Director of youth engagement and community partnerships at the USC Race and Equity Center. He previously served as Director of the Science Education program at Teachers College, Columbia University and alumni fellow at the Hip-hop archive and Hutchins Center at Harvard University. The creator of the #HipHopEd social media movement and Science Genius B.A.T.T.L.E.S., Emdin was named the 2015 Multicultural Educator of the Year by the National Association of Multicultural Educators and has been honored as a STEM Access Champion of Change by the White House. In addition to teaching, he serves as a Minorities in Energy Ambassador for the US Department of Energy. 

Check out his new book, STEM, STEAM, Make, Dream, where he explores the ways that science, technology, engineering, and mathematics can transform young people’s lives through learning. This includes reimagining our collective relationship to STEM by presenting it as more accepting and accessible than previously acknowledged!

Yeraldi Loera graduated from Occidental College as a Biology major in the Fall of 2016. After graduating, she attended California State Polytechnic University in Pomona for a Master’s in Biology. Since receiving her Master’s in 2019, she has started a PhD program in the department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University in the lab of Dr. Shane Campbell-Staton. She emphasizes her gratitude to do what she loves and is outspoken on connecting with others about their obstacles and journeys. She is the daughter of a single mother Mexican immigrant who grew up in an underprivileged household and town in Los Angeles with limited educational resources. She recognizes her time at Occidental College as a pivotal point in her journey where she was able to explore science and find her interests. She attributes the bulk of her success to the awesome mentors she has had throughout her time at Oxy and beyond. These mentors have helped her defy obstacles impeding her path, leading her to grow as a scientist and as a person. Mentoring is now a primary goal for her as she studies to become a PI at an institution like Oxy where she can conduct her research while introducing and immersing students into the wonders of scientific research. She has been the first student in both of her graduate labs, finding the challenges of starting a lab both instructional and as a creative outlet to foster a welcoming lab culture. She is working on her scientific communication skills to reach more students feeling unease throughout their academic journey. She is open to conversations on these topics via email (yeraldiloera@gmail.com).

On this episode, I got the chance to sit down and chat about social justice in science with Dr. Sabah Ul-Hasan, a bioinformatician and postdoc at The Scripps Research Institute in San Diego under Dr. Andrew Su. They are currently working on the NIH-funded Wikidata biocuration project. Enjoy!

Awesome chatting with STEM Twitter celebrity George Iskander, a Physics PhD student at the University of Chicago! I also want to announce that I’ll be bringing in co-hosts to bring in unique perspectives and questions! First one is the wonderful SaraJoy Salib of Occidental College! Enjoy!

Special shout-out to Ethan Lin, a Valencia High School (Santa Clarita, CA) graduate and current undergraduate at the Rochester Institute of Technology, for producing the music used in this episode! The Global Prep Academy product will be majoring in Electrical, Electronic and Communications Engineering and hopefully will continue making music!

Dr. Karolin Luger is a biochemist and structural biologist at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Famously known for solving the structure of the nucleosome via X-ray crystallography, she also believes that one of the most important aspects of her job is training and inspiring the next generation of scientists! Enjoy!

Tigist (Tiggy) Menkir is a PhD student working with Dr. Caroline Buckee at the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics housed within the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She did her undergraduate training at Princeton University where she received her BA in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology with minors in Global Health and Health Policy and French Language in Culture. She studies infectious disease epidemiology and utilizes machine learning-based methods, spatial statistics, and traditional dynamic models for infectious disease surveillance, with a focus on data-limited settings and marginalized populations. Enjoy!

Cristal Rivera is an industrial production engineer who I had the pleasure of meeting through the 2021 RStudio Diversity Scholars program. She is extremely passionate about data science and advocating for opportunities in STEM for people from marginalized backgrounds, especially women! Enjoy!

Episode 2 of Season 2 is LIVE! On this week’s episode, I had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Dr. Charles Scaife! Charles is currently an ORISE/ORAU Science, Technology, and Policy Fellow at the US Dept. of Energy and was formerly a NOAA Sea Grant Knauss Fellow! He received his PhD from the University of Virginia and completed his undergrad at UNC Chapel Hill! Enjoy! 

Season 2 is LIVE! On this week’s episode, I had a life-changing conversation with Prof. Christopher Jackson who is now a Professor at the University of Manchester in England! He is quite the celebrity in the geology world and is the FIRST Black scientist to give a Royal Institution Christmas Lecture which is a tradition started by Michael Faraday in 1825! Enjoy!

"...the road less traveled by, and that has made all the difference." Alexis Zukowski is a postdoc in the lab of Dr.Srinivas Ramachandran lab at the University of Colorado, Denver- Anschutz Medical Campus.

Hosted by JP Flores

Dr. Alias Smith is an Associate Program Director at the National Science Foundation (NSF). In this episode, we chatted about his journey as both a student AND a mentor. Alias did his undergrad at the University of Missouri and pursued his PhD at UCLA. He made it clear that science isn't just about producing great results, it's about inspiring people to be creative. To be a scientist is to be human. It's about helping communities and others. Enjoy!

Justin Stewart is a queer, autistic microbiologist who has a burning passion for diversity and inclusion in STEM. Originally from Texas, USA, they made their way over to Amsterdam and is now doing great work on the MiCRop project! Enjoy!

Dr. Amanda Zellmer of Occidental College put together a phenomenal course called Broader Impacts of Biology. Dafna Erana and I led a discussion in the class about racism in medicine and healthcare and brought on Dr. Callistus Ditah who is a surgical resident at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. In 2021, he will be the first Black male resident to graduate from the university. In this episode, he talks about his experiences at UW and in America. Enjoy!

In this episode, I was able to interview Jasmin Graham who is a shark scientist studying elasmobranch ecology and evolution. She has a passion for science education and making science more accessible for everyone, especially underrepresented minority students. She is a director of the MarSci-LACE project and one of the CEOs of the Minorities in Shark Science (MISS). Enjoy!

Everyone's academic journey is different. Just ask Amanda Finn- an undergraduate at Cal State University, Long Beach. Her passion and love for research is rooted in Kinesiology, and she aspires to be a professor one day. She is a friend from home who I wish I was closer with in high school. I hope y'all enjoy her journey as much as I did!

In this episode, I got to sit down and interview Dr. Christopher Barnes and Dr. Naima Sharaf who are currently postdoctoral researchers at CalTech. They are both structural biologists that just accepted positions at Stanford University. They also have two kids! Community, support, and yes, luck, were a huge part of their success. They believe in the power of mentorship, and I 'd probably give my left arm if I was ever given the chance to work with them. Enjoy!

This past week, I got to sit down and interview Brian Zou (Macalester College) and Evelyn Montenegro (UC Davis) about their journeys in STEM as underrepresented students. Zou and Montenegro are undergraduates who are undoubtedly going to change their communities with their intelligence, grace, and compassion. I am very grateful I met them, and I hope y'all enjoy listening to them as much as I did.