The Story Collider returns to the Marian Koshland Science Museum in Washington, D.C., for this show in partnership with the Mirz`ayan Science and Technology Policy Graduate Fellowship. Five fellows will share the true, personal stories of how science has transformed their lives, from getting tear-gassed in Palestine to studying whales.
Hosted by Shane Hanlon and Erin Barker. Tickets on sale now!
Nathan Boll is a Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Fellow with the National Academy of Sciences and a Space Policy Graduate Fellow in the Elliot School of International Affairs at George Washington University. He has a B.S. in Mathematics from the University of Montana Western and an M.S. in Space Science from the University of Michigan. Nathan’s work is primarily focused on the development of international cooperation for the exploration and development of space, and in supporting STEM education initiatives, such as the NASA Space Academy.
Kavita Chandra is a fourth year PhD candidate at Northwestern University in Teri Odom’s lab. Her research is on nanoparticle synthesis for cancer therapeutic applications. Outside of research, Kavita has a passion for science outreach and policy, specifically promoting women in STEM fields. She serves on the executive board of the Northwestern Graduate Women Across Northwestern and participates in two yearlong mentorship programs at Niles High School and Science Club housed in the Boys and Girls Program in Uptown. For fun, Kavita loves traveling around the world, especially trying new foods. Additionally, due to this fervent love for food, she is a runner and dancer!
Anne Dare (PhD 2014, Purdue) is a Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Graduate Fellow with the National Academy of Sciences and a postdoc in the Office of Global Engineering Programs' Innovation for International Development Lab at Purdue University. Anne's PhD in agricultural and biological engineering explored the linkages between arid land water management, food security, and rural sanitation solutions at field sites across Palestine, Tunisia, Qatar, and her home state of Indiana.
Nicholas Macfarlane is this year’s Mirzayan fellow with the Ocean Studies Board at the National Academies. His PhD is in oceanography from MIT and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where he spent months in the field researching underwater acoustics, using non-invasive sound tags in the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Mexico to study the impacts of manmade sound in the ocean and the ways that toothed whales and dolphins coordinate their underwater behavior. Before grad school he worked as a Dive Master and studied psychology and neuroscience at Princeton.
Rochelle Williams is a Louisiana girl, Spelman woman, and lover of all things football. No stranger to implicit and institutional biases, she is an advocate for women of color in STEM and the relevancy of Historically Black Colleges and Universities. She has a B.S. in physics from Spelman College and both her M.Engr. in Mechanical Engineering and Ph.D. in Science and Mathematics Education from Southern University and A&M College.