Women in STEM: The Academic Minute for 2015.8.17 – 8.21

Catch up with The Academic Minute from 8.17 – 8.21

Monday, August 17
Ami Zota – George Washington University
Heavy Metal Exposure
Ami Zota is an assistant professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the Milken Institute School of Public Health. Her study on cadmium was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

Tuesday, August 18
Gayathri Devi – Duke University
Breast Cancer Treatments
Gayathri Devi is Associate Professor in the Department of Surgery, Division of Surgical Sciences and in the Department of Pathology at Duke University School of Medicine. She is a member of Women’s Cancer Program at Duke Cancer Institute and Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at North Carolina Central University, a historically black college, where she is leading Duke-NCCU collaborative initiatives in cancer health disparities and education. Dr. Devi received her undergraduate degree from All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, in 1991, Masters (Biochemistry) in 1993, and a Ph.D. (1998) in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha.

Wednesday, August 19
Gillian Ryan – Kettering University
Electric Blanket Tech
Gillian Ryan is an assistant professor of physics at Kettering University where she heads up The Ryan Lab. Her research specialties include Biological Physics, Mathematical Modelling, Computer Simulations, Image Analysis, Nucleation Theory, and Phase Transitions..

Thursday, August 20
Anusuya Chinsamy-Turan – University of Cape Town
Fossilized Clues
Professor Chinsamy-Turan has published extensively – both in international scientific journals (including four publications in Nature and one in Nature Communications) as well as in the popular press.She holds or has held a number of distinguished positions in her field. She is former president of the Association of South African Women in Science and Engineering (SA WISE), former deputy president of the Academy of Science of South Africa, and she has also served as director of Iziko Museums Natural History Collections (which includes the SA Museum). Prof Chinsamy-Turan currently chairs the advisory boards of Scifest Africa, the biggest science festival in Africa, and she is a member of the advisory board the Cape Town Science Centre. She is Chair of the Romer-Simpson Prize Committee of the US-based Society of Vertebrate Palaeontology, and serves as a board member for the Jurassic Foundation (US). She is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of South African, the University of Cape Town and The Word Academy of Sciences.

Friday, August 21
Elizabeth Skippington – Indiana University
Mistletoe’s Secret
Since 2003, Dr. Elizabeth Skippington has been a post-doctoral fellow in theDepartment of Biology at Indiana University. She is the lead author of thepaper published on this research. She earned her PhD at the University of Queensland in 2002.