The Academic Minute for 2015.12.7-12.11

Catch up with The Academic Minute from 12.7 – 12.11

Monday, December 7
Jackie Dudley – University of Texas at Austin
Gene Therapy
Jackie Dudley is a professor of molecular biosciences at The University of Texas at Austin whose research focuses on retroviruses, such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and breast cancer. She studies another retrovirus, mouse mammary tumor virus (MMTV), as a mouse model for HIV. One of the goals of her work is to develop more specific and less toxic treatments for human breast cancer patients.

Tuesday, December 8
Jeff Colgan – Brown University
Female Professors
Jeff Colgan is Richard Holbrooke Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Studies at the Watson Institute of International Studies of Brown University.  Previously he was on faculty at American University in Washington DC, and was a Residential Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.  He completed his PhD in politics and public policy at Princeton University, a Master’s at the University of California-Berkeley, and a Bachelor’s in nuclear engineering at McMaster University.  He previously worked at McKinsey and Company, the Brattle Group, and the World Bank.  His academic work is published journals such as International Organization, World Politics, International Security, and Foreign Policy.

Wednesday, December 9
Jean M. Twenge – San Diego State University
Working Mothers
Jean M. Twenge, Professor of psychology at San Diego State University, is the author of more than 100 scientific publications and the books Generation Me: Why Today’s Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled — and More Miserable Than Ever Before and The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement (co-authored with W. Keith Campbell). Dr. Twenge frequently gives talks and seminars on teaching and working with today’s young generation based on a dataset of 11 million young people. Her audiences have included college faculty and staff, high school teachers, military personnel, camp directors, and corporate executives. Her research has been covered in Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, USA Today, U.S. News and World Report, and The Washington Post, and she has been featured on Today, Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, Fox and Friends, NBC Nightly News, Dateline NBC, and National Public Radio. She holds a BA and MA from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.

Thursday, December 10
Kevin Wright – Arizona State University
Prisons and Poor Communities
Kevin A. Wright is an assistant professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Arizona State University.  Professor Wright earned his Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from Washington State University in 2010.  His research interests include criminological theory and correctional policy, with particular emphasis placed on the intersection between the two.  Currently, he is focusing on the importance of ecological context for offender rehabilitation and reintegration, and his work has been published inCriminology, Criminology and Public Policy, and Justice Quarterly.

Friday, December 11
Denise Wilson – University of Washington
Arsenic in Wine
Our research is focused in two areas: (a) engineering education; and (b) sensors and photovoltaics. In both areas, we look at research questions whose answers add to the basic knowledge in the field and also inform applications of that knowledge. For example, in engineering education, we seek to understand the role that belonging plays in the undergraduate experience (basic knowledge) but also to apply that knowledge to increase persistence of engineers after they graduate. In photovoltaics, we look at basic questions regarding the viability of alternative PV technologies in portable and grid applications, but also work to develop optimized array management systems that when applied, increase energy harvested from a portable system, regardless of the component PVs in the system.