Category: North America

It takes a village: Creating engineered regulatory T cells to induce immune tolerance

Leonardo Ferreira: "What if we could avoid the need for HLA matching for successful organ transplantation without severely impairing the recipient’s immune system? Better even, what if we could use a mismatched HLA molecule present in the donor but not...

/ November 27, 2021

Growing up in Science: Clinton Cave

Clinton Cave - "Protect your health, find mentorship, and help those around you. And just for the record, "You DO belong here."

/ November 6, 2021

My Developing Journey to Becoming an Agent of Change in Science

Milanpreet Kaur: "It has been three years into my doctoral program, and recently I began to draw connections between my studies and personal growth, asking myself - Have I attempted to act as a catalyst to accelerate the rate of...

/ November 6, 2021

My Career Path Following Water from the Mountain to the Sea and Across an Ocean

Jeeban Panthi: "My professional and personal journey to understand water continues to unfold, and I was a part of a multi-year collaborative research project on climate and water in Nepal."

/ July 8, 2021

Limits to Perfection: Searching For Order in Chaos

Kumaresh Krishnan: "Understanding when the details of a model are satisfactory for the research questions being asked is one of the most critical steps in my work."

/ March 20, 2021

Crisis After Crisis During Pandemic Field Day Experiments

Catalina Mejia: "Whether to a friend, a colleague, or another graduate student, make the small efforts to reach out and ask for support if you are in need of it."

/ March 16, 2021

The Talk of The Sea

Aiza Kabeer: "Our traditional understanding of human exploration is incomplete without Polynesian navigation."

/ January 11, 2021

Fishing for Change: How Fish Tanks and Textbooks Taught Me to Fall in Love with Science (and Discover its Flaws)

Jeromy DiGiacomo: "I hope my story can highlight that in all its objectivity, the STEM community is not immune to prejudice or discrimination and that we have a lot of room to grow."

/ December 22, 2020

Flickering Lights in the Darkness: How Microscopy Shaped My Scientific Path

Natalie Nannas: "Watching those flickering green dots shuttling around the cell convinced me that my future was in research."

/ November 30, 2020

How Getting Kicked Out of My Lab Kick-Started My Career

Kristen Vogt Veggeberg: "I could not have earned the distinction of [Impact Scholar] had I not started my career in graduate school, and I could not have started without that initial failure at hand."

/ November 20, 2020

A Long and Winding Road: One Disabled Scientist’s Story

Katie Stofer: "Mine is a story of [social and financial] supports, and how I am able to do my research not only because of them but in spite of my chronic illness, which I’ve just recently come to recognize as...

/ November 18, 2020

I Thought Only Neurologists Could Study the Brain

Kathryn Bonnen: "The realization that I was not alone put me on a path to recovery that has allowed me to truly enjoy science again."

/ October 8, 2020

From Picking Grapes to Treating Cavities

Ramneek K. Batth: "I came to recognize the importance of research and it’s need to advance almost every, if not all, aspects of life."

/ September 22, 2020

The Faith of A Physicist

Aiza Kabeer: "Though this is a brief overview, Abdus Salam’s life gives us a sad, yet rich and inspiring story of a talented scientist deeply rooted in a religious and cultural identity."

/ September 9, 2020

The Past is the Key to the Future

Peter Puleo: "In working with them and learning about how Earth science is conducted day-by-day, I learned a lot about how to do this kind of lab work, use the scientific process effectively, and think like a scientist."

/ August 4, 2020

Growing up in Science: Jane Willenbring

Jane Willenbring: "My Ph.D. on rates of glacial erosion in the Canadian Arctic and sub-Arctic seemed long and difficult. I thought about quitting many times, but I'm glad I didn't quit."

/ July 10, 2020

Breaking the surface: Lessons on resilience and rebuilding from planarians

Divya Shiroor: "When I look at my publication today, I can’t help but be struck by how 5 years of blood, sweat and tears coalesce so tidily into 5 pages of a journal. I wonder how differently things might have...

/ July 6, 2020

Ice, heat, science, and acting

Morgan Dundon: "I think we should be more accepting of our many dimensions, both academics and actors alike. In my world of materials science, there are solid materials that can exist in more than one form or structure."

/ July 1, 2020

Stories in Science Nanochat: Alfredo Spagna, PhD

Alfredo Spagna, PhD: "The role for the scientist is making science accessible...we have to improve our way in which we communicate new discoveries as a milestone in a scientific process."

/ July 1, 2020

Crossing the finish line

Divya Shiroor: "By trying to make a mad dash to the finish line we run a very solid risk of not making it at all. In the long run, taking a moment to stop and smell the roses might go...

/ June 20, 2020

This Is Not The Way Beyoncé Made It Look

Bianca Jones Marlin: "I came to realize that my connection with my daughter, who’s now two-and-a-half years old, isn’t punctuated moments of oxytocin release. It’s our life together."

/ June 18, 2020

Fraternizing with Failure

Divya Shiroor: "I stepped up on stage, looked into the audience and for the first time ever, completely drew a blank. I tried to find my focus, somehow stumbled though my speech, leaving a big part of it out and...

/ June 17, 2020

Growing Up in Science: Gyorgy Buzsaki

György Buzsáki: "To be part of such a conversation, all I had to do was to learn Morse code, memorize the Q language, learn a bit about electronics, pass exams, get a license, build a transmitter and receiver, and set...

/ June 14, 2020

Be your own Cartographer

Divya Shiroor: "I think of the IDP as a roadmap to the destination of your choice, with the difference being that you build your own road as you go along. It is a tool that helps assess which career you...

/ June 14, 2020

Academia: My forbidden love?

Divya Shiroor: "As happens with all relationships, my honeymoon period ended soon after commencing graduate school. Seven months into my first year, I now realize that my once perfect boyfriend can be complicated, demanding and potentially unstable."

/ June 8, 2020

The Spirit of the Inca

Aiza Kabeer: "When we are not aware of the achievements of civilizations such as the Inca, we are unable to see the breadth of cultures that made outstanding scientific progress."

/ May 25, 2020

Unexpected lessons from conducting research with older adults

Julia Nolte: "Becoming a gerontologist has taught me many unexpected things about the way the “stages of life” translate into lifespan research. Given these surprising lessons, my advice to other budding researchers is this: know that being an expert in...

/ April 4, 2020

Humans of HBI: Isle Bastille

Isle Bastille: "The largest challenge I’ve had to overcome is allowing myself to dream big. Early in life, I was limited by my environment. My mother is an immigrant and knew very little about the process of attending college in...

/ March 15, 2020