Science Behind Science with Dennis Grencewicz

Dr. Lou Charkoudian, a Professor of Chemistry at Haverford College and return guest to the podcast, discusses how she manages to avoid job creep and keep a work-life balance and integration. Beyond being a wonderful scientist and mentor, Lou continuously works to make sure she is a supportive and present parent and spouse. In this episode, we discuss how Lou manages to control her incredibly busy schedule, how to effectively allocate time to tasks, and how to actively reassess her balance in order to optimize both her work efficiency and her family time. Lou offers many great pieces of advice about being a proficient academic and family member that are applicable far beyond her own career pathway. In the end, Lou reflects on the role of sacrifice and hard work in a career and how she derives value from her profession while still taking active responsibility in other aspects of her life. Some helpful links: FLAMEnet

Dr. Jamie Becker, an Assistant Professor of Biology at Alvernia University and return guest to the podcast, discusses how he got started on the path of Marine Ecology and what the real life of a Marine Ecologist is like. Jamie describes the qualifications and training necessary to pursue a career in Marine Ecology, and also shares several colorful anecdotes about fieldwork and the importance of getting out to sea to properly study marine life. After fleshing out what it really means to be a Marine Ecologist, we discuss the relevance of studying Marine Ecology and Biology to the world and link a lot of the skills that we are working to build as translational medical researchers to those Jamie has built throughout his career. Finally, we end by asking Jamie for recommendations on what those interested in launching a Marine Bio/Eco career should consider, including where to find opportunities to get into the field and where to look for graduate programs. Some helpful links: REU Sites Ocean Sciences Job Listings

Milana Leygerman, the Clinical Research Supervisor for Cleveland Clinic’s Genomic Medicine Institute, provides us with a broad overview of clinical research. With her experience at the bench and in various roles on clinical trials and projects, we felt Milana was a perfect fit for a discussion on clinical research as a whole and its relationship to basic science. In this conversation, we touch on the goals, regulatory procedures, ethical considerations, and types of clinical research. Milana also gives a framework for study design, lists the components of a research team, and explains the role of biorepositories. Woven into the discussion is her story of how she came to pursue a path in clinical research, the challenges of working in this field, and her passion for the advancement of medicine and the protection of human subjects.

Dr. Iris Nira Smith, a research associate in Dr. Charis Eng’s lab in Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute, shares her journey toward independence in research. As a recent NIH K99/R00 recipient, Iris explains what a principal investigator is, what some of their responsibilities are, the qualifications for becoming one, and why she chose to pursue this career path. Through reflecting on her past and what keeps her going in the present, Iris places emphasis on the power of perseverance and varied life experiences while sharing numerous mindset shifts we can all make to help us reach our goals. Packed with wisdom and heartfelt anecdotes, we hope this conversation will encourage you to pursue what matters to you in the face of setbacks and challenges. Some helpful links: Toastmasters Ten Simple Rules to Becoming a Principal Investigator I've Seen the End of You: A Neurosurgeon's Look at Faith, Doubt, and the Things We Think We Know

Dr. Stetson Thacker, a Clinical Genomics Curator at GenomOncology and the Social Media Manager for the journal Human Molecular Genetics, returns to the podcast to discuss how scientists communicate outside of publications and conferences. Beyond his expertise in reading primary literature, Stetson has a fantastic understanding of how to actively engage in scientific communication, hence why we wanted to chat with him about this topic. In this conversation, we start off by talking about what he does for Go and as HMG’s Social Media Manager. We then move onto discussing several platforms in which researchers communicate, including Twitter, Substack, Preprint Servers like BioRxiv, and ResearchGate. Finally, we reflect on the Open Science Movement, as well as how we hope to see research communication adapt and improve in the next decade. Some Useful Links: Understanding and Jumping into Science Twitter

Dr. Lou Charkoudian, a Professor of Chemistry at Haverford College, shares her wisdom for teaching and mentoring students through a notoriously difficult course: organic chemistry. Lou explains the relevance and importance of organic chemistry to our lives and unpacks why the course is so challenging for both students and instructors. She shares with us the various structures she’s implemented to set her students up for success and help them feel  supported throughout the learning process. Through her course design and approach to teaching, we learn that organic chemistry can be a fun, accessible, and conquerable subject if approached with a growth mindset. Prepare to be inspired, empowered, and to fall in love with organic chemistry, if you haven’t already. Some helpful links: Is Organic Chemistry Helpful for Basic Understanding of Disease and Medical Education? STEM faculty who believe ability is fixed have larger racial achievement gaps and inspire less student motivation in their classes

Dr. Robert Fairman, a Professor of Biology at Haverford College, explains the value of in-depth lab education during undergrad and gives some insight into his mentorship philosophy. Rob was Dennis’ undergraduate research mentor and a number of the lessons Rob taught are worth sharing on a broader scale. In this conversation, Rob shares great tips about generating thoughtful undergrad research experiences while explaining a course at Haverford called Superlab. He also discusses the value of becoming close to students, standing as a fantastic example of someone who is a friend and advocate first, and a teacher, mentor, scientist, and administrator second. Some useful links: Rob’s 2017 Publication on Structuring a Biochemistry Superlab course: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2003145

Dr. Stetson Thacker, a Clinical Genomics Curator at GenomOncology and a previous PhD candidate in Dr. Charis Eng’s Lab of the Genomic Medicine Institute of Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute, shares his insight into navigating the seas of scientific literature. We both worked with Stetson and mutually continue to agree that we haven’t interacted with someone who had a better handle on the lit than Stetson. So of course, we hoped to pull back the curtain on his tips and tricks through this conversation. We talk about methods for staying current, organized, and collected, as well as how to deeply retain the key takeaways from papers. Highlights include plugs for curating your Google Scholar reading list, incorporating Zotero as a citation manager, and downloading the GoodReads App for finding fun books to read! Some Useful Links: Downloading Zotero: https://www.zotero.org/download/ Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/ An Supplemental Guide to Making the Most of Google Scholar: https://paperpile.com/g/google-scholar-guide/

Dr. Jamie Becker, an Assistant Professor of Biology at Alvernia University, discusses undergraduate course design for the sciences. He starts off by describing how he began teaching before getting into the general curricular and course structure for undergraduate science majors. We then spend some time talking about the details of course design that Jamie likes implementing, including how he has developed engaging and exciting courses even in his early teaching career. We move to the students’ perspective, challenges in teaching, teaching science to non-majors, and finally Jamie’s own motivations in teaching. Ann and Dennis love how Jamie really drives home the normalization of failure in science, specifically in the context of lab work, as well as how Jamie generally spends so much effort caring for the growth of his students. Some useful links: REU Details - https://beta.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/research-experiences-undergraduates-reu Tiny Earth Network - https://tinyearth.wisc.edu/

Welcome to the Science Behind Science Podcast!