Dr. Stephanie Poindexter is a biological anthropologist at the University of Buffalo specializing in primatology. Doctor Poindexter conducts field, lab, and desk-based research into how primates use and navigate their habitats. More specifically, Doctor Poindexter investigates primate movement, morphology, and cognition. Of particular interest is the slow loris. Dr. Poindexter investigates how the environment, other animals, and their own cognitive and physical capacities influence the nocturnal slow loris's movement.

In this episode, we learn how Dr. Poindexter loved primates as a child, planned for medical school, then rediscovered and fell in love with primatology as an undergrad. We also learn how Dr. Poindexter came to specialize in the slow loris, and how she expands the scope of thinking about evolutionary drivers of movement and cognition.

Kinesiology Professor Shilo Nelson’s story highlights the important point that there is no one correct way to approach a career in STEM. Our conversation covers a range of topics, including the following:  

• Prof. Nelson’s experience in the United States Air Force;
   
• How Prof. Nelson parlayed her discipline and physical fitness into a stint as a Seattle Sea Hawks cheerleader;
   
• The importance of seeing – and taking – opportunities that don’t seem obvious fits with one’s background;
   
• How Prof. Nelson’s path as a kinesiology major at Eastern Washington University led to body building, work as an aerobics instructor, goat yoga, and more!

Tomi Akingbade is the founder of the Black Women in Science Network and a Ph.D. student in Neurochemistry at the University of Cambridge. Tomi’s scientific research centers on the inflammatory mechanisms of aggregates in Alzheimer’s disease.  Interested in science since childhood, Tomi founded the Black Women in Science Network as a response to the lack of frank conversations about being a Black woman in science, and the supportive community such conversations generate. The image of what it is to be a scientist is changing, and must continue to do so, if the sciences are to achieve a comprehensive understanding of nature. Partly to that end, Tomi is working to expand the Black Women in Science Network into a global organization.

Cambridge University neurochemistry Ph.D. student, Tomi Akingbade is founder of the Black Women in Science Network. Tomi’s scientific research centers on the inflammatory mechanisms of aggregates in Alzheimer’s disease. Our conversation covered a range of topics, including the following: 

• How Tomi discovered neuroscience early in high school, but didn’t study in the field until years later because she didn’t know it was a career path
• The trials and tribulations of finding your way to – and through – a Ph.D. program, and the importance of supportive mentors throughout
• How Tomi started work in a virology lab in February 2020 – just before the COVID pandemic started
• How Tomi decided to start the Black Women in Science networking group in 2018

Groundbreaking neurobiologist, Dr. Gina Turrigiano heads up the Turrigiano Lab in Brandeis University’s Biology Department. Dr. Turrigiano’s work focuses on brain plasticity. Our conversation covered a wide range of topics, including the following:   

• How Dr. Turrigiano and her husband, electrophysiologist, Dr. Sasha Nelson, navigated the challenges involved in couples hiring at research institutions – especially when young children are in the mix; 

• How Dr. Turrigiano’s undergraduate career as a biology major at Reed College led to a concentration in neurobiology; 

• What “brain plasticity” means and how it applies to Dr. Turrigiano’s work; 

• What homeostatic plasticity mechanisms are; 

• Why Dr. Turrigiano thinks science is fun; and 

• What Dr. Turrigiano’s life is like outside the lab. 

Dr. Gina Turrigiano is the Joseph Levitan Professor of Vision Science in the Biology Department at Brandeis University, where she heads the Turrigiano Lab.

Dr. Turrigiano completed her undergraduate studies at Reed College, and her PhD at the University of California, San Diego, before moving to Massachusetts for her post-doctoral work at Brandeis. Publishing on a variety of topics in neuroscience since 1997, Dr. Turrigiano has long focused her research on brain plasticity. Recent research furthers the understanding of homeostatic plasticity mechanisms through studying sleep-wake cycles, and the results of her research include advancements in understanding how so-called self-tuning mechanisms relate to brain disorders like epilepsy and autism.

Dr. Turrigiano’s work has been recognized with fellowships from the MacArthur foundation and Sloan foundation, and awards from the McKnight foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Human Frontier Science Program Organization. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the President of the Society of Neuroscience, Dr. Turrigiano is a groundbreaking researcher working at the leading edge of neuroscience.

Dr. Daphna Joel is Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University. Dr. Joel is a member of the School of Psychological Sciences and the Sagol School of Neuroscience.

After having completed her PhD in Psychobiology at Tel Aviv University in 1998, Dr. Joel received the Alon Fellowship for Young Scientists and then joined Tel Aviv University’s faculty. Dr. Joel’s work focuses on the relations between sex, gender, and brain structure and function. She has published over 70 papers and is the author of Gender Mosaic: Beyond the Myth of the Male and Female Brain. One of Dr. Joel’s central findings is that there is no “male” or “female” brain. Instead, each brain is a unique “mosaic” (combination) of features — some features may be more common in males, others in females, and others still common in both. Similarly, each individual possesses a unique mosaic of gender characteristics, such as behaviors, personality traits, and cognitive abilities.

More generally, Dr. Joel’s research reveals that even though biological sex is not an illusion, our binary conceptualization of sex, brain, and gender is illusory. 

Learn More about the Gender Mosaic Project and fill out the Questionnaire here: https://gendermosaic.tau.ac.il/

Dr. Kisha Supernant, Biography from The University of Alberta: Dr. Kisha Supernant (Métis/Papaschase/British) is the Director of the Institute of Prairie and Indigenous Archaeology and a Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Alberta. An award-winning teacher, researcher, and writer, her research interests include the relationship between cultural identities, landscapes, and the use of space, Métis archaeology, and heart-centered archaeological practice. Her research with Indigenous communities (including Métis and First Nations) in western Canada explores how archaeologists and communities can build collaborative research relationships.

She leads the Exploring Métis Identity Through Archaeology (EMITA), a collaborative research project which takes a relational approach to exploring the material past of Métis communities, including her own family, in western Canada.  She is currently a co-director of a new interdisciplinary research project on Métis kinscapes of Lac Ste Anne, Alberta with a team of Indigenous scholars, as well as a co-investigator on Cartographies of Deep Time, a recently funded SSHRC Insight Grant project that explores the complexities of history and different ways of knowing with Tsimshian communities in British Columbia. Over the past several years, she has been increasingly engaged in helping First Nations communities in Western Canada use remote sensing technologies to locate and protect unmarked burials. She has published in local and international journals on GIS in archaeology, collaborative archaeological practice, Métis archaeology, and indigenous archaeology in the post-TRC era. 

In the past few years, she has been named to the Royal Society of Canada's College of News Scholars, Artists, and Scientists and Edmonton’s Top 40 under 40 by Avenue Magazine. She is also co-director of the Situated Knowledges: Indigenous Peoples and Place University of Alberta Signature Area and the Vice-President of the Indigenous Heritage Circle. Recently, she was appointed to the National Advisory Committee on Missing Children and Unmarked Graves. 

The Life of Her Mind is dedicated to learning about how these women think — how they think about their careers, disciplines, and future. Each episode focuses on a single professional working in or around the sciences, with an eye toward uncovering what makes each individual’s contributions unique.

Please join us in welcoming Dr. Alyssa Rhoden, Principal Scientist at Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, to episode two of ‘The Life of Her Mind’.

Dr. Rhoden previously held posts at Arizona State University, where she was an Assistant Professor of Planetary Science, Johns Hopkins University, where she was a member of the Europa Clipper Pre-Project Team in Johns Hopkins’ Applied Physics Laboratory, and a NASA Post-Doc Fellow and then Mission Scientist at Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Dr. Rhoden completed her B.S. in Physics (with minors in math and planetary science) at the University of Arizona in Tucson (Go Cats!), and her PhD in Earth and Planetary Science at Berkeley. Her dissertation, “The rotation and fracture history of Europa from modeling of tidal-tectonic processes” set the stage for her current work at SwRI. Dr. Rhoden is not only committed to advancing scientific knowledge of Europa, but she is also committed to advancing students’ careers. Dr. Rhoden is always open to giving advice to budding scientists searching for their place in the field of their choice, not only because she is enthusiastic about the power of sharing knowledge and experience, but also because she knows how daunting it can be to figure out what’s going to work for one’s own particular situation. After having two young children, Dr. Rhoden was herself confronted with the challenge of juggling motherhood and a high-level career. Her experiences show us how professionals can achieve both their professional and personal goals through innovation and creativity.

Read more about Dr. Rhoden in a Labroots exclusive interview and connect with her on Twitter @aRhoDynamics.

In our inaugural conversation, we had the opportunity to speak with Alice Dreger, PhD. Dr. Dreger is an historian and philosopher of science, a journalist, and an activist. One of those rare thinkers who draws her readers into complex and controversial topics as if they’re just hanging out, jawing over a couple of drinks, Dreger’s work makes people question the long held “scientific” doctrine. In doing so, she forces them to consider that these beliefs are rooted in political bias as much as anything else. 

Trained in the history and philosophy of science, Dr. Dreger is the author of four books (editor of five, many, many articles, and even many more talks). Dreger’s work reveals a fascinating combination of serious scholar, old school muckraker, and prodigious instigator – a modern-day Socrates. Indeed, Dreger is unafraid to ask how and why people believe what they do. 

Dr. Dreger began her career as an academic focused on analyzing the history of medical approaches to infants born with non-specific genitalia. This work led her to become an advocate for intersex people, those born with combinations of male and female biological traits. Dreger realized early on that social norms often influence scientific investigation and the interpretation of evidence – all too often to the detriment of those individuals who did not fit neatly into “normal” categories. 

For Dreger, truth is worth fighting for, tirelessly, and without fear or favor. Indeed, some of Dreger’s advocacy work has brought her into direct conflict with groups on various sides of the issue at hand. Undaunted, Dreger continues her work. 

Labroots is excited to announce the relaunch of The Life of Her Mind, a podcast series focusing on the lives, perspectives, career pathways, and research of women working across STEM fields.