People Behind the Science Podcast Stories from Scientists about Science, Life, Research, and Science Careers

Dr. Martha Muñoz is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University. Martha is an evolutionary biologist who is working to better understand how and why evolution proceeds unevenly across the tree of life. Some features and branches of organisms evolve really quickly, while others remain inert or nearly inert for millions of years. Martha's research...

Dr. Steven Platt is a Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Herpetologist for Southeast Asia. Steve is a crocodile and turtle biologist who studies these animals in the field and in captivity. Many species of crocodiles and turtles are endangered, and Steve is dedicated to better understanding and conserving them. When he's not working, Steve spends his time reading, going for walks outside, birdwat...

Dr. Sharlene Santana is Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Washington and Curator of Mammals at the University of Washington's Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture. As an integrative and evolutionary biologist, Sharlene explores questions about evolution from a variety of perspectives. She is working to understand why some groups of organisms are more dive...

Dr. Ashok K. Shetty is a University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Cell Biology and Genetics and Associate Director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Texas A&M University, Naresh Vashisht College of Medicine. He is developing treatments for neurological and neurodegenerative disorders using stem cells and stem cell-derived products, such as extracellular vesicles. These a...

Dr. Ayse Turak is Associate Professor and Associate Undergraduate Chair of the Department of Engineering Physics at McMaster University. Ayse develops and studies plastic-based electronic materials, such as solar cells and light-emitting diodes. Her goal is to create affordable, sustainable, and ubiquitous plastic materials to provide power and light for people around the world. In her free time,...

Dr. Sydney Glassman is an Associate Professor in the Department of Microbiology & Plant Pathology at the University of California, Riverside. She studies how wildfires affect soil bacteria and fungi, with a particular interest in how soil microbial communities help ecosystems recover after disturbance. Her work focuses especially on mycorrhizal fungi, which form beneficial relationships with plant...

Dr. Edwin "Ted" Bergin is Professor and Chair of Astronomy at the University of Michigan. Ted is an astrochemist who is interested in understanding how and why stars, planets, and living organisms came to be. He examines the formation of stars and planets to better understand the origins of Earth and life on Earth. Since the newly forming stars and planets he studies are so far away, Ted uses astr...

Dr. Cori Richards-Zawacki is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and Director of the Pymatuning Lab of Ecology at the University of Pittsburgh. Cori studies topics in ecology, evolutionary biology, behavior, and conservation in frogs. In particular, she is working to understand how frogs use different body forms, colors, and other features to survive partially on land a...

Dr. Laura Bradfield is Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology at The University of Sydney. In the lab, Laura studies the behavioral and brain mechanisms of compulsivity and compulsive disorders. Conditions like obsessive compulsive disorder, substance use disorder, Parkinson's disease, and Huntington's disease all have elements of compulsivity. Rather than focusing on one particular condition...

Dr. Tim Long is Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Macromolecules Innovation Institute at Virginia Tech. Tim's lab is working on a wide variety of research projects that are focused on novel macromolecular structures to tailor the properties and processing of polymers. His work has applications across many industries, including the development of chemotherapy treatments and electro-active...

Dr. Tajie Harris is an Associate Professor in the Department of Neuroscience in the School of Medicine at the University of Virginia. Tajie's research is at the intersection of immunology, microbiology, and neuroscience. She's interested in understanding how the immune system functions in the brain, particularly when someone is infected with a single-celled parasite called Toxoplasma gondii. When...

Dr. Eric Pop is an Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering as well as Materials Science & Engineering at Stanford University. Research in Eric's laboratory spans electronics, electrical engineering, physics, nanomaterials, and energy. They are interested in applying materials with nanoscale properties to engineer better electronics such as transistors, circuits, and data storage mechanisms....

Dr. Ana Luisa Trejos is an Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering as well as Biomedical Engineering at Western University in Canada. She is also an Associate Scientist at the Lawson Health Research Institute. Ana Luisa's research combines mechanical, electrical, computer, and software engineering to develop smart machines that can perceive what is happening in the environment a...

Dr. Lawrence Uricchio is Assistant Professor and the Youniss Family Professor of Innovation in the Department of Biology at Tufts University. Research in Lawrence's lab focuses on modeling how evolutionary and ecological processes work. They use a combination of experimental and observational approaches to generate data, and then they develop mathematical models to explain the observations they ma...

Dr. R. Douglas Fields is Chief of the Nervous System Development and Plasticity Section at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Adjunct Professor in the Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Program at the University of Maryland, College Park. In addition, Doug is the author of numerous books and magazine articles about the brain, including the recently released book Electric Brain: How the Ne...

Dr. Talithia Williams is an Associate Professor of Mathematics and Associate Dean for Research and Experiential Learning at Harvey Mudd College. In addition, Talithia is Host of the PBS Series NOVA Wonders and author of the book Power in Numbers: The Rebel Women of Mathematics. Talithia is a mathematician who does disease modeling. She has been working with the World Health Organization to create...

Dr. Tyler Susko is Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Cadense, Inc., a company that creates groundbreaking adaptive solutions. He is also a Teaching Professor and Undergraduate Vice Chair in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara. And he is Principal Engineer and Owner of Susko Engineering, LLC. Tyler is dedicated to creating useful things that...

Dr. David Sedlak is the Plato Malozemoff Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Co-Director of the Berkeley Water Center, Deputy Director of the National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center for Reinventing the Nation's Urban Water Infrastructure, and Director of the Institute for Environmental Science and Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley...

Dr. Carla Finkielstein is an Associate Professor of Biological Sciences within the Biocomplexity Institute of Virginia Tech. She is also Director of the Integrated Cellular Response Laboratory at Virginia Tech, a Member of the Executive Committee of the Susan G. Komen Blue Ridge Board, and past member of the Board of Directors of the Virginia Breast Cancer Foundation. Carla is interested in unders...

Dr. Donald L. Smith is the Distinguished James McGill Professor in the Department of Plant Science at McGill University. He is also CEO of BioFuelNet Canada, Head of Biomass Canada, and Head of the McGill Network for Innovation on Biofuels and Bioproduct. Don's research examines relationships between plants and the microbes that live in association with them, particularly in the roots. He and his...

Dr. Andrew Friedman is an Assistant Research Scientist at the Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). He is also a Research Affiliate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). As an astrophysicist and cosmologist, Andy is studying the history of the universe from the Big Bang through present day. Andy and his colleagues use the univer...

Dr. Kristen Lani Rasmussen is Assistant Professor in the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University. Research in Kristen's lab focuses on studying extreme events, particularly weather events such as heavy rainfall, thunderstorms, hail storms, and other events that have a big impact on humans and society. She is interested in examining these extreme event systems in the context...

Dr. Dave Jackson is Professor of Plant Genetics at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Dave is driven to understand what makes plants grow and why various types of plants look different from each other. His research examines how genes control plant shapes, including investigations into the role of genetics and stem cells. The long-term goal is to turn this foundational knowledge into tools that can imp...

Dr. Joyce Ohm is an Associate Professor of Oncology in the Department of Cancer Genetics and Genomics at the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. Joyce's research examines the epigenomics involved in development and disease, particularly in cancer. Epigenomics is the study of how your cells package and store the information in your genome. Individual cells within your body package the genome...

Dr. Bryan Cassone is a Professor and Chair in the Department of Biology at Brandon University in Canada. He is a molecular entomologist. Drawn to the sheer variety of fascinating questions insects can help answer, he is more of a generalist than many scientists in his field. His work spans agricultural and medical pests, plus curiosity-driven projects like studying waxworms (plastic-eating caterpi...