Monday
Elahe Solanaghai – University of Illinois Urbana Champaign
Sensing Beneath the Forest Canopy: A New Tool for Wildfire Prevention
Elahe Soltanaghai is an assistant professor of Computer Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her research spans the areas of wireless networking and sensing with applications in IoT, Cyber-Physical Systems, and Mixed Reality. Previously, she was a postdoctoral researcher at Carnegie Mellon University. She received her PhD in Computer Science from University of Virginia. Her work has been published in premier conferences and journals in the areas of mobile and ubiquitous computing and network systems. She has been named one of the 10 Rising Star Women in Networking and Communications in 2021. She is also the recipient of Google Research Scholar Award (2022), and ACM SIGMOBILE Dissertation Award (2021).
Tuesday
Lee Haines – University of Notre Dame
Do Mosquitos Harbor Viruses Without Falling Ill?
Lee Haines is a researcher with a PhD in Tropical Medicine and an MSc in Parasite Biochemistry and Microbiology, who specializes in diseases transmitted by arthropods.
Her work delves into the intricate relationships between insects, their microbiota, and the pathogens they spread, covering projects from basic to translational science. With over 20 years of experience managing large insect colonies, she has garnered a deep understanding of insect biology and disease transmission.
Wednesday
Christopher Baldassano – Columbia University
The Brain Organizes Narratives Into Meaningful Event Memories
Christopher Baldassano is an Associate Professor in the Psychology Department at Columbia University. He was an undergraduate in Electrical Engineering at Princeton University, received his PhD in Computer Science at Stanford University, and was a postdoc at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute. His lab’s research focuses on how knowledge about the world – including semantic knowledge, temporal structure, spatial maps, or schematic scripts – is used to understand and remember complex naturalistic experiences. By applying machine learning techniques to data from behavioral and neuroimaging experiments, his work aims to uncover how dynamic representations in the mind and brain during perception lead to the formation of event memories.
Thursday
Diana Aga – University at Buffalo
Bacteria Found to Eat Forever Chemicals
Diana Aga is an environmental and analytical chemist. As Henry M. Woodburn Chair and SUNY Distinguished Professor in the University at Buffalo Department of Chemistry, Aga leads a team that studies how a wide range of chemicals affect the environment. This work has included research on persistent organic pollutants, including per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also known as “forever chemicals.”
Projects have focused on detecting known and unknown contaminants, removing them from municipal and agricultural wastewater, developing new technologies to degrade persistent organic pollutants, and understanding the impact of pollutants on the environment, humans and wildlife.
Friday
Stephanie Madsen – McDaniel College
Imaginary Athletes in Social Development
Stephanie Madsen is professor of psychology at McDaniel College. She joined the college in 2001 after earning her master’s and Ph.D. in child psychology from the University of Minnesota, and graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota.
Her research examines the impact of close relationships on various aspects of social development. She has looked at adolescent relationships with parents and romantic partners, as well as imaginary companions in the context of athletics. Her most recent article, “Imaginary athletes: Prevalence, forms, and developmental functions,” co-authored by Wellesley College Professor Tracy Gleason, was published by Social Development in February 2025. As an author of numerous articles for scholarly publications and peer-reviewed journals, Madsen has presented at various conferences and been interviewed by the NPR and the Wall Street Journal.
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