Skype A Scientist Live

Imari Walker's travels have influenced her concern for the future of clean accessible water and our growing islands of plastic pollution in the sea. She completed her Bachelors in Marine Science at University of California, Berkeley and is a PhD candidate in Environmental Engineering at Duke University. Her research investigates the fate, occurrence, and transformation of plastic additives within water. Imari also produces entertaining, easy to understand Youtube Videos focused on environmental science and how to be successful in undergraduate and graduate programs.

Dr Chris Baker is an ecologist who uses DNA sequencing to work out how species interact. His current research uses DNA from blood-feeding leeches to measure animal biodiversity in the Ailao Mountains of China’s Yunnan Province. His previous research took him to the savannas of Kenya where he worked on termites that grow fungus for food, and ants that protect trees from elephants and giraffe. Website: bakerccm.github.io Twitter: @bakerccm

I am a botanist that loves plants and travels the world searching for them! I am also interested in science communication and policy. I want my work to have a positive impact on society.

Dr. Rob O’Malley is an evolutionary anthropologist and primate behavioral ecologist who works for the American Association for the Advancement of Science in the Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion (DoSER) program (www.aaas.org/DoSER). The program fosters constructive science engagement between scientific and religious communities, recognizing that these often overlap. He will share some background and best practices for scientists, educators, and others, drawing on DoSER’s recent and ongoing projects.  He also hopes to learn about others’ perspectives and experiences related to this area of science engagement.

​Alexis Stutzman, BIG Founder PhD Candidate, Genetics and Molecular Biology Curriculum at UNC Chapel Hill UNC-IMSD Genetics Diversity Excellence Fellow, B.S. Univ of Chicago ‘18 Alex studies molecular determinants of 3D genome architectural changes during fruit fly wing development. Markia Smith, BIG Co-organizer PhD Student in Pathobiology and Translational Science at the UNC Chapel Hill B.S. University of Delaware Markia uses integrative genomic approaches to study tumor biology, including genetic and environmental determinants, that cause racial/ethnic disparities.

Aarin A Williams, MS, LCGC Licensed Certified Genetic Counselor MS Human Genetics and Genetic Counseling, Stanford University. BS Biology, Howard University. Aarin currently practices prenatal, cancer and general genetics at Kaiser Permanente Southern California. Loydie A. Jerome-Majewska, PhD Ph.D. Columbia University, Post-doc: Sloan Kettering Institute, Associate Professor at McGill University, Depts of Pediatrics, Human Genetics and Anatomy and Cell Biology. Dr. Jerome-Majewska studies the genetic and molecular basis of abnormal organ development in 22q11.2 deletion syndrome and spliceosomopathies.

Dr. Janina M. Jeff is a senior scientist and population geneticist, with over 20 scientific publications. In addition to her public speaking and prominent position in STEAM, She also is the host and executive producer of a podcast called In Those Genes! The show uses Black culture and hip hop as a vessel to teach genetics to the Black community.

Tykee James moved to DC and joined the National Audubon Society as Government Affairs Coordinator in December of 2018. His background is highlighted with experience as an environmental educator, community organizer, and environmental policy advisor in his hometown, Philly. Tykee is a birder and his passion for the hobby stems from his experience seeing how environmental health reflects community health.  wildlifeobservernetwork.com Twitter: @Tykee_James Instagram: @TykeeJames

Restoring Reefs with Liz Burmester.

Planet Microbe with Luis Valentin

Arik (he/him/his) is a huge herp-nerd and graduate student in Zoology at the University of Florida, where he researches amphibian disease ecology. He is currently trying to understand the impact and presence of the amphibian killing fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), throughout amphibian communities in Florida, and researching how coinfections of pathogens might affect the future of North American salamander species. Arik has previously worked with the USGS and NPS to identify possible pathogen spillover from invasive Burmese pythons to native snake assemblages in the Everglades.

A Board Member and President of BioCurious, a community lab space, a leader on two iGEM teams in 2014 and 2015 and a member of multiple community lab science projects including Open Insulin, Real Vegan Cheese, CuttleWranglin, DIY Bioprinter, and Kombucha Genomics. I push for open source science and for the creation of more community lab spaces.

Bret Grasse is the manager of cephalopod operations at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. He has advanced the field of cephalopod husbandry (aka raising and taking care of cephalopods in an aquarium), and has figured out how to keep many cephalopod species happy and healthy in captivity that humans were previously unable to culture!

​Dr. Carly Anne York is an Assistant Professor of Biology at Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory, North Carolina. Her interests lay in the field of animal physiology, and she earned her doctorate studying how squid use their sensory systems to evade predators.

​Laura is a Program Coordinator at the Center for Disaster Risk Policy and an instructor in the Emergency Management and Homeland Security Program at Florida State University. She conducts research in UAS integration and applications, operates as a public, unmanned pilot and member of the CDRP UAS Team, and occasionally serves as a UAS Coordinator in the Air Operations Branch at the Florida State Emergency Operations Center during disasters. She also maintains the CDRP UAS equipment cache. Laura is interested in policy analysis (specifically innovation and diffusion) at the federal, state, and local levels, and applies this interest to UAS policies, laws, and regulations. She is nearing the end of her third year as a doctoral student at the Askew School of Public Administration and Policy at Florida State University.

Hagfish Slime with Sarah Schorno

Riley Black is the critically-acclaimed author of natural history books such as Skeleton Keys, My Beloved Brontosaurus, and Prehistoric Predators. Her bylines have appeared in publications from Slate to Nature, and she’s a frequent volunteer with paleontology field programs around the west. She lives in Salt Lake City, Utah.

I am a Chilean astronomer searching for optical counterparts of short gamma-ray bursts and gravitational waves. Currently, I am a third year Astronomy PhD student at the University of Maryland (UMD). I am working with Dr. Leo Singer from NASA using the Zwicky Transient Facility to cover large portions of the sky and maximize the probability to find transients in the northern nightsky. I obtained my undergraduate degree from the P. Universidad Católica de Chile where I majored in Astronomy. While there, I worked using machine learning algorithms to find quasars in the ATLAS survey. During my senior year summer, I was part of the Cerro Tololo (CTIO) Reaserch Experience for Undergraduates and worked on identifying globular clusters an a shell-elliptical galaxy. After my graduation I interned at the Gemini Observatory and further analyzed the morphology of the galaxy.

Paleontology with Triceratops with Sophie Cajune

Designing Missions to the Moon and Mars with Sydney Dolan