The Atlanta Science Festival
The Story Collider is delighted to be returning to the Atlanta Science Festival for the fourth time! Join us for five true, personal stories about science.
Stories by:
Heather Abbott-Lyon is a physical chemist who teaches and performs research with undergraduate and masters students at Kennesaw State University. She embraces active learning pedagogies in the classroom and in her laboratory, where students obtain hands-on research experience studying the surface reactivity of meteoritic minerals and industrial catalysts. Her commitment to developing the next generation of scientists includes coordinating the American Chemical Society’s Chemistry Olympiad program for high school students in northwest Georgia and co-advising the KSU chapter of the national chemistry honors society Phi Lambda Upsilon. Dr. Abbott-Lyon lives in East Atlanta, where she and her husband love to help their young kids discover the world around them.
Sonya Collins is an Atlanta-based independent journalist who covers health care and scientific and medical research. She is a regular contributor to WebMD.com, WebMD Magazine, Genome Magazine and CURE. Her work has also appeared in Scientific American and Yale Medicine. Before journalism school, Sonya earned an MFA in creative writing from The New School, where she was a teaching fellow. She has also taught writing at Hunter College of the City University of New York, where she earned her B.A., and at the University of Georgia. Fluent in Portuguese, Sonya has translated literary and scholarly texts for publication. She lived in Brazil for two years -- the setting of many of the stories she tells.
Cris Gray is just a guy who can get bored with things very quickly and loves a good story. You can see him doing stuff and saying things in front of an audience or to just one person in intimate conversation. He's been sighted taking long walks around the city. He's also a really good sleeper.
Anthony (Tony) Martin is a Professor of Practice in the Department of Environmental Sciences at Emory University, where he has taught a wide variety of undergraduate courses in geology and the environmental sciences. He has a Ph.D. in Geology from the University of Georgia and is a geologist and paleontologist. His research specialty is ichnology, the study of modern and ancient traces caused by animal behavior, such as tracks, trails, burrows, and nests. He has published more than 150 research abstracts and articles on a variety of modern and fossil traces and is the author of seven books, including The Evolution Underground, Dinosaurs Without Bones, and Life Traces of the Georgia Coast. He is a long-time advocate of public engagement in science as a speaker and writer, and has been active with such outreach since 1995. In recognition of his accomplishments in scientific exploration and outreach, in 2014 he was elected as a Fellow in The Explorers Club and a Fellow in the Geological Society of America.
Juana Mendenhall is currently an Associate Professor of Chemistry at Morehouse College and the President of TheraViscTM, LLC, a company that specializes in developing injectable gels to treat osteoarthritis. Her medical device technology is one of the first to show real potential in healing osteoarthritis. As an educator, scientist, and entrepreneur she continues to introduce and mentor students by showing them how science translates from the bench to the bedside. Her favorite past time is djing and playing her favorite tunes. She received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Clark Atlanta University and was a visiting professor at MIT.